And you wouldn't have wanted to be a "maid of all works"; they had to do everything from clering out and relighting the range every day, to scubbing floors, making beds, helping prepare food, usw. It must have been a life of unceasing drudgery.

You wouldn't want to get out of bed without the CH on either, or the maid having lit the fire in your room. We didn't have CH till I was c. 17, and I didn't whilst in students digs, but now i can't imagine getting up mid-winter without it. :-)

They discovered some archive film, in excellent condition, recently, of the Edwardian period in England - loads of it (it was shown on TV). The striking thing that the commentator pointed out was that there were hardly any "old" people on the streets. The town where I work is full of crumblies, many on elec. chariots, but back then they were all gone by retirement age. That's why I refer to the ages on the headstones in the graveyard - many only -> 55 - so tragic.

>As a woman, I can really appreciate many of the inventions since the victorian period! There are some things I love about that period, but I wouldn't want to be a woman without money (and maids and servants) during that time. :o)
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>>>>>>- The last sentence is superfluous - who she was was "Beloved Mother" and what she meant to them was "Beloved Mother" - obviously, so George is not too bright.
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>>>>>Let me think about that. Interesting thought.
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>>>>I personally thought that last sentence was a little odd myself. I didn't quite "get it".
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>>>OK. On this point I am feeling a little stubborn. It's all about tone and that's what I was trying to establish.
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>>There's a bone orchard right close to where I work, where I often have my lunch. If I'm agitated, or the grass is too wet to sit on, I often have a stroll reading the gravestones. It's never occurred to me to ask those qurestions of the headstone buyer. I'm more interested in the shortage of life back in the Victorian period (and thinking how lucky I am now not to have just a few years left, on average); how some seem to exhibit remarkable longevity for the period; how strange to see a husband and wife in the same hole, yet he was older than her and outlived her by decades - thus how did she die? from disease; how sad to see young children in the graves with their parents (haveing preceded them); how the lichen have grown on the stones; how some graves from within the last few deceades are still tended and not forgotten; usw.
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>>You see, I have some experience of musing at gravestones :-)