We went to Audley End! We met Katie there, and her mum Chris, and then Tilly went back to Katie’s for a sleepover. We met Grace and her sisters, Eve and Anne, and I showed them the dairy and the laundry. We all went inside the house apart from Grace and her sisters, who were just a minute too late! In the house it was absolutely ginormous – so big that I nearly lost Mummy in its huge rooms once! There was a big bed reserved for the King and the Queen, but no matter how much it was designed, the King got ill and the Queen never came! In every room, I was looking for a clock, after my obsession with them! There were some grandfather ones, little mantle ones, all sorts of ones. But they were all very pretty!
After the house, Grace, Eve, Anne and I went to the laundry and the dairy, where the maids and the servants would have cooked the butter and washed the clothing. First, we all went in there and pretended that the King and Queen were actually coming to stay in the house, and that Princess Catherine (who we completely made up) needed her cardigans washed. The King needed his pillowcases scrubbed, and the Queen’s sheet had got dirty. Prince Marcus (who is also make-believe) needed to have his white underclothes designed freshly, and ironed, and his waistcoat had had roast dinner spilt down it. The way to do it was this:
- Take up the laundry basket with everyone’s washing in it and place it on the floor in the second room in the laundry.
- Take one sheet from the basket and scrub it up-and-down, spread out, on the scrubbing board. Pour in hot water.
- Take the sheet and place it in the huge wooden box in the middle of the room. Take a paddle and circle on sheet.
- Scrub, spread out, on the scrubbing board left-to-right. Pour water in to wet the sheet and the wood.
- Repeat Step 4 with palm soap and water. Repeat Step 5 with double palm soap and water.
- Push laundry into big bath in the corner of the room. Pour in hot water. Put lid on and wait to soak for 5 mins.
- Go into first room in the laundry and lay it on the big wheel thing. Push the wheel (but be careful, for it will only go so far).
- Wrap a cloth round the handle of a hot iron on the iron-heating oven. Take to your sheet. Iron for 5 mins.
- Hang on line to dry (for still quite wet). Repeat until laundry basket empty.
That was how you did it! I was Ellen, Annie was Annie (for Annie was a popular name in those times), Grace was Katie, and Eve was Ruth. Then we would say, “Come, our shift is over. Let us cook a butter fountain for the royal feast later, and let us cook the most marvellous cheese bake. Come, the King is here in the litter with Her Majesty the Queen!” and then we take off our aprons and say bye to those people saying we should work at the English Heritage, and skip off to the dairy.
The dairy is a very large room with a long table in the middle, and very long tables going right round the edge, to the left of the door to the right. On the long table were some tools from those times, little cutters and so-and-so, and then there were two chopping boards on either end, and a large space of table with no tools to bake on; and then right in the middle was a large bowl. On the very long tables from the left of the door to the third corner of the room were the same bowls, about fifty of them. Then from the third corner of the room to the forth were little empty black jugs. We pretended in the first, second, and third were medicine, herbs and spices; and in the fourth was milk, the fifth sugar, and the sixth butter-mix. The milkman, sugarman, butterman, and doctor all came round and filled our pots and jugs. Then we made the butter for the butter fountain and the cheese for the cheese bake, and more pastry and butter to make a castle, and butter domes for butter turrets. It was very fine.
“Now, Katie, please could you pass me the milk?”
“Ah yes, Ellen, here. My, those turrets are lovely! Did you use the lotus churn?”
“Yes, I found some spare in the pantry. Smell it!”
“That is peculiar! Do you mind if I use your recipe? It’s rather lovely, do you know.”
“No, no, go ahead! I do not mind at all. Ruth, could you pass the sugar, please?”
“Of course, I’d be glad to. Spend it wisely!”
“I will. Oh look, the sugarman has come to top up already! He must know ’tis the royal feast tonight.”
“Alrigh’, Miss Annie, how yer doin’? Just came to deliver some sugar an’ all.”
“I’m doing great, thank you. Oh, a new jug! Yes, yes, perfect.”
“Eh, Miss Ellen, what yer doin’ with that sugar? Would’ve thought you knew not to use too much, for the King’s appetite.”
“I’m – I’m dreadfully sorry, Mr Sugarman, I only heard the Queen liked the sweet, and all. Well, be off, Sugarman, we need to prepare.”
“Well well, I’m sorry! Bargin’ in an’ all. Goodbye. Milkman’s on his way, by far.”
Then Tilly and Katie came along, and we all went to the adventure playground. It was really fun! There we played an invading game, and they had a wooden horse and cart, and I sat on the box and the horse and the cart, and patted his flanks, and stroked his neck; and everything was joyous. I’m really excited to go again!
