Posted by John Wilson on September 17, 2000 at 14:29:13 from wakefield-cacheflow.itnet.co.nz:
In Reply to: Re: PM-Beckfoot servants. posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on September 15, 2000 at 09:45:29:
Taqui Altounyan’s description of Lanehead in chapter 14 of "In Aleppo Once" certainly recalls Beckfoot. There was one servant, Ada the cook, who lived three miles away at Tilberthwaite. They clean, order food, wash-up and make beds themselves.
The only drinking-water is from a pump in the scullery. The dining-room which was originally the kitchen had a big black range but Ada had her own little black stove in the kitchen. There is a Lamp Room on the ground floor where oil lamps and candlesticks were brought down from the bedrooms for cleaning (which could imply electric light downstairs?). It also had the telephone, old copies of Punch, and was used for storage as a junk room.
Lanehead was loaned rent-free to the Collingwoods who never had much money; later her father purchased it for £500. Taqui mentions Aunt Genia, and Uncle Arthur who looked Oriental or like a Chinaman when he cultivated a long, thin, droopy Chinese moustache.