Thursday, April 19, 2018

Visitors as Servants and Servants as Guests: Real-life Edwardian Role Swap


A very interesting historic item, a companion to How Would You Like to Be the Maid postcard from the same era I posted in January. Judging by the fashions, it was just around the time that The Admirable Crichton, this ultimate class-swap comedy later made into a film, was a stage hit. 

"For one whole evening the visitors learned what it was to be domestics, while their places were taken by the servants... Naturally the change of positions created many an amusing dilemma." I couldn't help but notice that they identified the disguised men by their full names, but a kitchenmaid remained anonymous. Wondering if that was seen as a bit risqué for a noble lady...




18 comments:

  1. The cutting was from The Tatler – Wednesday 11th January 1911, as you say interesting that the Kitchen Maid remained anonymous whilst the Porter and Waiter are named

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    1. Thanks for providing the exact date, could not find that. Wondering if the winners of this little game got tickets on the Titanic as prizes!

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    2. The date was on the original post lol, as for the Titanic, only if they did a poor job. I found several more cuttings, sadly no pictures of other Topsy Turvy events at Matlock, it seems to have been a popular event

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    3. Here are a couple of articles about "Topsy-Turvydom." which seems to have been a regular occurrence https://summertime75.wordpress.com/2018/04/19/topsy-turvydom/

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  2. Not living a 1000 miles from Matlock, I wonder which hotel it was and if it's still a hotel.

    There are 2 Matlocks next to one another - Matlock Town (which is the original) and Matlock Bath, about 2 miles south and which still has the atmosphere of a holiday place with typical attractions like slot machine arcades, river gardens along the Derwent and cable car carrying visitors up to the heights above (it's in a steep limestone gorge).

    As the name implies Matlock Bath is a former Spa town but was also well known for lead mining.

    Chatsworth House, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire is only about 10 miles north, so I wonder if any of the family got involved.

    Robi

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    1. The cuttings weren't specific but as they referred to the hydro I thought that it might be Matlock Bath

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    2. Yeah, certainly looks like the spa one as people stay their longer and guests get a chance to get to know the staff. At a regular hotel not so much.

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  3. This is really demeaning... for the servants.

    Imagine if some rich blowhards came into your place of work and wanted to do your job for a laugh. It’s all very amusing to them, what the working class has to do to get by. This particular event seemed like it was a big party akin to a costumed ball, complete with flash photography.

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    1. This wasn't even a true-to-life experience. They were serving servants, i.e. people who still had to be nice to them if they wanted to keep their job.

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    2. They most certainly did not mean it as an insult to their hosts, but somehow that makes it even more demeaning. Just like if someone overdoes it with trying to be nice to someone he sees as underprivileged and it comes across as even more condescending than if he was just plain rude.

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  4. I wonder if this was organized by someone who had a thing for class play and the only way they could experience it in public was to get dozens of other people to join them.

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  5. I was already to enjoy this, but anonymous above sort of spoiled it for me. Unfortunately, he/she is probably right too. :(

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  6. The woman in the middle photograph looks to me like she could be the subject of a good story: Perhaps what starts out as a game turns out to be real!

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    1. Yes, the kitchen maid is enjoying herself a bit too much.

      What if the true purpose of this engagement was to identify members of the upper class who approve of class mixing and remove from high society? She laughs and smiles as night progresses only to find that it was all real come the next morning.

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    2. I wonder if she'll still look so happy after six months hard grind as a scullery maid?

      Probably: that is obviously what she truly desires.

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  7. I'm surprised that no one has remarked on the similarity of Topsy-TurvyDom to the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, during which masters would serve meals to their slaves.

    If one assumes that most aristocrats had attended a British "public" school, most of which, as I understand it, emphasized the "classics," a euphemism for literature written in Latin or ancient Greek, then it seems reasonable to conclude that most of the upper-class participants at a Topsy-TurvyDom event would be familiar with the Festival of Saturnalia.

    Also, if one of the servants complained that the masters were "dissing" them, the masters could refer the servants to the appropriate Latin literature concerning the Saturnalia. In others words, if the ancient Romans did it, it must be good for you.

    The term Topsy-TurvyDom apparently originated with W. S. Gilbert who wrote an operetta together with Alfred Cellier titled TopseyTurveyDom. W. S. Gilbert is the Gilbert part of Gilbert and Sullivan. The libretto can still be found the Internet, but Cellier's music no longer exists.

    There is a movie about G&S's creation of "The Mikado." The movie is of course titled "Topsey-Turvy."

    Finally, I'm reminded of a story in C. Lakewood's library about a ancient Roman matron who wishes to temporarily swap places with her serving girl slave. I've often thought that it would make an excellent addition to the stories on this site.

    T. H. Enerdly

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  8. I feel this would have been a lot more fun if the guests were just normal guests (maybe the peers of the ones acting as servants) and all the real servants were given a paid day off.

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