LONDON HOME RULE BELOW STAIRS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 87, 11 April 1878, Page 4

LONDON HOME RULE BELOW STAIRS.

(From Truth.)

Having ventured to open our mouths on thia burning question, we have received ac many complaints, both against the powers above and the powers below, as might suffice to fill the old Bocos del Leone at Venice. A gentleman tells us that having advertised for a head gardener he obtained a proffer of services from an exalted personage who concluded his epistle: — "I hope it will be understood, sir, that if I go to you, lam never to be interfered with by yourself or any of the family in the management of the garden." Tbe gentleman not unnaturally replied: — " Sir — I find you have made a trifling mistake as regards nay advertisement. I am in want of a servant, not ot a master." A lady of rank plaintively remarks, that she finds her servants always manage to make her feel unwelcome in her own house. She gives them, she tells us, when she is absent, "only" 17b od a-week board money, wiih allowances of vegetables, milk, and rabbits ad libitum', and why they a>-e so annoyed at her returning; home she cannot divine. The wife of an M.P. living in Eaton Place tells us that after the departure of her last butlers she. thought it her duty to visit his pantry, to see if the apartment required any fresh decoration. She found therein a cupboard, with nearly 100 bottles and pots of pickles, olives, sauces, and Bardines, the greater part unopeued, the rest half used, all ordered by her late mejor-domo whenever the grocer had called for orders. Another gentlemen, having*, as he imagined, concluded the engagement of a housemaid, was .taken aback by the query, " Oh, by the , way, sir, of couise you leaves town every year. May I ask for how long?" The gentleman replied that the matter was quite uncertain, and that sometimes he did not leave town at all. " Ob, -then, sir, I must decline your situation. I couldn't think of stopping with a family as didn't go out of London from Haugust to November; I requires some country hair myself at that season"

Not to multiply suoh tales, we shall merely, quote, verbatim et literatim, a letter actually received by a lady in the North of England, and which lies before us as we write— on its fine tinted paper : — "October, 1877. . "To Mrs B. " Maddame, — Having heard that you are in want of a Cook, M J. writes to apply for the situation. M. J has been accustomed to have a regular kitchen-maid under her [this is upderlined, perhaps to remove any delusion about the kitchen-maid ever obeying the employer]. Also has been accustomed to a bedroom to herself. M. J. is forty years of age, and a spinster, also a Low Churchwqman, and will object to Serve any other sect. M. J. mentions those few facts, as she thinks Mrs B. will be able to judge whether M, J is tha sort of Cook she requires. M. J. has lived where the lady was her own housekeeper, also she has lived where she has had part of bousekeping to attend to. Will Mrs B. kindly give M. J. Particulars pf her situation if Bhe wishes to negotiate with her, and will Mrs. B. say if she: has a convenient kitchen, and if the kitchen range is an old Fashioned jopenFire, or if it is a new Fashioned Flavel Stove, as M. J. objects to the latter. M.J. left her situation on Thirsday last. Will Mrs B. say what Family she has, also the number of servants she keeps.— l remain, Maddame, Yours Obediently, M. J. .»

There is something in these days of Ritulism in the idea that "no High Churchwoman need appiy" for M. J.s services or, as she expressed it, negotiate with her;" and sound Evangelical views, and a kitchen range which is not a "new fashioned Fiavel stove," are conditions on which alone her abilities (of which, however, she does not condescend to give the slightest iniimation of the extent) oan be "negotiated" for hy "Maddame" B.