In large establishments, the housekeeper, the lady’s maid, and the men
servants out of livery, usually take their meals by themselves, in
the housekeeper’s or steward’s room; but when they take their dinner
together, they preserve an order at table like the following:—The
housekeeper usually takes her seat at the head, and the butler at the
lower end of the table; the cook at the right of the housekeeper, and
the lady’s maid on her left; the under butler on the right, and the
coachman on the left of the butler; the house-maid next to the cook,
and the kitchen-maid next to the lady’s-maid; and the men servants
always occupying the lower end of the table. The dinner is set on the
table by the cook, and the beer is drawn by the under butler.
The servants’ table is usually provided with solid dishes, and with
ale and table beer; and it is the business of the superior servants to
see that their accommodation is comfortable and in plenty, but without
extravagance, or waste and riot. In well-regulated families, the
servants’ hall is distinguished by its decorum, good order, and even
good manners, which the servants who wait in the parlour imbibe, and
convey to the kitchen. Servants of coarse manners, vulgar habits, or
profane discourse, and malicious dispositions, are shunned by others,
and never make good their footing or rise in first-rate families, where
all the good and bad qualities which belong to the superior ranks of
society operate as much to their advantage or disadvantage as in any
station of life. In truth, the servants’ hall is a little world by
itself, in which the passions, tempers, vices, and virtues, are brought
into play, and contribute their full share in promoting that welfare
and happiness, which it is the object of this work to fix and improve.