How different all of this seemed when compared to his Lordship's day. Being engrossed with the day to day running of the estate (farms, tenants, etc), the Lord has an estate manager to help him, as well as being in contact with solicitors and accountants every day. Also, his Lordship may be in Parliament and sit in the House of Lords, plus he may act locally as a Justice of the Peace. A very busy day but a 'clean' one.
Again, how different her Ladyship's day is to the scullery maid. The Lady has to organize the house, how it is run, although she entrusts a great deal to the housekeeper. If she is a mother, the Lady will have to allocate times in which to see her children, leaving them in the care of a nanny for most of the day. The Lady spends a large part of her morning in meetings with the housekeeper and the cook (separately, of course) and then moves on to her own personal activities --- charitable works, dress-fittings, visiting and keeping up with her considerable correspondence. Busy enough but totally different to the scullery maid's day.
The young master (the son), who is the heir, would be sent to Oxford (for example) and when home, 'learn the family estate'.
For the young lady (daughter) life could become tedious. In the series, lady Edith doesn't know what to do with her time, so much so that her grandmother tells her :"Edith, you are a young woman with reasonable ability, stop wining and find something to do!" I'll bet the parlour maid wouldn't mind having just one day like that.
So here we have the two very different classes or roles. One who worked all hours, doing all sorts of jobs for 'pay'. The other having a much slower life but doing, possibly, what they wanted to do.
I wonder who was the happiest ?
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