The occupation of twenty-six of the people who live in another house containing seventy-two rooms is as follows:
Butler (wages £120),[22] valet, groom of the chambers, under butler, three footmen, one steward’s room footman, usher of the servants’ hall, odd man, chef (wages £150),[22] kitchen porter, four kitchen and scullery maids, five housemaids, two still-room maids, one lady’s maid, one needlewoman, one housekeeper.
This staff ministers to the wants of a man, his wife, and three children.
In the country, at a stone’s throw from one another, we find a man, a farm labourer, living with his wife and six children in a four-roomed cottage on 14s. a week, and another man, without any permanent employment, living with his wife and a staff of twenty-three indoor servants in a house containing over sixty rooms, with the choice of two other large country houses and a London house, and owning over 50,000 acres of land, a great deal of which is kept for shooting.
In another part of the country the medical officer of the county reports: “In a house consisting of living-room, bedroom, and a small scullery live father, mother, three sons, also three children under ten and two men lodgers. Seven sleep in the bedroom, which has a low ceiling and has been divided, and five sleep in the living-room; the only window of the latter room will not open, and the window of the divided upstairs room is near the floor level.”
The landlord and lord of the manor of this district lives with his wife and family in a house containing over one hundred rooms, and is attended by a staff of forty-four indoor servants. He has the choice of three other country residences and a town house, and owns over 186,000 acres.
We find some women occupied in the following way:
“Mrs. B. and her daughter support themselves on shirt work. The mother is a shirt finisher, the daughter a machinist. They work seven or eight hours a day—the daughter’s book shows an average of 11s. 3¾d. over four weeks—the mother’s 9s. 1d. over nine weeks. When the mother earns 10s. it means working from 5:30 a.m. till 10 or 11 p.m. She gets 2d. per dozen for finishing, i.e. 72 buttons and 48 bars.”[23]
Or:
“Mrs. C. is always busy mending, making, washing, or baking, and certainly makes the best of all that comes in her way. She states that she can never afford money for recreation or for a holiday out of the town.”[24]