Free The Real Life Downton Abbey by Jacky Hyams

gossip with the other servants about anything (and the temptation to do this is strong) she faces losing her job without any hope of a ‘character’, the reference required to move on to another job, if her disloyalty reaches the ears of her boss.
    Though her career prospects are not very good because she doesn’t have the necessary kitchen experience to help her rise up to the role of housekeeper, she has her own room, usually cleaned for her by one of the lower housemaids, who also wakes her each day with a cuppa. She is allowed to bathe regularly in the female upper servants’ bathroom and, because she does not have to wear the pinafore assigned to those whose work is menial, she is often quite well dressed: her mistress’s expensive hand-me-downs are frequently given to her to use as she wishes. She is also expected to be knowledgeable about beauty aids and potions – and how to look after and clean her mistress’s expensive jewellery, the pearl necklaces and diamond earrings, heirlooms handed down through the generations.
    Her working day starts by waking her mistress with tea and toast. Then they discuss the day ahead and the clothes her mistress wants to wear. Then she draws her mistress’s bath, lays out the clothes, including the underwear, and, once her mistress has washed, she helps her to dress. Given the amount of hooks on the corsets and dresses the wealthy women wear at the time, it is virtually impossible to get dressed without some help. Corsets have to be laced tightly, silk stockings rolled onto the feet and up the legs and corset suspenders fastened; the whole painstaking and slow process of dressing and undressing – sometimes several times a day – is one of the lady’s maids more repetitive tasks.
    Once her mistress is seated at her dressing table – covered with beautiful and expensive silver brushes, large bottles of expensive French perfume and other costly toiletries – the lady’s maid tends to her mistress’s hair, brushing it and then piling it up into the elaborate upswept style of the day. Washing and dressing her mistress’s hair with combs and tiaras is another big part of the job. Her mistress’s hair is always long and piled high: loose hair is only for the boudoir.
    As the mistress goes off to breakfast, the lady’s maid tidies up, collects dirty garments for washing, checks for any clothing that needs brushing or sponging. Then she goes back to her own room where she spends time sewing, mending or washing items like corsets or silk stockings. She often uses a sewing machine – introduced in the 1850s – and the alterations she makes, adding trims to garments, adding feathers to hats, often take up a lot of time. There’s also a great deal of ironing of the beautiful silks, chiffons, cotton and linen clothing her mistress wears. Then, summoned by a bell, she is back at her mistress’s side to help her change her clothes again, if the mistress is planning a visit or a riding session. Even the corset might also have to be changed again to suit the outfit. And hair might have to be redone, too.
    It’s a non-stop job: when her mistress goes out, the lady’s maid accompanies her, helping her in and out of the carriage (or the car) arranging or removing her outerwear as needed, attending to her needs while she’s away from home. Later, she will be helping her mistress change and dress for dinner, then she must wait until her mistress is ready to retire, helping her undress, plaiting her hair, (a common custom in Edwardian times) and helping her to bed.
    If there are guests, the lady’s maid will usually have spent the hours before she is summoned to help her mistress retire, sewing in her room, sometimes in the company of the other housemaids. Sometimes she doesn’t get to bed until midnight. She has the satisfaction of knowing that her mistress will sometimes confide in her, even ask her advice. But whatever the confidences, she can never make suggestions or offer her