| Description | (2 pcs.)
Soho Novr. 24-1795
My dear Madam
I ought to have acknowledged your favr. of ye 20th by the last Box but I was obliged to go a few Miles from home & afterwards to Dine at the Lunar Meeting which put it out of my head.
I will thank you to settle wth ye Housekeeper & then tell me when she can conveniently come so we may clear the way for her, & upon that account she need not be in a great hurry to come down as I wish to clear the House a day or two before she comes. However it will be necessary for her, to fix a time so we may act in Concert.
I am determind to avoid takeing any of the subordenate Maids from Birmgm. as their Relations & connections are sure to crowd my House on Sundays & when I am absent. I therefore prefer Lincolnshire or any shire to this Neighbourhood. Dosey+ is a very good Cook & Kitty, tho ugley, a good Chambermaid, and Taberner+ a trifling foolish body, that is more likely to please a Master than a Mistress, but they are constantly quarrelling with each other & + rude to my Daughter. I am therefore determind to have a new sett for I will have peace in Israel.
The Wages of a good Houskeeper is no Object in comparison . . . the Scale of London maidens Wages may introduce bad Examples in this Latitude. The wages of Dosey our Cook in the Year 1790 was 6 Guineas per Year
in 91 6½
92 7
93 8
94 8½
95 9 Guineas per Year.
Tabernor was 8 Guineas the first Yr
9 Do. 2d
9 Do. 3d
but I intended giving her Ten in future if we had been satisfyd & had kept her.
Kitty the House maid had 6 Guineas & has only been one Year.
Harper has 25 Guineas & finds all his own Clothes.
Joseph the Coach man, has 25 Guineas per Year out of wch. he pays for his own Livery & he has a small House for his family to Live in.
I know not how these terms accord with London Prises or with Lincolnshire, but if you can send me either a good Kitchen Maid or a good House maid, anywhere near the aformentiond terms, I should be glad: but I must own I should prefer, for a House Maid, Lincolnshire to Middlesex.-Now I have shewn you a specimen of my knowledge in Houswifery I will thank you to tell me what are the average of City Wages for such sorts of Servts: what are those of Berkley Square & what are those of Croyden or Epsom and after all I submit my self to your superior Judgment as I am perswaded you know my wants better than I do my self. |