The nanny would be paid about 25 pounds a year to wash, dress and watch over them, amuse them, dose them, take them out and teach them how to behave. In the evening, clean and tidy the children were allowed downstairs for an hour before they went to bed. Some mothers taught their children to read and write and sometimes fathers taught their sons Latin. As the children got older, tutors were often employed and boys were sometimes sent away to school. When the children grew up, only boys were expected to work, the daughters stayed at home with their mother. They were expected only to marry as soon as possible. Women, who didn't marry early in life, might not be able to marry at all. Dates of the time were usually always supervised, and most typically, women were not allowed to be alone with a man until they were engaged. She was never allowed to go anywhere alone with a man without her mother's permission.
Then there were the servants, the servants lived with the house hold. All households except the very poorest had servants to do their day to day work. The cook and butler were the most important. The butler answered the front door and waited on the family. The cook was responsible for shopping for food and running the kitchen, he would often be helped by kitchen and scullery maids. Housemaids cleaned the rooms and footmen would do the heavy work. A clean, well-organized house was important. Sadly little of the servants were respected, or treated fairly.
VICTORIANS LOVED LACE, and the elegant furnishings, clothing, and accessories. Furniture was usually made in the darkest woods available. Much of the furniture was monumental in effect, and decorated with carving in high relief: flowers, fruit, animals, fabulous creatures and human figures. The Victorian houses had lots of dark crimsons, lots of fabrics and wallpaper, grained and varnished woodwork. There was lots of velvet, serge or damask curtains trimmed with ball fringes and tassels, and heavy flock wallpapers in deep red, dark green or blue, covered with exaggerated damask patterns and almost hidden by large realistic paintings in wide frames.
