What were lackeys and valets doing?

In 1901, four out of a hundred inhabitants of Great Britain (and this is about one and a half million people!) worked as domestic servants. In those Victorian times one could serve as a cook, and a dishwasher, and a maid, and do dirty work, but in order to emphasize their status, the owners of the house hired a special category of servants.

Although the very functioning of the household - in a practical sense - did not depend on them, no self-respecting aristocrat could afford to do without footmen and valets. The following were the daily duties assigned to them.

The morning of domestic servants began early - earlier than those of the owners of the house. First they put themselves in order: the footmen were supposed to have special clothes, a livery. It is not surprising - these servants were required, in addition to their skills, also to have a representative appearance.

Therefore, when hiring, preference was given to tall, attractive, young applicants. It was assumed that the ideal lackey was a single person, even if there was no direct ban on marriage. According to the memoirs of one of the lackeys of the XIX century, William Tyler, he happened to hide his marriage from the owners for years, while he visited his family only on his days off.

After a short breakfast of their own, the lackeys went to serve at the master's breakfast - the butler was also present in the main dining room, who, in turn, received instructions from the owner of the house about the upcoming day (the hostess discussed pressing issues with the housekeeper - the duties and issues of conducting each of the household servants were strictly delimited and almost did not intersect).

After breakfast, it was time for the usual daily work. It happened that in a big house each of the footmen had his own specialization, in addition to general duties - to serve food and serve at the table; open and close the doors (houses and carriages) during visits of guests and the departure or return of the owners. For example, a footman could be engaged in silver cleaning as a main job.

In any case, it was the lackeys who were called in to carry luggage, rearrange heavy objects, move furniture away so that the maid could clean the room thoroughly. Footmen accompanied the hostess during her shopping.

During the day, footmen had to be present at the meals of various lords and ladies several times more - during the second breakfast, tea parties (after all, we are talking about England and its traditions!) And the most important event of the day - dinner, before which the footman banged the gong to signal the start of preparations and dressing for the table in a self-respecting house. In the event that guests (male) lived on the estate, the lackeys performed the functions of a valet for them.

How did the valets work?

There were two main ways to become a valet - from lackeys (for example, by moving to the status of a personal butler of the son of the owner of the house) or by serving next to the owner-officer as a batman and returning from military service to the estate. The main occupation of the valets was to look after the wardrobe and personal belongings of the owner.

It is noteworthy that at first they hired people of noble birth, the nobles on the position of the valet - this is what the vassal service looked like. And later, the valet was called gentleman's gentleman, which emphasized his special status in the family - not so much a servant but a confidant.

The valet prepared clothing options for the day in advance. If the gentleman had poor taste in the styles and colors of suits, the valet, with delicacy indispensable for this profession, but persistently suggested what befits to wear at this time of the day, of the year and in this fashionable season.

Of course, not only clothes, but also underwear, shirts, cuffs had to be impeccably clean, like shoes, hats, coats (the last two items were supposed to be put on before leaving the house, along with gloves and, in case of cloudy weather, an umbrella) . When a trip was planned, it was the valet who was responsible for buying the ticket, packing the luggage, and arranging the trip. In the house of a bachelor, the valet could also deal with household issues, paying bills and solving other problems.

Lackeys and valets of the past and present

It is interesting that once the main task of the footman was to deliver messages and accompany the master's carriage - both of which were done on foot, more precisely, on the run - hence the name of the profession in English - footman. They ran not only behind the carriage, but also in front of it - when it was necessary to warn of possible difficulties along the way, for example, a ditch or a fallen tree. Since the 18th century, the sports component of the footman's work began to decline in favor of serving within the house.

These English traditions, having existed for more than one hundred years, abruptly disappeared after the First World War: few people in the 20th century could afford to keep lackeys. This profession, however, has not completely receded into the past - for example, in the royal houses in Britain, visitors and official guests are still met and escorted by footmen in liveries. The customs of past eras, including Victorian and Edwardian, are also applied in the new millennium, when the vast majority of duties and functions of domestic workers are successfully performed by household and electronic technical devices.

To look into the usual day of the English servants of the 19th - early 20th centuries, one can use either special excursion programs in old estates, or films and TV shows in which the former life is reproduced, as stated, with great reliability: for example, Downton Abbey, a series about English aristocrats and their secrets.