A SIMPLER LIFE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.1
SIR,—In what class of English society is household work thought " almost indecent" ? " N. Z." (Spectator, August 16th) can scarcely have visited England of late years. Will you allow me space to draw a different picture of life here ? In my own home the servant problem has long ago been solved in the manner suggested by your correspondent. The master of the house is butler, baker, and gardener, while his feminine belongings are cook and housemaid ; and this is not from necessity, but from choice. Visitors, though few, are possible, and a lively interest is maintained in the world beyond. Nor are we exceptions. Not far from this two other houses, also middle-class, are run on precisely the same lines, and to the daughters of at least two wealthy houses of my acquaintance no labour comes amiss in the illness or absence of their servants. That English domestic affairs were thirty years ago in the state described by " N. Z." no one can deny, but to say that they have continued thus is surely an exaggeration.
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