[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The writers of the
letters in answer to mine on Domestic Service as a Profession for Gentlewomen all seem to agree that
'training is necessary for this work, but at the same time protest strongly against the foundation of a college for the purpose. They advocate the home as the proper training centre. By all means let the girls learn at home, but under modern conditions is this always possible, and more important still, is it done ? I wonder how many mothers, who are lucky enough to have good contented servants, would dare to suggest even that their daughters should go into the kitchen and try their hand at cooking, or how many " hard-worked Mistresses and Mothers " have the time, inclination or patience to instruct untrained girls in the art of sweeping and dusting. Don't they find it far less trouble to do the work themselves ? Again, do parents make the best teachers for their own children ?
The answer to my second point, " are girls taught domestic work in their own homes " must, I fear, be in the negative.
The old saying, " Good Mistresses make good Servants " still
holds good and the present day scarcity of the latter is, to a great degree, due to the inefficiency of the former. In many
homes, I fear, ignorance reigns supreme in the drawing-room, as well as in the kitchen. Surely if girls were taught in their homes this would not be the condition of affairs. I therefore , strongly advocate the starting of a simple practical school for girls who wish to learn housecraft and whose homes cannot provide suitable training. I should like to state that my idea of a suitable training centre would not be a highly-equipped building standing in its own pleasure grounds, but rather, especially to start with, a moderate sized modern house with ordinary household appliances in which the students would reside and of which they, under the supervision of trained teachers, would do the entire work.
! The ordinary course would take three months and would consist of nearly all practical work—a certificate of efficiency being given at the end of the training. I venture to think that girls trained under these conditions would gain greater knowledge and interest and think more highly of their profes- sions than those who learnt at home promiscuously and without the competition of fellow-students. In these days a worker without a recognized training has very little market value. This, I think, is another important point in favour of domestic training schools, especially for those who wish to take up domestic work for a livelihood and as a profession.—I am, Sir,
&c., (Mrs.) DOROTRY LATIIBURY.
Maesllan, Barnwuth, N. Wales.
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