My girlfriends have been binge-watching Downton Abbey for a couple of years now, and I always bowed out, citing disinterest, or at least in proportion with the amount of my free time. One girlfriend in particular is a huge Anglophile, and I have enjoyed a couple of binge sessions of The Crown, about Queen Elizabeth, with the same girls and have enjoyed myself immensely. So when I saw that our library has the first six seasons of Downton, I thought I should catch up.
One of the obvious players in Downton's fascination to detail is a man often shown in the special features, and how I came to look again at the show. His name is Alastair Bruce and he was the historical advisor of the show. He featured in The Manners of Downton Abbey, and as I was walking out of the shelves with season two, I saw a 1100 page tome that sounded familiar:
Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. I think this was mentioned somewhere in my recent explorations of Victorian England, and what I thought was an unedited book popularized by the tv series is turning out to be a pretty thoughtful extensive handbook on life by a young woman who is a gifted writer! I am
inspired. By the time she died at the age of 28, she had 3 children and had published in dozens of magazines entries, which eventually were compiled into one book. Although the bulk of the book is about food, and a lot about meat, there are general ideas that are quite thoughtful, and diagrams and reflections on parties, recipes, servants, raising children, law and medicine!
Listen to her brilliant opening statement:
PREFACE "I must frankly own, that if I had known, beforehand, that this book would have cost me the labour which it has, I should never have been courageous enough to commence it."
CHAPTER 1. THE MISTRESS "As with the commander of an army, or the leader of an enterprise, so is it with the mitres of a house. Her spirit will be seen through the whole establishment; and just in proportion as she performs her duties intelligently and thoroughly, so will her domestics follow in her path."
Quoting
The Vicar of Wakefield, "The modest virgin, the prudent wife, and the careful matron, are much more serviceable in life than petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. She who makes her husband and her children happy, who reclaims the one from vice and trains up the other to virtue, is a much greater character than ladies described in romances, whose whole occupation is to murder mankind with shafts from their quiver, or their eyes."
Quoting Dr. Johnson, "Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty."
"7. Friendships should not be hastily formed, nor the heart given, at once, to every new-comer. There are ladies who uniformly smile at, and approve everything and everybody, and who possess neither the courage to reprehend vice, nor the generous warmth to defend virtue.The friendship of such persons is without attachment, and their love without affection or even preference. They imagine that every one who has any penetration is ill-natured, and look coldly on a discriminating judgement. It should be remembered, however, that this discernment does not always proceed from an uncharitable temper, but that those who possess a long experience and thorough knowledge of the world, scrutinize the conduct and dispositions of people before they trust themselves to the first fair appearances."
"10. Good temper should be cultivated by every mistress, as upon it the welfare of the household may be said to turn; indeed, its influence can hardly be overestimated, as it has the effect of moulding the characters of those around her, and of acting most beneficially on the happiness of the domestic circle. Every head of a household should strive to be cheerful, and should never fail to show a deep interest in all that appertains to the well-being of those who claim the protection of her roof. Gentleness, not partial or temporary, but universal and regular, should pervade her conduct; for where such a spirit is habitually manifested, it not only delights her children, but makes her domestics attentive and respectful; her visitors are also pleased by it, and their happiness is increased."
"15. In marketing, that the best articles are the cheapest, may be laid down as a rule; and it is desirable, unless an experienced and confidential housekeeper be kept, that the mistress should herself purchase all provisions and stores needed for the house.
"16. A housekeeping account-book should invariably be kept and kept punctually and precisely. The plan for keeping household accounts, which we should recommend, would be to make an entry, that is, write down into a daily diary every amount paid on that particular day, be it ever so small; then, at the end of the month, let these various payments be ranged under their specific heads of Butcher, Baker, &c: and thus will be seen the proportions paid to each tradesman, and any one month's expenses may be contrasted with another. The housekeeping account should be balanced not less than once a month; so that you may see that the money you have in hand tallies with your account of it in your diary.
Quoting Judge Haliburton, "No man is rich whose expenditure exceeds his means, and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings."
"17. Engaging domestics.. There are some respectable registry-offices…but the plan rather to be recommended is, for the mistress to make inquiry amongst her circle of friends and acquaintances, and her tradespeople… We would here point out an error…into which some mistresses fall. They do not, when engaging a servant, expressly tell her all the duties which she will be expected to perform."
Quoting Bishop Hall, "Recreation is intended to the mind as whetting is to the scythe, to sharpen the edge of it, which would otherwise grow dull and blunt. He, therefore, that spends his whole time in recreation is ever whetting, never mowing; his grass may grow and his steed starve; as, contrarily, he that always toils and never recreates, is ever mowing, never whetting, labouring much to little purpose."
VIRTUES (reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's American version, which would have predated Mrs. Beeton, but may not have informed them) - early rising, cleanliness, frugality and economy, choice of acquaintances , hospitality, good temper, charity and benevolence
GEMS - evolution of a kitchen, times when things are in season (month by month), the chemistry and economy of soup-making, average cost per recipe, the natural history of fishes, dining (tables laid, menus for parties with numbers and years, month by month), poisons and antidotes, law
