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cryoverkiltmilk · 2 months
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inky-duchess · 1 year
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Fantasy Guide to A Great House (19th-20th Century) - Anatomy of the House
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When we think of the Victorians, the grand old Gilded Age or the Edwardians, we all think of those big mansions and manors where some of our favourite stories take place. But what did a great house look like?
Layout
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All great houses are different and some, being built in different eras, may adhere to different styles. But the layout of certain rooms usually stayed somewhat the same.
The highest floors including the attic were reserved the children's rooms/nursery and the servants quarters.
The next floor would be reserved for bedrooms. On the first/ground floor, there will be the dining room, drawing room, library etc.
The basement/cellar would be where the kitchens and other food related rooms would be. Servants halls and boot rooms may also be down here too along scullery, where sometimes a maid would clean.
Rooms used by Servants
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Boot Room: The Boot Room is where the valets, ladies maids, hallboys and sometimes footmen clean off shoes and certain items of clothing.
Kitchen: The Kitchen was usually either in the basement or the first floor of the house, connected to a garden where the house's vegetables were grown.
Butler's Pantry: A butler's pantry was where the serving items are stored. This is where the silver is cleaned, stored and counted. The butler would keep the wine log and other account books here. The butler and footmen would use this room.
Pantry: The Pantry would be connected to the kitchen. It is a room where the kitchens stock (food and beverages) would be kept.
Larder: The larder was cool area in the kitchen or a room connected to it where food is stored. Raw meat was often left here before cooking but pastry, milk, cooked meat, bread and butter can also be stored here.
Servants Hall: The Servant's Hall was where the staff ate their meals and spent their down time. They would write letters, take tea, sew and darn clothes. The servants Hall would usually have a fireplace, a large table for meals, be where the servant's cutlery and plates would be kept and where the bell board hung. (these bells were the way servants where summoned)
Wine Cellar: The wine cellar was where the wine was melt, usually in the basement. Only the butler would be permitted down there and everything would be catalogued by him too.
Butler's/Housekeeper's sitting rooms: In some houses, both the butler and the housekeeper had sitting rooms/offices downstairs. This was were they held meetings with staff, took their tea and dealt with accounts.
Scullery: The scullery was were the cleaning equipment was cleaned and stored. The scullery may even also double as a bedroom for the scullery maid.
Servery: The Servery connected to the dinning room. It was where the wine was left before the butler carried it out to be served. Some of the food would be delivered here to be carried out as well.
Servant's Sleeping Quarters: All servants excepting perhaps the kitchen maid and outside staff slept in the attics. Men and unmarried women would be kept at seperate sides of the house with the interconnecting doors locked and bolted every night by the butler and housekeeper. If the quarters were small, some servants may have to share rooms. Servants' bathrooms and washrooms would also be up there, supplied with hot water from the kitchens.
Rooms used by the Family
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Dining room: The dining room was where the family ate their breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was also where the gentlemen took their after dinner drink before joking the ladies in the drawing room.
Drawing room: The Drawing Room was sort of a living/sitting room. It was mainly used in the evenings after dinner where the ladies would take their tea and coffee before being joined by the men. It could also be used for tea by the ladies during the day. The drawing room was seen as more of a women's room but any of the family could use it. The drawing room was a formal room but could also be used for more casual activities.
Library: The library is of course where the books are kept. The family would use this room for writing letters, reading, doing business with tenants and taking tea in the afternoons.
Bedrooms: The bedrooms would take up most of the upper floors. The unmarried women would sleep in one wing with bachelors at the furthest wing away. Married couples often had adjoining rooms with their own bedrooms in each and equipped with a boudoir or a sitting room.
Nursery: Was where the children slept, usually all together until old enough to move into bedrooms. They would be attended to be nannies and nursemaids round the clock.
Study: The study was a sort of home office where family could do paperwork, chill and write letters.
Dressing room: Dressing Rooms where usually attached to bedrooms where the family would be dressed and their clothes would be stored. The valets and ladies maids would have control of the room.
Hall: The hall was where large parties would gather for dancing or music or to be greeted before parties.
Furnishings and Decor
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Most of these Great Houses were inherited which means, they came with a lot of other people's crap. Ornaments from anniversaries, paintings bought on holiday, furniture picked out by newly weds, all of it comes with the house. So most of the time everything seems rather cluttered.
As for Servant's Quarters, most of the furnishings may have been donated by the family as gifts. Most servants' halls would have a portrait of the sovereign or sometimes a religious figure to install a sense of morality into them.
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captain039 · 6 months
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The lords servant
Astarion x reader
Warnings: plus size reader, light swearing, vampire things, sexual, first times, eventual smut, self consciousness, anxiety
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It was your first day working in this magnificent mansion. One of the many lords of Baldurs gate lived here. Lord Astarion Ancunin, rather quiet and lived in solitude of his mansion, rarely coming out in any occasion, though once a year he held a grand party, the grandest in the city, none of the other lords dared compete. You were one of ten servants who kept the house clean and running. You had servants quarters, rather luxury one at that, the bed was extra comfortable and you had a divider between each of the beds. It was your first offical day, you’d been here for two days settling in and getting shown where everything was and how things worked. You were to start with cleaning the main hall today. You grabbed your supplies and headed to the main hall, the place was clean already, but apparently it needed more attending to, so you did as asked. You were in your head as you cleaned, too busy with your thoughts that you didn’t even notice the lord on the stairs smirking at you till you turned around. You had jumped a mile at his presence and apologised, head bowed.
“I didn’t hear you approach my lord” you said and heard him chuckle lightly as he walked to you.
“Quite alright, you seemed miles away” he said before you felt his finger under your chin to lift your head up. You stared a little shocked as he smiled, his red eyes captivating you instantly.
“You’re new yes?” He asked the smile still gracing his lips.
“Yes my lord, I arrived two days ago” you nodded avoiding his eyes.
“Hm, your name? I’m afraid I don’t oversee our new servant hirings” he said and you told him your name. He repeated it and you swore a shiver ran up your spine.
“Hopefully your stay here is long” he grinned and you flushed looking to the floor.
“I will work as long as I can I hope, lodgings here are quite comfortable” you joked, but it came out nervous making you curse yourself silently.
“Oh? I do intend my servants to be well provided for, an unhappy servant is a useless one” he hummed.
“Thank you sir, it is quite generous of you” you nodded.
“My lord” you heard the butler speak as he rushed down the stairs.
“What is it now Daenan?” The lord sighed.
“We’ve received a letter” the butler said obviously holding some secret, but it wasn’t your business.
“Ah excellent, excuse me darling, i must attend to this” he said, your whole body going warm at the pet name.
“Of course my lord” you nodded.
“I’ll see you again no doubt” he smiled before leaving and you felt a sigh of relief leave you. Gods he was handsome, pale hair oddly red eyes, beautiful features, most elves were beautiful, but he seemed to take the crown almost. You continued your day of cleaning, washing dishes and doing what the head servant said. Strange thing was the lord didn’t have any meals, no dinner was prepared, only the servants ate. You thought nothing of it, perhaps he had meals brought to his room or office for privacy.
The night came rather quickly, only candles lighting the mansion now, not that it mattered, the curtains were heavy and always closed, perhaps he was sensitive to the sun, most elves were more sensitive to things than humans. You had done your last round as asked going down the hall back to the servants room only to be stopped by a noise. You frowned a bit seeing a door slightly open and shallow breathing filling your ears. You froze cheeks ablaze as you went to retreat the other way. This was the only way to the quarters though! Damn the gods were cruel this night. You moved very slowly and quietly hearing soft moans from a woman, you kept your eyes to the ground, for some reason you looked up though, instantly regretting it. The lord had a woman pressed against the wall, his face in her neck, her skirt bunched up at her stomach, his hips moving into hers. You quickly looked away and practically ran back to the quarters noticing one bed empty, Elra’s.
Morn came and you heading to the kitchen to await orders.
“New girl” the head servant Vera cocked her head to you. You went to her as the other servants left.
“Lords asked you to his quarters” she said and left without explanation. Oh gods it’s only been one day and you’ve already messed up. You dreaded the whole walk there before knocking on his office door.
“Come in” he called voice too inviting. You walked in closing the door softly and kept your head down.
“You sent for me, my lord?” You said hands clasped in front of you. You heard him rise from his chair and his footsteps come closer to you, before you saw boots in your view.
“I did” he said finger tilting your chin up again. His eyes looked brighter in the fire lit room, something swirling in him, his skin seemed richer too.
“Have I done something wrong, my lord?” You asked and he shook his head smiling.
“Of course not my dear” he chuckled softly.
“I only want to ask a question” he said turning away from you and going to his desk.
“Did you see anything last night?” He asked and your whole body tensed as you replayed the memory in your mind.
“No my lord, all was quiet” you lied hoping he wouldn’t catch on.
“Excellent, quiet is what we like” he smirked looking to you again.
“That is all, you can breathe and go” he chuckled sitting back down.
“Oh- yes my lord, have a good day” you bowed your head and quickly left, if you had a tail it’d be tucked between your legs. You breathed out a big sigh as you went back to the kitchen to receive new orders.
Your days were normal, mainly cleaning of the mansion, attending to the garden, washing the dishes, making food for yourself and the other servants, but never the lord. Whether he received special food from another cook, you didn’t know. You were always the last one to make rounds around the house, the lord was rather keen on keeping his home in order, gods forbid someone dare try to break in. Problem was one your way back his office door always seemed slightly ajar and you always heard the low breathing and moans of one of the other servants, his head hurried in their necks, hips moving against theirs, pure pleasure on their faces. It made you heat up and dart away, it was hard to avoid, you’d always shield your eyes now and tiptoe by before bolting the rest of the way. During the day the master practically lived in his study, his butler delivering letters and other things in and out.
You had finished your rounds once again, checking everything before heading to your quarters. You kept your head down and eyes shielded as you approached the lords room.
“What are you hiding from?” You jolted in surprise seeing him standing outside the door, arms crossed with a smirk on his face.
“Uh-“ you quickly moved your hand cursing silently.
“Nothing my lord, I was um-“ you thought about a lie and gave up seeing his smirk still plastered on your face.
“You know hearing you tip toe by then bolt is rather amusing” he said and you felt your cheeks go red hot.
“Why not indulge in ourselves why we’re here, have a little fun, I know they certainly enjoy it” He said playfully and you kept your eyes to the ground wishing the ground would swallow you up. Gods this was embarrassing you should’ve just slept in one of the spare rooms, no one would notice if you got back early.
“Why do you keep those pretty eyes down” you froze as his finger lifted your chin up again and you stared at his Ruby eyes.
“Oh I see” he had a grin on his face, what did he see? Your dying embarrassment.
“Has a man never touched you?” He asked voice low and husky making a shiver run up your spine.
“Or woman perhaps?” He added and you shook your head moving your head from his chin and looking to the ground in shame. Why would anyone touch you? Did he not have good eye sight? You were hideous.
“Please excuse me my lord” you said voice shaky.
“Oh, of course” he said as you gave one last glance to his confused face as you left.
You sighed going to the shared bathroom. You stripped your clothes, wrapped a towel around your body and began to run the water. You sighed looking in the mirror and pinching your cheeks. You looked down your body, the towel almost too small for it, you groaned quietly looking away from the mirror quickly not wanting to get lost in that hole. You poured some scented oil in the bath before stopping the water. You laid your towel on the chair by the mirror and stepped into the bath with a sigh. The warm water soothed your muscles as you closed your eyes and leant back. Images flashed through your mind though, your body pressed against a cold wall, a hand pleasuring you, lips marking your neck and a warm body against yours. White hair tickling your nose as he whispered praises in your ear.
You jolted eyes opening and staring, gods what was wrong with you?! This was your lord! The one you served. He wouldn’t see you in that way, not with the way your looks and body were, he was teasing that’s all, you were easy prey.
You washed your body before hoping out the bath and drying. You brushed your hair before putting on a nightgown and going to bed. You wouldn’t be easy prey, not anymore.
Next part ->
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intothestacks · 3 months
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I want someone to make a movie of one of Austen's novels but from the servants' perspective.
Like, I want the Bennets complaining about how poor they are while their servant is in the background serving them food just like
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Or someone is dropping some piece of gossip and the servants are dusting something in the background while going
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I don't care if it's a comedy or treated seriously or if it's a crossover between Austen's novels and all the servants of her characters know each other or something.
I would also accept this for any classic story about rich people.
I just wanna see things from the servants' perspective.
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44ratsinatrenchcoat · 20 days
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I'm just saying, yes, Jeeves is technically a valet, not a butler, but he is also a butler, and a housekeeper, and a server, and a footman, and a scullery maid, and a cook, and a hallboy, and a
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racefortheironthrone · 2 months
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It’s often said that poor people in developed countries are wealthier than medieval kings, but is that really true? Yes, they may not have had smartphones, or flat screen TVs, but they also would never need to worry about having things like food, or clothing, or shelter. If they got sick, the royal physician was a call away (figuratively speaking). Depending on the time and place, they might live in an armed compound and have armed men at hand wherever they went. How much of this is true for the poor today?
This comes down to a dispute over how one measures material standards of living - which, to the contrary of what economists sometimes tell the public, are wildly divergent estimates that depend heavily on weighting and the estimates that economists use to arrive at a sense of "purchasing power" and far from an exact science.
Notoriously, standard definitions tend to overvalue material possesions because they're easier to quantify, and undervalue services because they tend to be more qualitative and subjective in their value.
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This is particularly difficult for medieval kings, because a lot of their wealth was in services - namely, servants. These servants served the same functions that a lot of our "labor-saving devices" and other consumer durables. If a king needed warming up, they didn't turn up the heating, the servants started a fire or put a warming pan between the sheets or dressed them in warm furs. If a king needed cooling down, servants would fan them or bring them chilled drinks. If a king wanted food, they didn't call Doordash, they just snapped their fingers and food was brought to them from the kitchens, and the cleaning-up was done by scullions and the king probably never knew it happened.
(Similarly, medieval living standards are hard to quantify because many people weren't in the market, but were largely economically self-sufficient. This is especially true for lords and kings who had hundreds if not thousands of peasants doing free labor for them to produce goods that they didn't have to pay money for.)
That sort of stuff is very hard to quantify, and yet it was a huge part of living standards in most of the world until around the 1920s.
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wiirocku · 2 months
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Ezra 5:11 (ESV) - And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and finished.
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yesterdaysprint · 2 years
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A Manual of Etiquette With Hints on Politeness and Good Breeding, 1868
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funtomfactory · 5 months
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Snake knows how to cook Snake knows how to cook Snake knows how to cook SNAKE KNOWS HOW TO COOK
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westerosiladies · 1 year
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Daenerys and her female servants
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presidenthades · 2 months
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Targaryen Eating Habits and Other Smallfolk Tales
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AO3 Link
Rating: M (because the servants witness a lot of raunchiness)
Summary: While the Targaryens are busy ruling Westeros, the smallfolk keep their draconic overlords fed, watered, and clothed.
Notes: This is a non-chronological anthology of servant/smallfolk POVs as they interact with the Targs. Updates will be sporadic, depending on when I feel inspired to write a chapter. Suggestions for POVs you’d like to see are welcome!
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nemophila0 · 7 months
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victoriansecret · 1 month
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pardon me for imposing, but in your "Servants and Upward Mobility" posts you mention the "odd quirk" that most English servants were women. you may find it interesting that in Caroline Davidson's A Woman's Work Is Never Done, she notes a marked decline in the number of male servants, in part due to a stiff & rigorously enforced tax on them from 1777-1937, which made housework & domestic service almost exclusively work for women. neat stuff!
I still need to read that book, thanks for the reminder! There are a ton of other factors too; partly that male servants were generally better paid, and also, the livery itself was astronomically expensive. Not that every male servant was in livery, as I talked about, but still... half the point of having any male on staff was to show them off. But yeah, the taxes were part of it. As a tangent, there are a lot of individual and collective movements in England in the latter part of the century to preserve certain fields as 'female dominated'. I don't have it to hand, but there's an amazing letter to a newspaper in London from a father complaining about all the man-milliners entering the trade, and limiting options for apprenticeships for his daughters. To be clear, women worked in every trade, but there were a handful that were specifically considered to be 'female trades'. And given that women didn't have the same opportunities for higher education as men, it was considered vitally important to maintain those positions to give women more opportunities. From what I can tell, it wasn't considered quite as vital to maintain more roles for womenservants, but there is definitely an element of that as well, a belief that too many men were being hired in servant roles and removing options for girls and women.
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dwellordream · 20 days
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“The impact of both new technology and the growing influx of immigrant workers can best be seen in the New England textile mills. In the 1820s and 1830s, young women from the farm country of New England went to work in the massive brick textile factories springing up along the Merrimack River near Lowell, Massachusetts, and other New England towns. In 1820, Lowell--then called Chelmsford--was a sleepy village of about 200 farm families, located about 25 miles northwest of Boston. Six years later, it had grown into a town of 2,500 and was incorporated as the town of Lowell. In 1830, the population surged to 6,000, and tripled to 18,000 just six years later. By 1850, Lowell boasted a population of 33,000.
What created this booming growth was the rise of the textile industry. Other New England mill towns also grew, but Lowell quickly became the center of the New England textile industry and drew workers--mostly single women as young as 16 or 17--from across New England. These women generally came from the middle ranks of farm families, those that were neither impoverished nor wealthy. The desire to be financially and socially independent, to finance an education, or to simply experience the pleasures of living and working in a larger town drew many young farm women to the mills. Some women did contribute their earnings to their families, but mostly they worked in the mills to earn their own income.
…Mill owners insisted that their female hands be in their boarding houses by 10 o’clock each evening, and they urged boarding house keepers, usually older women, to report any violators to the management. In the early years, women were required to attend church services regularly, and some mill owners even deducted pew rent from the women’s earnings and paid it directly to local churches. These close living and working arrangements created a camaraderie among the women workers, a community of like-minded women who eagerly wanted to improve their minds and their lives. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, they organized and attended lectures, language classes, sewing groups, and literary ‘improvement circles’--after working a 12-hour day. From one of these circles was born the Lowell Offering, the first journal ever written by and for mill women. The journal published poetry, short stories, and commentary penned by the female workers.
Workers also organized themselves into labor-reform groups to crusade for better working conditions and shorter workdays. As technological innovations enabled women to work faster and produce more, mill owners assigned more machines to workers--without raising wages. For example, at Hamilton Company, one of the mills in Lowell, the average number of looms per weaver more than doubled between 1840 and 1854. The workload for spinners increased as well. Workers were expected to operate more machines at a faster rate. But wages remained the same--although the company reaped higher profits from the workers’ increased productivity.
…In 1846, Elias Howe introduced the first sewing machine. Five years later, in 1851, the addition of a foot treadle for easier operation made the machine an indispensable tool. But instead of easing the sewer’s burden, the sewing machine increased it. Hand sewers could no longer compete with the sewing machine. In one day, one sewing machine operator could do as much work as six hand sewers. Hand sewers were forced to buy or rent sewing machines, or work in garment factories, where they had no control over their wages or hours.
To make matters worse, seamstresses, like the mill workers of New England, were expected to work faster and produce more while working for the same wages. New technology, such as the sewing machine or improved looms, enabled consumers to buy manufactured goods at reasonable prices--but at the expense of factory workers, who were not paid a fair wage for operating this new technology.
…Despite the long hours and low wages, women still preferred working in factories to being domestic servants. At least factory workers had some free time; servants were on call 24 hours a day. Domestics worked up to 16 hours a day, with one afternoon off each week. They earned $1 to $1.25 a week plus board. Servants’ duties varied according to their employers’ requirements and the number of other servants employed in the house. But in general, the work was very demanding. Domestics devoted entire days to washing, baking, ironing and cleaning each room. They were accustomed to heavy physical work--cleaning out fireplaces or emptying chamber pots--and trudging up and down staircases several times a day.
Besides enduring the back-breaking work, servants also had to endure the snobbery of their social ‘superiors.’ During the colonial era, servants were treated as part of the family and joined in all household activities. By the mid-19th century, however, they were regarded as mere hired hands, and were viewed as an inferior class. The Boston census of 1845 categorized servants as part of the ‘unclassified residue of the population.’ No wonder that young women wanted to avoid the social stigma of being a domestic.”
- Harriet Sigerman, “‘I Never Worked So Hard’: Weavers, Stitchers, and Domestics.’” in An Unfinished Battle: American Women, 1848-1865
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is Jamil even paid? Does it go straight to his family if he is? Are they paid? I have very limited access to the source material but I don't think they are.
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