HENRY VIII.’S LAUNDRESS

Evening Star, Issue 20990, 2 January 1932, Page 2

HENRY VIII.’S LAUNDRESS

DOMESTIC ARCHIVES OF OUR ROYAL HOUSES The domestic archives of our Royal houses of the past often provide much more interesting reading than the wars and outside happenings to be found chronicled in histories for youthful readers. For instance, it is of interest ot know that, though “ Bluff King Hal ” kept a watchful eye on the household accounts of his palaces of Whitehall and Windsor, and had fits of economy, he was. on the whole, a generous employer, as is proved by his dealings with Jane Potter, laundress to His Majesty. _ To her was entrusted the care of the linen for the Royal tables. It comprised 28 long breakfast cloths, as many short ones (the short ones being 3yds long), 28 hand towels, and 12 dozen napkins. Each week Jane took to the palace, freshly laundered and sweet-smelling from the powders and herbs with which she laid them away,, seven short and seven long breakfast cloths, eight towels, and three dozen napkins. Ten pounds a year was her regular stipend, in those days that meant more than now. but Jane found £lO a small sum when she had to buy the wood for her heating fires and the soap and was forced to gather or purchase the herbs for her linen chests. On various occasions, therefore, Jane paid private visits to the King’s treasurer and begged a penny for this or a shilling for that. When at the end of the year the accounts were totalled it was discovered that Jane, who was to have only £lO, had consumed eighteen. Thereupon the King, moved by who knows Avhat feeling of compassion,

raised her pay to £2O a year, but instructed the treasurer to turn a deaf ear to her pleadings for driblets of money. In the venerable volume which has preserved the kitchen secrets of “ Bluff King there are also specific directions for the duties of every menial of the court. In a fit of household economy the Monarch decided how many candles should bo used about the palace. His Majesty’s bed chamber managed with a modest supply of eight candles, and the Royal household sojourned at Whitehall and the Privy Chamber with nine. The Queen’s withdrawing room, however, had a generous mention of seventy-four for the same length of tir\ The privy gallery leading to the park received twenty, while fifty was the lump apportionment for the great bed-chamber, the little bed-cham-ber, the little closet, the Queen’s dressing room, and the head of the stairs.