Women's lives
The bulk of archival material from the 19th century relates to the activities of men. and while material has been found to illuminate the lives of some Albany Street female residents, specific information on the majority has not been traced.
As Edinburgh expanded there were more opportunities for both women and men to attend the theatre, concerts and supper parties. The Balls were popular with a number of Albany Street residents. See Grand occasions Reading would have been one of the primary leisure activities for women as they now had much greater access to, and a wider range of, reading material. And, as exemplified by Albany Street’s two successful female writers – Mary Brunton and Susan Ferrier - more fiction by women was being published. For both men and women, writing and receiving letters were significant activities. Needlepoint, embroidery and other forms of sewing also were significant female occupations, and often a focus for women to socialise.
Although the range of social pastimes was increasing, for the many women with large families, birth and child-rearing would have taken up significant amounts of their time, and left little time for their own leisure pursuits. As Amanda Vickery points out in The Gentleman’s Daughter: ‘For fertile women, motherhood could absorb almost all reserves of physical and emotional energy for at least a decade.’ Pregnancy at this time was a period of considerable vulnerability, and there was the emotional pain of the not uncommon deaths of babies and young children. These were not grand houses with large numbers of specialised servants. There certainly were some Albany Street residents who employed a nurse, often just for the first month or so following a birth, and in a few cases, a governess where there were many children and the parents could afford one. But the majority of mothers would have spent much of their time educating and entertaining their younger children.
Even more invisible are the servants, although it is likely that upwards of 4,000 individual servants passed through the street in the century. (Photo of a Maid-of-all-Work 1864). This table shows the number of servants recorded in the 1851 and 1891 census returns [at each census some houses were unoccupied]. The seven servants, including a Governess, were employed understandably by Mrs Winston at Number 24 who had ten children aged from 15 to one-year-old. The houses with five servants were lodgings. In 1851, only 3 of the servants were male, and no men were recorded as servants in 1891. The large majority of servants were under twenty-five years-of-age, presumably as many left to get married (see Jane Penny), and, from the places of birth recorded in the census, it would appear that many came from rural areas. By 1891, smaller families and increased employee costs, and alternative employment opportunities for young women, had reduced the servants employed by most. This trend increased after the First World War.
Where individual servants are mentioned in archival sources, this is almost always due to criminal activity; clearly not a fair reflection on the honest majority who would have worked long hours for minimum return. Housemaids would have risen around 6am every day, except on washing days when they had to rise earlier, and normally not finished work until after 11pm. In 1810, the wage for a maidservant was around £8 per annum. For cooks, children’s nurses and other specialist servants the wages would have been a little higher. In 1867, one house in Albany Street advertised for an experienced cook at a wage of £11. Life for servants would have been extremely hard. In the Albany Street houses the servants would have been responsible for cooking, cleaning, washing up, ironing, folding, setting fires, filling lamps, replacing candles and wicks, washing windows, sweeping floors, beating rugs, carrying coal, water, firewood, ice and a whole range of other tasks. The servants would have worked and lived in the basement areas. The website of the Edinburgh Baha'i Centre at Number 44 has a well-researched history of the house and shows the layout of an Albany house in the 19th century.
Mary Erskine's contemporary account of her mother’s busy life in the 1790s helps illuminate the unrecorded lives of those Albany Street women who employed the servants. ‘It would be almost incredible were I to describe how much my mother contrived to do in the course of the day. When my sister and I were small children, although busily engaged in writing for the press, she used to teach us for three hours every morning, besides managing her house carefully, reading the newspapers (for she always was a keen, and, I must add, a liberal politician), and the most important new books on all subjects, grave and gay. In addition to all this, she freely visited and received her friends. She was, indeed, very fond of society, and did not look for transcendent talent in those with whom she associated, although no one appreciated it more when she found it. Gay and cheerful company was a pleasant relaxation after a hard day's work. My mother never introduced scientific or learned subjects into general conversation. When they were brought forward by others, she talked simply and naturally about them, without the slightest pretension to superior knowledge. Finally, to complete the list of her accomplishments, I must add that she was a remarkably neat and skilful needlewoman.’
As many of the professional men would have used one or two rooms in the house as a lawyer’s Chambers or consulting room, most houses would have received a wide range of both social and business contacts. With visitors coming and going, wives would have been expected to oversee hospitality and refreshments throughout the day, often at short notice as informal invitations were often made on the spur of the moment. For example, Walter Scott invited a friend to return with him for dinner, assuring him there was no need to change into formal evening dress as there would be no one but the two of them. In fact there were at least five other adults in the house, all of whom presumably were to dine as well.
Houses were a centre for entertaining. Dinners and evening parties where people shared music, conversation or cards, were common. Elizabeth Grant in Memoirs of a Highland Lady describes her family’s outings to dinner parties in the early 1800s: ‘The hour was six, the company generally numbered sixteen, plate, fine wines, middling cookery, bad attendance and beautiful rooms. One or two young people generally enlivened them.’ At dinners, the tradition of women leaving the men to drink afterwards was still followed. L. A Necker de Saussure writing in his Travels in Scotland observed: ‘There are few countries, assuredly, where the ladies are more capable of conversing upon serious subjects. But it is not the fashion to talk politics before the ladies…hence after dinner the men remain a long time at the table after the ladies have retired to the drawing room.’ He adds that this is no indication that men in Scotland at that time imbibed more than those elsewhere!
However, by 1815 or so, traditional dinner parties were less frequent and instead less formal events, similar to today’s drinks parties, were held. The large first floor double rooms of New Town houses allowed for dancing by small numbers and Elizabeth Grant describes one such party in their house in George Street. ‘It was the first season of quadrilles, and I was one of the set that brought them first into notice. We practised privately by the aid of Finlay Dunn (Number 33) who imported all the most graceful steps from Paris; and having kept our secret well, we burst upon the world at a select reunion at the White Melvilles, the Spectators standing up the chairs and sofas to admire us. People danced in those days; we did not merely stand and talk…. We were only eight as room being required for the display much smaller numbers were invited to the quadrille parties. Two, or at the most three, instruments sufficed for band, refreshments suited us better than suppers, an economy that enabled the Inviters to give three or four of these little sociable dances at less cost than one ball. My Mother gave several of these little parties so well suited to the accommodations of our house.’
Mary Erskine also shows that it was accepted for daughters, and presumably sons, to invite friends back to their house: ‘Girls had perfect liberty at that time in Edinburgh; we walked together in Princes Street, the fashionable promenade, and were joined by our dancing partners. We occasionally gave little supper parties, and presented these young men to our parents as they came in. At these meetings we played at games, danced reels, or had a little music - never cards. After supper there were toasts, sentiments, and songs. There were always one or two hot dishes, and a variety of sweet things and fruit.’
Not many Albany Street families would have had dedicated cooks. One household certainly did, although how this cook managed to negotiate the steep basement stairs that each house had is unknown: ‘A remarkable death has just taken place in the Royal Infirmary, the cause being the extraordinary fatness of the patient. The case was that of a female cook, recently employed somewhere in Albany Street, who seems to have been of gigantic dimensions altogether. She was five feet ten inches in height, thirty inches broad across the shoulders, and weighted twenty seven stone. Death was occasioned by the gradual closure of her windpipe.’ Wives in the majority of households without a cook would have been involved to some extent in preparing meals. For dinner or supper parties a cook might have been hired for the day. For especially grand entertaining there were outside caterers similar to those today who would supply everything, from the glassware to the food to the musical entertainment, and make a charge per head. ‘In the morning you would find your rooms in the same order as before,’ one satisfied hostess of the time recounted.
Women also would have been the primary managers of the servants. Ensuring work was of the required standard, acquiring and retaining honest and efficient servants, and handling relationships with the live-in servants would have taken time and skill. As few names recur from decade to decade it is clear that servants usually did not stay with one employer for more than a few years and, as many of the young replacements would have been inexperienced, they would have had to be taught the required skills. Nor would having one or two servants in an Albany Street house have relieved women of all household labour. While the back-breaking toil would have been carried out by servants, the mistress of the house would have had to coordinate the work, decide on what provisions were required, and often be directly involved in dressmaking, dealing with illness, etc. Shopping would have taken time. While this would have certainly included browsing and shopping for their own clothes, far more time must have been spent finding, ordering and buying things for their children, husbands and the home.