Servants

There are a few extra faces in today's page, but pay them no attention. They are nameless NPCs. I'm afraid that the Stanhopes are too important to open their own doors and pour their own tea. And that is fairly typical.

Good families of the 18th century had quite a lot of servants. A number of people had to work very hard to keep a few in luxury. Even families that were not so well off had a few servants. The servant class are considered unimportant and are rarely mentioned in detail, but they are omnipresent despite not having speaking lines.

-In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennets had a cook and a housekeeper, and since they had a coach I presume they had a groom and perhaps a footman, but these are never mentioned.

-A man of Mr. Darcy's importance would have had someone in almost constant attendance. At the very least, a valet would have travelled with him to attend to his clothes and his person. Yet the only servant who makes an appearance is his housekeeper, when Elizabeth visits Pemberly, Darcy's home estate.

-In Sense and Sensibility, the Dashwoods move to Barton Cottage in what they perceive as intolerable hardship, yet they take a couple servants with them, cooking and chopping firewood being beneath them.

-In Peter Pan, the Darling parents were poor but pretentious, so they had only one servant, but referred to her in the plural sense.