“Rules for pioneer women”

Posted: 17 Sep 2010 06:12 PM PDT

HISTORY: Beeton's Book of Household Management provided guidance for new brides

Posted By Karen Bachmann, For The Daily Press

Posted 7 hours ago

If you ran a household at the beginning of the 20th Century, you were in charge of a complex organization that demanded a wide variety of skills. If you were lucky, you had learned well from your own family situation.

If you were even luckier, you had access to a copy of "Beeton's Book of Household Management," a voluminous tome that provided advice on everything from cooking, to cleaning, to managing staff (maids, valets, and in some instances, coachmen), to entertaining.

First written in 1861 and updated as time went along, this guide for managing a home is a classic. It helped more than one newlywed housewife get her act together, and today, it offers us a window into what it was like to run a household at the beginning of the last century. Women starting homes in the Porcupine would have been well-versed in the lessons offered by the venerable Mrs. Beeton.

Isabelle Beeton was moved to write this book because of the "discomfort and suffering which (she) had seen brought upon men and women by household mismanagement." She felt that there was no greater cause for discord in the home than "a housewife's badly cooked dinners and untidy ways," and that "men were so well-served out of doors — at their clubs, well-ordered taverns and dining houses — that in order to compete with the attractions of these places, a mistress must be thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice of cookery, as well as be perfectly conversant with all of the arts of making and keeping a comfortable home."

Before Mrs. Beeton launches into the hundreds of recipes offered in the book, she provides (for lack of a better word), an organizational chart for the management of the home. At the top of the pyramid sits the mistress, described as the "commander of the army."

"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 her path."

According to Mrs. Beeton, there are 21 duties that must be mastered by the mistress in order to run a tight ship (it should be noted that this example describes an upper-class household, but the same pattern would have applied to the middle classes). These range from directives concerning her personal comportment such as being an early riser, taking cold or tepid baths every morning, being frugal and economic when dealing with the household (but never cheap or mean) and choosing appropriate dress and fashion (there was a strict dress code that needed to be followed, whose rules and regulations are too numerous to mention here – let's just say yoga pants would probably have caused massive societal failure).

A guideline to the selection of friends and acquaintances was also paramount. Mrs. Beeton emphasizes that the gossip should not be welcomed into the home, but rather that "if the duties of a family do not sufficiently occupy the time of a mistress, society should be formed of such a kind as will tend to the mutual interchange of general and interesting information."

The etiquette of the time could be quite cruel. It was expected that after marriage, a woman would give up her early friends unless they were of equal means and stature. Through all of this, however, it was the duty of the mistress to offer excellent hospitality to those who visited her home. As well, charity and benevolent work should be done by all, even those in the poorest households.

In dealing with servants, the mistress is counselled to act with high principles and a fair hand if she wished to gain the respect of her staff (be it a full complement or just one maid). She is also implored to provide strict justice when dealing with a maid. She should never recommend anyone to a friend that she would not have work in her own home.

Here is a selection of male household positions as ranked that existed in many fine homes up until the end of the First World War: House steward, valet, butler, cook, gardener, footmen, under butler, coachmen, groom, footboy, and stable boy. Women's positions (again ranked) included housekeeper, lady's-maid, head nurse (governess), cook, upper housemaid, upper laundry-maid, maid-of-all-work, under housemaid, still-room maid, nursemaid, under laundry-maid, kitchen maid and scullery maid.

If you read through some of the want ads from the early Porcupine, you will find advertisements for some, but not all of these positions.

Having set out these directives for the female head of the house, the book then goes into great detail to describe a mistress' day from start to finish. It is a wonder the woman had any time for anything – and it is important to remember that this schedule was strictly adhered to by one and all, for society was much more formal and much more stratified that it is today.

Beeton offers these parting words to the "new" mistress: "She ought always to remember that she is the alpha and the omega in the governance of her establishment and that it is by her conduct that its whole internal policy is regulated. She is therefore a person of far more importance in a community than she usually thinks she is. Therefore, let every mistress always remember her responsible position, never approving a mean action, nor speaking an unrefined word. Let her conduct be such that her inferiors may respect her and such as an honourable and right-minded man may look for in his wife and the mother of his children."

No problem – no pressure.

— Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

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Cookery

Saturday, September 18, 2010