Christmas at the big house

The festive season was also the time when the landed gentry remembered their servants and those who worked on their estates. It has been a tradition in England since the earliest times to relax the disciplines needed to administer the mansions and country houses and to allow a little merrymaking among those who kept them running and in good order.

In 1866, for instance, there were festivities at Bulby Hall, near Bourne, as reported by the Stamford Mercury:

The Hon Gilbert Heathcote MP, with his usual liberality, gave his servants and their friends a ball. Nearly 100 enjoyed themselves, the strains of Mr Wells' band and the refreshments being much appreciated. 

At nearby Grimsthorpe Castle, as befitted a grander house, the celebrations were far more elaborate when their party was held on New Year's Day in 1867:

A ball was given by Lord Willoughby de Eresby to the servants and employees on the estate. Nearly 200 assembled about nine o'clock in the great hall which had been magnificently decorated by Mr McVicar, the head gardener. Amongst the decorations worthy of notice were a single branch of mistletoe seven feet high and twenty feet in circumference (this is a very uncommon size), the flags of the Lincolnshire Volunteers of the olden time when they were commanded by the Duke of Ancaster; and the ensigns and flag  belonging to his Lordship's yacht. The band of Mr Wells, of Stamford, attended. After a few preliminary dances, the guests adjourned to an excellent supper. His Lordship's health was drunk with an enthusiasm well worthy of the place and the occasion. After supper, the dancing, interspersed with one or two well-sung songs, was kept up till six o'clock, the visitors at the Castle entering into the evening's festivities.

Some of the gentry were also aware of the impoverishment that existed in the countryside as this report from the Stamford Mercury on Christmas Eve, Friday 24th December 1880, illustrates:

The Rev Henry Prior, Vicar of Baston, has received £5 from Lady Willoughby de Eresby to be expended in coals for the poor of Baston. Miss Bothamley, of Pelham House, Kingston-on-Thames, has also sent the vicar £1 10s. for the same object.

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