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The People:
Eva lives with her mother and her eighteen year old daughter.
She was a hairdresser for 15 years but now runs a haberdashery shop
using her sewing skills to make wedding dresses and christening robes,
plus the odd horse blanket. She says, "When I go to the cinema to
see the period films, I'm not looking at the stars, I'm looking at the dresses."
She applied for Manor House because she wanted
to pay homage to her hard-working grandmother, who had been in service
as a kitchen maid with the Earl and Countess of Antrim, leaving her East
Lothian home to voyage to Ireland as a young girl just before the First
World War. She had stayed at Castle Antrim for three years until she had
to return to Scotland to nurse her sick mother. "My mission is to relive
my grandmother's life."
A lady's maid enjoys a high status in the hierarchy of Edwardian servants.
She is one of the 'upper ten' and would enjoy their privileges; for example she
takes dessert with the butler and the housekeeper in 'pug's
parlour', and has morning tea brought to her by the first housemaid, while
the second housemaid follows behind to make up the fire in her room.
Miss Morrison is also free to take a bath as often as she wishes
in the female upper servants' bathroom - a luxury denied to the lower female ervants.
Her responsibilities are to her mistress: she can be called from doing her mistress's
laundry at any moment of the day to help Lady Olliff-Cooper with her hair or her dress. And
as an Edwardian Lady could expect to change her dress six times a day - that's a lot of
work...
In terms of the hierarchy, the rules state "As lady's maid, you
are a member of the Upper Servants. In the female Servants'
hierarchy you are second only to the
housekeeper.
You are in a unique position in that you will spend more time with the
Family than any of the other Servants. You will be a companion to the
Mistress and
responsible for looking after her clothes, dressing her hair and packing
all her personal effects for travel."
One thing that Miss Morrison should look out for: the lady's maid was often
ostracized by other servants as a result of her closeness to her mistress.
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The Lady's Maid: Daily Duties
