Apologies for the lack of posting last week, dear readers. I took a much-needed jaunt to Monterey, where I avoided all sites of interest and locked myself in my hotel to edit my latest project. I almost felt like a Regency heroine, even though I was wearing pajamas most of the time — as an unmarried lady with no male relative or servant to escort me, I instead confined myself to my rooms and wrote. It would get old v. fast, but for a few days, it was wonderful.
But the point of this post is not Monterey — instead, it’s about servants during the Regency. In every Regency romance I’ve ever read, at least one of the protagonists had servants to attend to their every need (it is a fantasy, after all — and how many of us fantasize about working twelve hours a day in a factory or toiling as a milkmaid?). Even the smallest middle-class households had at least a stout maid or footman to do the heaviest work; without any mechanized help for laundry, cleaning, cooking, or other chores, keeping up a household was endlessly grueling. But how could a family afford to hire so many servants?
Posted on 28 February 2011 * Add a Comment
Tags: Folly * Lifestyles * Live Like a Regency Heroine * Servants * Tea *
