I'm not the greatest fan of period costumes - I prefer something contemporary. However, reality is that there was a time when young ladies who found work as servants could probably expect to be dealt with severely if they committed a major transgression.
If the master of the house was made aware that one of the young wenches below stairs had been caught stealing, it would probably have been seen by everyone including the girl herself, as an act of charity if, instead of hauling her off to the constabulary, he thrashed her bare buttocks with a sturdy leather belt and sent her to bed without anything to eat.
If the master of the house was made aware that one of the young wenches below stairs had been caught stealing, it would probably have been seen by everyone including the girl herself, as an act of charity if, instead of hauling her off to the constabulary, he thrashed her bare buttocks with a sturdy leather belt and sent her to bed without anything to eat.
3 comments:
I'm pleased to see the chastised young lady is reading her Bible after her punishment. This is something all servants should be encouraged to do.
Old Tom
Cecily had made it sound like such fun!
“When we go to the estate in Eaton you can pretend to be my maid, Abigail,” she said, giggling at the naughtiness of it. “Maids have so much more fun than ladies. Plus Papa never lets me go anywhere with my friends. If I tell him I’m going to town with my MAID, though, he think it’s one of those awful snoopy servant girls who report back to him every tiny thing I do wrong for a piece of chocolate, or so he won’t give them a good thrashing, lazy bitches that they are!”
“Really, Cecily, language!”
“You are such a stick-in-the-mud,” Cecilia sighed. “This is why we need to do this. So we can have FUN! The other servants won’t know you, and Papa never remembers any of my friends. Oh, please, please PLEASE!”
Dressing up as a maid had been fun, and working on her cockney accent had been fun, and her first morning with Cecilia had been fun. But then Cecily's father had been called back to London by the Queen for a special session of parliament, and he took Cecilia with him, leaving poor “Abby” alone with Smithers, the unctuous butler who had been eyeing the new serving girl with a disapproving eye all morning.
How was Abigail supposed to know how to clean a stove, or polish silver, or can fruits? Smithers was not amused.
He had thrashed her in the grand entrance hallway, with all the servants gathered around as to profit for the example. He had stripped her quite naked, much to the amusement of the other servants, particularly the awful lads who lived out in the stable. With each crack of the strap Abby broke position, jumped up, and rubbed her bottom. The leering men and tittering maids saw everything Abby had.
Her thrashing complete, Abby was sent to her room for the night, without food or water, for silent contemplation of the Good Book. So embarrassed was she that she didn’t even bother to grab her clothes as she ran toward the basement stairs, and had stopped only when Mrs. Porter screamed “Bonnet! Serving girls always wear their bonnets!”
Abby ran back, and grabbed her bonnet, and a single black stocking that got caught up with it. Not bothering with other clothes the sobbing, mortified serving girl darted naked past the giggling girls and smiling stable hands as she struggled to put on her bonnet, her breasts and bottom cheeks jiggling with every step. Poor little Abby ran naked down the hall wearing her bonnet…and nothing else!
Now she had to memorize an entire verse of the Bible before breakfast, or face the birch. Rubbing her scorched bottom Abby the penitent serving girl prayed that Cecilia and her father would return from London soon!
"Thrashed her bare buttocks with a sturdy belt" - I so would approve, James. And that is still the chastisement received by a bunch of daughters in Georgia right now. Spanking is an enduring part of Southern family culture and values. At age 60 already, I've seen it all my life. It is part of Southern culture, Thank The Lord.
I raised my two young daughters back in the day, with the same with strict, loving and traditional methods. I never used a belt, but the "botty smacker" was a thin, flexible, rattan cane that gotten kept in the cupboard. For sure they gotten it on their bare buttocks - that was automatic & normal in my book and goes without saying. Spanking over clothes does not make sense.
I learned from my own mother in my strict, Christian childhood in the 1960s that a whippin' is not a whippin' unless it's hard on a bare ass already !! Oh my ! No wishy-washy half-measures required. I did not cane my girls naked like this photo, they were just in their clothes already, but their lil' dresses gotten hoisted & their lil' panties always gotten pulled down to knees in the living room for a mother's chastisement for sure.
On a bare bum the message gotten through - it was harmless but most salutary !
Regards and thanks.
Brenda xx
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