Diary of a Victorian Cat

The following extracts are taken from a Victorian mothers diary.

 Thursday June 6th

We have had to hire a new upstairs maid because the last one, ungrateful prentice, departed suddenly and with no explanation at all two weeks ago. Letitia intervieewed some ten girls before she chose Carrie, who had previously been employed in the home of Lady Murdstone.

Carrie appears to be neat and willing and respectful, but her expression does seem to me sullen. Ah me, how deplorable I find domestic problems.

Tuesday 22nd October

Having heard for many years the music halls were wicked places, I recently asked Handley if he had ever attended one.Oh yes, indeed! he had said(I could see he wanted to be looked upon as a man of the world in spite of his tender years)

He remarked, to my surprise, that what one saw on stage of a music hall was rarely wicked and rarely entertaining. Apart from a handful of artists who had a real talent to make one laugh or enthrall one with their singing, most of the performers, Handley said , were rather pitiful. I could not refrain from laughing as he described a pair of wlderley women canaries (as he called them) often under the influence of gin, who are known as, 'The Siamese Twins' and sing a song that goes "Oh how I love Siam, from there is where I am, my name is Ko-mai-tin, and I am a Siamese twin."

Saturday 25th May

My visits to the greenhouse are not very serious. They are prompted by my wish to make the gardener aware that I do occasionally inspect the results of his work, though the churlish man has proven on the whole to be fairly reliable.

Today I found most of the plants looking a bit starved; the fuschia and geraniums looked to me unusually leggy and a trifle neglected. I had to tie up one pot of Lilies which were in grave danger of over balancing.

Arthue is quite endearing in the greenhouse, he pretends to be repotting some nameless plant, and all he does is cover himself in dirt until he looks like a moor. 

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