10.3: Authority: experimenting with domestic staff

Journal: 2nd July 1956.

It seems that I now have a couple to look after me at Longleat once again. I forget if I mentioned in my journal how Mr & Mrs Carter had finally departed, although they are still living in Horningsham of course. Then the plans for some Austrian lady to take their place fell through, for no specific reason. She must have received an offer which sounded better. Or it could be that she received ill reports upon myself, although I can't think from whom - unless it was Dad! But Algar has finally come up with a replacement, and they were moving into a room on this floor, but round at the back of the house. This was on the same day that I returned from the Crawley weekend - that is to say on Sunday. They are Mr & Mrs Halliday. Seeing that the Carters were always sleeping back at their own house in Horningsham, this will be the first occasion that I've had a live-in couple.

My first impressions of the Hallidays is satisfactory. In point of fact it will only be she who is actually working for me, whilst he gets employed in some other job for the estate. She is really quite young and attractive.

There was a meeting of the Lord Weymouth School Council on Monday morning. All terribly dull. Macdonald managed to raise his own salary, without the rest of us voicing strong enough protests, perhaps.

Journal: 22nd August 1956.

I am really quite content with the situation of having Mrs Halliday as my cook/housekeeper here at Longleat, despite Algar predicting that she has no intention of remaining with me for very long. He obtains this information (quite iniquitously) from her Bank Manager in Warminster. Apparently Mr Halliday went to open an account there, and declared that they wouldn't be staying here for long. But I do need to appreciate how that might simply mean that he himself intends to depart. That leaves open the possibility that Mrs H might remain at Longleat without himself. And inasmuch that she is really quite attractive, that might suit me quite well! Not that I envisage a relationship of greater sexual intimacy evolving. But it might be pleasant to savour a nuance of all that, within the household that I shall be creating for myself.

At this present moment, I don't feel as if I've worked out the correct relationship for myself within this kind of household - my problem being that the situation is so different to anything that the residents of Longleat might previously have experienced, that I have no precedents to examine. The entire social system has been in upheaval since the war, and it's only just beginning to settle. I must discern my own rules and explore my own relationships.

Mrs Halliday is quite a timid creature - anxious to please, but without an inkling of what the standards of a stately home might demand. I'm sure she finds me a gentle and tolerant employer. She broke a valuable vase the other day, and I comforted her with the words that these things were bound to happen from time to time. But I like her - which is the main thing. I'll be very happy if she remains with me for a long time.

It's odd to have someone (whom I barely know) dwelling
as well as myself in the same apartments - someone
who's come to do my bidding (within reason)
if I'm pleased to ask her to cook, fetch or clean.
It's been a new manner of relationship -
slipping back towards master and slave, but now
founded on assumptions of egalitarian rights,
which might curtail such abuse of her human dignity.
Figuring out our respective positions is a task
we ask of each other - though in some respects I'd prefer it
if word came down to us from authority (no longer extant)
on correct deportment within evolving society.
It's all so different from times of old,
with new requirements which don't fit the mould.

Journal: 30th September 1956.

So The Hallidays have finally given in their notice - as indeed Algar was predicting. The reason she gave was that it's too lonely, living out here at Longleat - a full mile from the village, and three miles from the nearest shopping town. Her preference would be to find a post where she can be working with her husband. They'll be moving out after I've gone to Paris, which gives me plenty of time to find her replacement.

I have in fact already interviewed one lady, although it wasn't much of a success. I made the error of conducting the interview myself, without asking Algar to be present. Her name was Miss Cooper, and she looked a bit too peroxide blond and brash for my liking. Nor could I feel at ease in her presence. It was an absurd situation, with me sitting there on the edge of my chair while finding that I simply didn't know the questions that (as a potential employer) I was expected to be asking her. In fact there came a point when I shifted nervously within my chair, and enquired what questions she might usually be asked on these occasions - in response to which she led me through the routine she expected of me. And we ended up talking about my paintings, which were stood up around the drawing room. But I think by this time we both realized that this was an unconventional interview, and that we weren't really finding out the things that we needed to know about one another.

I then sent her into the kitchen with a suggestion that she enquire from Mrs Halliday concerning the duties which she would have to fulfil. And I imagine that Mrs H would have given me a very nice reference. But I didn't get too good a reference on Miss Cooper, when I phoned to ask one of the Christie-Miller family, where she had been working briefly it seems. (I got told that she's all right, but that I would probably find that she wouldn't remain for very long.) That manner of situation never arose however, in that for whatever reason, Miss Cooper phoned Algar a couple of days later to say that she had accepted another post. And the truth of the matter is that I felt enormously relieved. I really couldn't see the two of us establishing the right sort of relationship between us. But it does mean that the post remains vacant at this point in time when I shall be leaving for Paris. Not that this matters. I feel sure that Algar will make a better job of interviewing applicants than myself!