The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

Common free-stone hearths may be scoured with soap and sand and cold water, and afterwards rubbed dry with a clean house cloth.

By this time the footman will have done all his work in the pantry, and have rubbed all the tables, chairs, cellerets, and other mahogany furniture, and cleaned the brass and other ornaments, the mirrors, looking-glasses, &c. in these rooms, when the carpets are to be swept, on ordinary occasions, with a carpet mop to take off the flue, lint, and dust; or more thoroughly, once a week with a long hair-brush or carpet-broom, first having strewed them over with damp tea-leaves, (see receipt for scouring and cleaning carpets.) The sides of the carpet are then turned up all round the room, and the dust on the floor swept away, or, occasionally, the floor scoured with soap and water. The carpet is then turned back again; the chairs and other furniture dusted singly, and removed from the middle of the room, where they were cleaned to their proper places.

The window curtains and hangings may not require to be shaken and dusted every day, but the dust on the windows should be removed with a long hair-broom, and the cobwebs or any dirt on the ceiling, and in the corners of the room, must be sought for and removed.

Every thing being adjusted in the rooms for the reception of the family, the house-maid next opens the shutters of the dining-room, and drawing-room, where she and the footman regularly proceed with their respective business in the manner above mentioned. The house-maid with the fires and fire-place, floors, carpets, &c. scouring, washing, brushing, and dusting them; and the footman, rubbing and cleaning the mahogany furniture, looking-glasses, and other articles in his department, till all is made quite clean, and the rooms are fit for the reception of the family.

At an appointed time she repairs to the dressing-rooms of the master and mistress, and others in use, empties the slops, replenishes the ewers and water-carofts with fresh spring and soft water, and fills the kettles for warm water—cleans up the fire-places, lights the fires, brushes the carpets, sweeps the rooms, dusts the furniture, and puts the rooms in order before the lady’s-maid and valet come to make their arrangements previous to the rising of their superiors.—Having done these, she sweeps down the principal stair-case and goes to her breakfast.

As soon as the best bed-rooms and dressing-rooms are at liberty, she repairs thither, puts out the fires, or not, according as the weather is,—throws open the windows, (or the doors only, in unfavourable weather) to air the rooms, and the beds; opens all the beds, throws the bed-clothes off, on the backs of chairs, placed at the foot of the bed, shakes up each bed, and then proceeds to her other business in the rooms, in order to give as much time as can be spared for airing the beds. Meanwhile, she cleans up the fire-places, again, lays the fires to be ready when wanted, and having washed her hands and put on a clean apron, she makes the beds. (In this business she is usually assisted by the under house-maid, as it requires two persons to make a bed well.) This done, she mops or brushes the carpets, to clean off the flue or feathers and dust,—sweeps out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, supplies the ewers and carofts with clean water, and then retires; leaving the rooms properly arranged against the coming of the lady’s-maid and valet to prepare for their master’s and mistress’s dressing, previous to their going out.

She next proceeds to the other bed-rooms—opens the windows and makes the beds—empties the slops—cleans out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, and puts them in proper order.

Having finished all the bed-rooms, the stair-cases, landings, and passages, will next claim her attention, which are also to be swept, the carpets brushed or swept, and the floor-cloths rubbed over with a clean wet flannel, and wiped dry with a clean house-cloth. On the appointed general cleaning days, the floor-cloths must be scoured with warm soap suds, and afterwards wiped dry, with a clean linen cloth.

On the general cleaning days also, which are usually Tuesdays and Saturdays, every branch of the household work must be thoroughly done, in the best manner;—the rooms are then to be scoured instead of being merely wiped or swept;—the carpets are to be well brushed or taken up to be beaten or shaken;—the stoves and fire-places brightened and cleaned with particular care;—the marble hearths and chimney-pieces scoured;—the mahogany furniture and the brass or other ornaments in the best rooms, and the mirrors and looking-glasses cleaned, with more than ordinary attention;—the bed-furniture, window-curtains and hangings well shaken, whisked and brushed: in short, the best practical methods for thoroughly cleaning the whole house, must be resorted to on that day.

If the house maid rise in good time, and employ herself busily, she will get every thing done above stairs in time to clean and make herself comfortable for dinner, about one o’clock; after which she will attend to her needle work, under the direction of the housekeeper. About four, in the winter, the fires in the dressing-rooms are to be lighted—the slops emptied—clean water supplied, (hot and cold) and the dressing-rooms again dusted and cleaned, preparatory to the lady and gentleman dressing for dinner. While the family is at dinner, the dressing-rooms must be again prepared; and in the evening the shutters of the bed-rooms and dressing-rooms must be fastened—the curtains let down—the beds turned down—the fires lighted, and the rooms put into proper condition for the night. Wages from 12 to 16 guineas a year.