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<DIV>(1) “Emma was getting old, Frannie noted wistfully, as the rail-thin black
maid tottered into the master bedroom with a breakfast tray in her hands.”
(“More Tales of the City”, 1980)</DIV>
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<DIV>(2) “Ellen, the discreet black maid, stood behind Mrs Chinnery’s chair,
waiting” (“The Years”, 1937, “1911” ch.)</DIV>
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<DIV>Why is Ellen black? Because she’s old Mrs Chinnery’s maid.
She’s not a tweeny; she’s not a downstairs maid. If anyone needs serving with
refreshments, it won’t be she doing it. Therefore, she’s not wearing a
white apron. She’s dressed all in black.</DIV>
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<DIV>Incidentally, how is Mrs Chinnery getting to her room, since she’s in a
“wheeled chair”? Will she be able to get up the stairs with help, or is
her room on the same floor as the drawing-room? Possible but unlikely, I
would have thought. There wouldn’t have been a lift. I like to think
that a couple of strapping footmen will carry her in the wheelchair up the
stairs.</DIV>
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<DIV>Let’s turn to a bit of social history. If the photo. below comes out,
it shows 3 black shop assistants in the late-1920s in the back garden of a
department store. Not that I think they would be called such, since shop
assistants in a decent shop would always be wearing black. (As little
James in the film of “To the Lighthouse” would say, “My muvver is in the
middle”.) The hairstyles are a bit frightening – perms at home. Do
you think the centre and right-hand dresses are homemade? (My mother was a
good sewer.) I doubt if the material is of good quality. How would
you clean them? You wouldn’t dare rub a spot like Mrs Robinson does in
“The Graduate”. Perhaps a wet tea-towel and a hot iron might do. The
working classes couldn’t afford dry-cleaning until the 1930s, and only
occasionally then. And what about the sweat under the arms, turning the
black to white or grey? No deodorant of course, and baths once a week if
you were lucky. Well, what they did was wear a padded crescent of material
under the arms, tacked, I assume, to the straps of the petticoat. That mopped up
the sweat and protected the dresses.</DIV>
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<DIV>This seems to me much more interesting than even considering for a moment
that Ellen might have been imported from the Empire.</DIV>
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<DIV>Stuart</DIV>
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