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In the great houses of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the housekeeper could be a woman of considerable power in the domestic arena. [citation needed] The housekeeper of times past had her room (or rooms) cleaned by junior staff, her meals prepared and laundry taken care of, and with the butler presided over dinner in the Servants' Hall.
Brown was born on 8 December 1826 at Crathienaird, Crathie and Braemar Aberdeenshire, to Margaret Leys and John Brown, [2] [3] and went to work as an outdoor servant (in Scots ghillie or gillie) at Balmoral Castle, which Queen Victoria and Prince Albert leased in February 1848, and purchased outright in November 1851.
The concept of the ideal woman, who performed the "conspicuous labor of leisure," devalued the work that women were actually doing, hiding this work from society's view. [1] If Victorian households had enough income at their disposal and they were able to employ household servants, these servants were expected to remain unseen.
Beeton indicates that the full list of servants in this table would be expected in the household of a "wealthy nobleman"; her readers are instructed to adjust staff size and pay according to the household's available budget, and other factors such as a servant's level of experience: [17]
The long 1854 poem The Angel in the House by Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) exemplified the idealized Victorian woman who is angelically pure and devoted to her family and home. The poem was not a pure invention but reflected the emerging legal economic social, cultural, religious and moral values of the Victorian middle-class.
Part of the separate spheres ideology, the "Cult of Domesticity" identified the home as a woman's "proper sphere". [12] Women were supposed to inhabit the private sphere, running the household and production of food (including servants), rearing the children, and taking care of the husband.
The usual classifications of maid in a large household are: Lady's maid: a senior servant who reported directly to the lady of the house, but ranked beneath the housekeeper, and accompanied her lady on travel. She took care of her mistress's clothes and hair, and sometimes served as confidante.
The fact that her presence in the household was underpinned by an employment contract emphasized that she could never truly be part of the host family. [citation needed] However, being a governess was one of the few legitimate ways by which an unmarried, middle-class woman could support herself in Victorian society. [6]