The scullery maid

An earlier depiction of a scullery maid, this Medici post card is of a painting at Glasgow University by the 18th century artist Jean Siméon Chardin.

A scullery maid, even at the beginning of the 20th century, would have had some of the hardest physical work in any Chateau. Her main job would be to clean the pots and pans, and then she would move on to the cutlery.

Perhaps she would not be the brightest spark in the household. Perhaps she would be a good and conscientious worker. Perhaps she would rise up the household ranks to become a junior maid, or a sous-chef to help the maître cuisiniere of the Chateau. Regardless of her capacity for work, or her ambition, all would be nought with the onslaught of relentless shelling on the Maginot Line during the battle of the Somme.

I feel a certain empathy for the scullery maid, as I’ve spent some time in a café (our own café, as it turned out) on washing-up duty, accumulating the dirty dishes, rinsing and stacking them in the commercial dishwasher, lifting the cleans out and replacing, over and over.

I have no idea how I’d react, however, were our café, our home, to be overrun by battle. I’d hope I’d escape, with my loved ones. Without them to be a kind of responsibility, I’d be at my wit’s end thinking how I might possibly survive.