Photo by SeaReeds on pixabay
Up before the family stirs, rooms to clean, beds to turn, slops to empty, floors to wipe, rugs to lift and outside shake, grates and irons to clean, fires to lay in hearths and stoves, doors to answer, gloves to take… and you suppose I’ve time to lollygag with you? No, best you take your flowers and court a shop-girl.
60 words written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt
I love that second doll’s face. She looks so pissed off!
crispina kemp 
Sounds like the life of a single mother! Excellent use of the prompt!
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Thanks. There are the real dutires of a Victorian lady’s maid.
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Ah ha! So right you are!
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🙂
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Well done. I have seen that prompt and haven’t really thought of anything. I did use lollygag, or lollygagging to be precise, in the penultimate chapter of The Sky-Pirates of Durn. I was rather pleased to be able to use it at the time.
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I confess, it’s not a word in my vocabulary. Therefore I looked it up… and discovered it’s Victorian origins.
Then I looked more carefully at it. To loll… yea, I know that word. Don’t loll on that chair, my mother used to say. And gag… we might think of as the gag reflex, yet it is an Old Norse word meaning to throw back one’s head and laugh. Put the too together… does that tug at the inspiration roots?
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What a perfect image you have chosen for your delightful take on the prompt. The one that looks pissed off is the maid taking care of that precious and rich girl who can lollygag all she wants!
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Glad you noticed. I scrolled through loads of images looking for something even halfway right. And then I came upon this one. Perfect. 🙂
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Well ya done succeeded!!
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Thanks Dale 🙂
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A fun word, and your maid’s indignation and attitude shine through. 🙂
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Thank you 🙂
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Hey Happy New Year! I am late, I know but never mind! This looks like a very difficult life. Nicely written 😊
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It was, but now it’s more or less a thing of the past, certainly in this form.
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Yes. It is. But something of this kind of life is lived by many women I know.. not really good.
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And I think we’re all aware of that, but prefer to salve our minds by saying no. We ought not… but then… what?
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& Happy New Year in return… 🙂
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I get this image of a Victorian housekeeper when I read this!
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Victorian is right, but unless it’s a small household, the housekeeper was the number one boss, top of the heirarchy, and would have delegated all and every chore that dirtied her hands. However, in a small household, you’re quite right, for the housekeeper would have doubled as every kind of maid, and cook.
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Oh wow! I didn’t know the titles. I should have, though – I read “Remains of the Day” which was so proper, so I should have remembered.
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I watch a lot of period drama, not that they always get it right.
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My mom loves Larkrise to Candleford. I can sit through an episode or two if I need to, but I think I’d need to start from the beginning to really “get” it.
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I don’t have tv, but I binge-watched this when I found it on YouTube. Likewise, Upstairs Downstairs, which was on tv late 1970s/early 1980s… I think.
And I’ve just treated myself to the full 52 episodes of Downton Abbey. Indigestion imminent 🙂
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