Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1861)

Isabella Beeton (1836–1865) was a British journalist whose earliest articles appeared in the English Woman’s Domestic Magazine, one of the first magazines targeted specifically at middle-class women. Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, first published in 1861, contained more than 2,700 entries of recipes and practical instructions, from how to keep moths from attacking clothes to how to care for horses. A bestseller that was continually reprinted, it was almost certainly the most widely consulted book on the subject in the decades following its appearance. The excerpts included here focus on the responsibilities of servants. For middle-class and elite women, management of servants was one of their most important tasks. Such women were not expected to cook and clean, but they were responsible for making sure that their households were the well-ordered havens of cleanliness and tranquility demanded by promoters of the late-nineteenth-century cult of domesticity.

Masters and Mistresses.—It has been said that good masters and mistresses make good servants, and this to a great extent is true. There are certainly some men and women in the wide field of servitude whom it would be impossible to train into good servants, but the conduct of both master and mistress is seldom without its effect upon these dependents. They are not mere machines, and no one has a right to consider them in that light. The sensible master and the kind mistress know, that if servants depend on them for their means of living, in their turn they are dependent on their servants for very many of the comforts of life; and that, with a proper amount of care in choosing servants, and treating them like reasonable beings, and making slight excuses for the shortcomings of human nature, they will, save in some exceptional case, be tolerably well served, and, in most instances, surround themselves with attached domestics. . . .

The Lady’s-Maid.—The qualifications a lady’s maid should possess are a thorough knowledge of hair dressing, dressmaking and repairing and restoring clothes. She should be able to pack well, and her taste, being often called into requisition in matters of dress, should be good. It is also essential that she be well spoken, quiet in manner and quick; that she should be clean and honest goes without saying. A lady’s maid having so much more intercourse with her mistress than any other servant should not only possess, but learn, discretion from day to day. To know when to speak and when to be silent, and to be willing to bear with patience any little caprices of taste and temper with which she may have to contend.

Her first duty in the morning, after having performed her own toilet, is to prepare the bath and everything for dressing for her mistress, taking her an early cup of tea if she requires one. She then examines the clothes put off by her mistress the evening before, either to put them away, or to see that they are all in order to put on again. During the winter and in wet weather, the dresses should be carefully examined, and the mud removed. Dresses of tweed, and other woolen materials may be laid out on a table and brushed all over; but in general, even in woolen fabrics, the lightness of the tissues renders brushing unsuitable to dresses, and it is better to remove the dust from the folds by beating them lightly with a handkerchief or thin cloth. Silk dresses should never be brushed, but rubbed with a piece of merino, or other soft material, of a similar color, kept for the purpose. Summer dresses . . . simply require shaking; but if the muslin be tumbled, it must be ironed afterwards. If the dresses require slight repair, it should be done at once: “a stitch in time saves nine.” . . .

A waiting-maid who wishes to make herself useful will study the fashion-books with attention, so as to be able to aid her mistress’s judgment in dressing, according to the prevailing fashion, with such modifications as her style and figure require. She will also, if she has her mistress’s interest at heart, employ her spare time in repairing and making up dresses which have served one purpose, to serve another also; or turning many things, unfitted for her mistress, to use for the younger branches of the family. The lady’s-maid may thus render herself invaluable to her mistress, and increase her own happiness in so doing. The exigencies of fashion and luxury are such, that all ladies, except those of the very highest rank, will consider themselves fortunate in having about them a thoughtful person, capable of diverting their finery to a useful purpose. . . .

Duties of the Housemaid.—"Cleanliness is next to godliness," saith the proverb, and “order” is in the next degree; the housemaid, then, may be said to be the handmaiden to two of the most prominent virtues. Her duties are very numerous, and many of the comforts of the family depend on their performance; but they are simple and easy to a person naturally clean and orderly, and desirous of giving satisfaction. . . .

The first duty of the housemaid in winter is to open the shutters of all the lower rooms in the house, and take up the hearthrugs of those rooms which she is going to “do” before breakfast. In some families, where there is only a cook and housemaid kept, and where the drawing-rooms are large, the cook has the care of the dining-room, and the housemaid that of the breakfast-room, library, and drawing-rooms. After the shutters are all opened, she sweeps the breakfast-room, sweeping the dust towards the fire-place, of course previously removing the fender. She should then lay a cloth (generally made of coarse wrappering) over the carpet in front of the stove, and on this should place her housemaid’s box, containing black-lead brushes, leathers, emery-paper, cloth, black lead, and all utensils necessary for cleaning a grate, with the cinder-pail on the other side. She now sweeps up the ashes, and deposits them in her cinder-pail, which is a japanned tin pail, with a wire-sifter inside, and a closely-fitting top. In this pail the cinders are sifted, and reserved for use in the kitchen or under the copper, the ashes only being thrown away. The cinders disposed of, she proceeds to black-lead the grate, producing the black lead, the soft brush for laying it on, her blacking and polishing brushes, from the box which contains her tools. This housemaid’s box should be kept well stocked. Having blackened, brushed, and polished every part, and made all clean and bright, she now proceeds to lay the fire. . . .

Bright grates require unceasing attention to keep them in perfect order. A day should never pass without the housemaid rubbing with a dry leather the polished parts of a grate, as also the fender and fire-irons. A careful and attentive housemaid should have no occasion ever to use emery-paper for any part but the bars, which, of course, become blackened by the fire. (Some mistresses, to save labor, have a double set of bars, one set bright for the summer, and another black set to use when fires are in requisition.) . . .

The several fires lighted, the housemaid proceeds with her dusting, and polishing the several pieces of furniture in the breakfast-parlor, leaving no corner unvisited. Before sweeping the carpet, it is a good practice to sprinkle it all over with tea-leaves, which not only lay all dust, but give a slightly fragrant smell to the room. It is now in order for the reception of the family; and where there is neither footman nor parlor-maid, she now proceeds to the dressing-room, and lights her mistress’s fire, if she is in the habit of having one to dress by. Her mistress is called, hot water placed in the dressing-room for her use, her clothes—as far as they are under the house-maid’s charge—put before the fire to air, hanging a fire-guard on the bars where there is one, while she proceeds to prepare the breakfast. . . .

From Isabella Beeton, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (London: Ward, Lock and Co., 1888), pp. 1454, 1471, 1473, 1478–1479, 1481–1482.