Virginia Woolf in Richmond by Peter Fullagar Cheryl Robson

Author:Peter Fullagar, Cheryl Robson [Peter Fullagar, Cheryl Robson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912430048
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Aurora Metro Books
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Virginia and her Servants

No one could be nicer than Nelly, for long stretches.

Diaries, 28 November 1919

From the time of Virginia’s birth in 1882 at her home in 22 Hyde Park Gate, she was surrounded not only by her family but also by numerous servants. As noted in Alison Light’s book Mrs Woolf and the Servants1, Virginia had been ‘…kept clean, fed and watered by them [servants] ever since the nursery. She woke to find the curtains drawn and jugs of water placed beside her wash-basin; her clothes – mended, laundered, brushed – were laid out for her’. This was the kind of life that Virginia was accustomed to. Sophie, or Sophia, Farrell, probably the first major servant in Virginia’s life, was the family cook from around 1886. She remained with the family, whether with the Stephens, Bells or Duckworths, for the rest of her working life. It seems that Virginia was fond of Sophie, as she was still in contact with her until at least 1939, when she is mentioned in a letter to Angelica Bell:

‘Nessa might like to see this from old Sophie.’

Letter to Angelica Bell, 2 January 1939

According to the author Alison Light, Virginia and Sophie kept up a correspondence and Virginia sent Sophie an annual pension of £10 after she retired in the 1930s2. This clearly demonstrates that Virginia held her servants in high regard. In fact, in Sketch of the Past, while she was reminiscing about Stella Duckworth:

‘Perhaps thus I think of her [Stella] less disconnectedly and more truly than anyone now living, save for Vanessa and Adrian; and perhaps old Sophie Farrell.3’

This was written in June 1939, and it is interesting that Virginia mentions Sophie in the same sentence as her two closest relatives, her surviving siblings, Vanessa and Adrian. It is quite possible that Sophie is mentioned as it is probable that she knew Stella in Virginia’s early years. Even when the couple moved into the house of Mrs le Grys on Richmond Green, Virginia would recall how Sophie kept the house respectable, ‘I believe that being curtained is a mark of respectability – Sophie used to insist upon it.’4 As a lifelong and loyal family servant, Sophie remained in Virginia’s mind, but this might not be said about the servants that were to enter the writer’s life later.

Virginia often wrote about the servants she had with her at Hogarth House. The two main servants were Nellie (Nelly) Boxall and Lottie (Lotty) Hope; lifelong friends who, according to Virginia’s diaries and letters, were often quick tempered. They came to the Woolfs from Roger Fry early in 1916:

‘I do think Richmond has great charms also, and now we have Roger’s servants, we keep clean.’

Letter to Katherine Cox, 12 February 1916

Sophie, by this time, was with the Duckworth side of the family, and came to visit Hogarth House soon after Nellie and Lottie arrived, and Virginia recorded preparations in a letter to her sister, Vanessa. According to the letter, Virginia told Nellie only good things about

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