Georgians At Home
The Housekeeper and the Cook are sitting together to have a drink after a very long day working in the house. They are talking about the dinners that the family will host during their stay in Bath. It will be important to impress the guests. This room was used for storing some of the more expensive dry ingredients and items like sugar, spices, soap, candles and linens. The Housekeeper had the important job of keeping these things safe under lock and key.
Jane Austen
Housekeepers were the most important servants. Many helped to look after the children and even kept the family secrets! In Jane’s book called ‘Pride and Prejudice’ the character Elizabeth Bennet had decided that she did not like a character called Mr Darcy, but she was encouraged to change her mind after his housekeeper described him as kind. This was because servants could usually be trusted to speak the truth about their masters.
Explore an Object: Carpet Beater
This is a carpet beater. Rugs and carpets would have been cleaned by hanging them up and beating them with this tool that looks a bit like a tennis racket. It would have been very hard work!
Find this object. What was this object used for?
These small white sculptures are made out of sugar. Georgians often put fancy sugar sculptures in the middle of the table for a dinner party to show off and show how rich they were. They also showed how good their cook was as they were very difficult to make!