A day in the life of a servant

Morning

A typical day in the life of a servant at No. 7 Charlotte Square began at 5.00am and could end up to 16 hours later. A servant would be no stranger to tiredness and hard work, often working up to 112 hours in a week. A team of five to seven servants supported the affluent lifestyle of the Lamont family, the first owners of the Georgian House. Living there would have been considerably less comfortable without the servants, who were always at the service of the family upstairs.

The housemaid was first to be up and about, as many of her jobs had to be completed before the family were awake. Making her way between the upstairs rooms, she would open the shutters, flooding the house with the morning light; she would then clean and re-lay the fires. The housemaid was responsible for fulfilling all the general household duties and earned around £10–£12 per year (£7,500–£9,000 today).

Once the family had risen, the housemaid would busy herself making the beds, and fetch water for them to wash and bathe. She would have to be strong – there was no running water, so hot water was heated up by the fire in the kitchen and had to be carried upstairs in jugs by the housemaid. She also had the unpleasant task of emptying the chamber pots from the bedrooms! Daily cleaning of the upstairs rooms and furniture would then commence, making sure that her work was invisible to the family. Amongst her many duties, the housemaid was also responsible for making and repairing all the household linen, bed and table linen, napkins and towels. The Georgian House may have had two housemaids, the senior of the two also acting as a lady’s maid.

The kitchen maid, at just 10 or 11 years old, was the youngest and lowest-paid servant. She earned £6 per year (around £4,500 today). She too would be up early to add more coal to the kitchen fire, which was kept permanently alight to heat the water for cooking and washing. After breakfast was served, the kitchen maid would accompany the cook to the food market to replenish the fresh supplies. It would seem like a long walk back from the Old Town, lugging baskets full of local seasonal produce including fresh fish, game and vegetables.

In Georgian Edinburgh it became fashionable for wealthy households to employ a housekeeper, who earned around £18 per year (approx. £13,500 today). The housekeeper oversaw the female servants and was the most important member of staff below stairs apart from the butler. She kept the household accounts and made sure that the tradesmen’s bills were paid, which she would then settle with Mrs Lamont.

If there was no housekeeper, these duties would fall to the cook, who held a position of great trust with the family. As the family’s health, money and reputation as good hosts were in her hands, the cook had the enormous responsibility of purchasing supplies and preparing meals for the family, guests and all the servants. This responsibility was reflected in her salary and she earned around £15 per year (£11,000 today). The cook’s hours would have been long, but not as long as her kitchen maid, who was expected to stay up late to ensure the pots and pans were shining and prepared for the next day.

The afternoon

As morning turned into afternoon, there would have been a constant stream of servants dashing to and from the basement, busily supporting the luxurious lifestyle of their employers upstairs. It was very rare for the family to venture downstairs to the basement. Instead, the servants were summoned upstairs using a bell pull. Each bell was connected by wires to the bell board in the basement and each bell was a different size to create a series of tones, to indicate which room required attention. The servants’ ears quickly became accustomed to the different sound of each bell. They had to be constantly alert, ready to attend to requests from upstairs.

If time allowed and all their tasks were completed for the afternoon, the housemaid and kitchen maid were able to sit in the servants’ hall, where they would continue their reading and writing lessons.

The main focus of the basement was of course the kitchen, where the cook and kitchen maid would be busy preparing the evening meal. The basement corridor is lined with doors leading to other useful rooms, such as the wine cellar, the china closet, the pantry and the linen store. At the front of the house, steps lead down to the basement and coal cellar. The door at this level is the ‘tradesman’s entrance’, intended for deliveries and the comings and goings of the servants, who were not allowed to use the main front door.