Lady Cowder (which I always read as 'Chowder') is always asking for things like 'a morsel of fish and a light sweet' which Kate has learned to interpret as a desire for 'Dover sole with shrimp sauce, Avergne potato puree, mushrooms with tarragon and a portion of braised celery--followed by a chocolate souffle or, by way of a change, creme caramel.' She has an enormous appetite while telling everyone she can only eat like a bird. Lady Cowder has a lively sense of Victorian paternalism toward her servants. When Kate tells her that she will be late back from her day off, Lady Cowder replies, 'I hope you don't intend to stay out all night, Kate. That's something I'd feel bound to forbid.' Forbid? Wow. I completely agree that single ladies shouldn't be having sleepovers at Brighton, but the thought of such a paternalistic employee boggles the mind.
When Mr. Tait-Bouverie finds out that Kate is saving up her money he asks if she's saving it for her 'bottom drawer'. Her reply: 'Heavens, no. Girls don't have bottom drawers nowadays.' I found this reference on the term (which I had never heard before, but had deduced its meaning):
A place where valuables are stored, especially the clothes, linen, etc., that a woman might store in preparation for her marriage. Literally, the lowest drawer of a chest of drawers....It is odd that the similar phrase 'top drawer', which refers to items of the best quality and which also derives from a literal reference to the drawer of a cabinet, should be otherwise unrelated to 'bottom drawer'. We might imagine that if 'top drawer' is the best, then 'bottom drawer' would be the worst. It's not so, which amply demonstrates the difference between the literal and the metaphorical.
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| There doesn't seem to be enough room left for a modicum of undies. |
Back in my day (and my region) girls didn't have 'bottom drawers' - lucky girls had 'hope chests'. I was not a lucky girl. Betty Marcy had the dubious honor of being the only Hanna Betty to have her very own hope chest. I was amused by the wiki article about hope chests - also know as a 'glory box' in the UK and Australia. I'd love to hear from someone who had a glory box...or who knew someone who did.
Lady Cowder tells Kate that she envies her health and youth (as a pretext for leaving her with all the cooking and unpacking right after their return from Norway). I am totally pulling that one on Betty Keira the next time we go on vacation together!
Kate (and La Neels?) observed, 'Seventy wasn't all that old...' The Great Betty was around 87ish when this was published, so to her, seventy really wasn't that old.
Dunno, but 83 is getting younger all the time, and not just because my perspective has changed as I age. ;-) My oldest surviving sister is 62 and still gets on the floor and crawls around with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. At a similar age my grandmother considered herself to be waiting to die. People just don't behave as "old" as they once did. We expect to be more active and to keep all our "buttons" so to speak.
ReplyDeleteAnd, check with Social Security if you want to verify that people are living longer. Lots and lots of today's 83 year olds have many contemporaries, and their tribe will increase as we Boomers swell their numbers.
But back to the book...I wanted to shake Lady Cowder and smack anyone who kowtowed to her! I hate petty tyranny. :)
Losing 100 pounds (or $100, or even the current pounds to dollars equivalent) is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but would it really make or break starting a small business? Of course, it was 100 hard-earned pounds...
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I'll admit, despite 4-month long visits to the UK in 1971, 1976, 1980, and 2006 (with shorter visits sprinkled in between), I don't believe I've ever heard the expression "bottom drawer" in that context. Or "glory box," which Chambers reckons is only used in Australia and New Zealand (which I visited in 1987, but only for a few weeks).
ReplyDeleteBetty Barbara here--
ReplyDeleteI knew plenty of girls my age who had Hope Chests. Specifically,Lane Cedar lined chests. Unlike the hope chests of our grandmothers, they were not filled with numerous handmade quilts, but rather were filled with a little bit of this and that-especially family heirloom stuff, handed down from Granny and Great Aunt Ruby.
I did not have one, nor did my mother. My father's mother did have one.
'glory box' is my new favorite expression.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading 'Heavens, no. Girls don't have bottom drawers nowadays.' my sarcastic brain said'Good Girls Do!' Even if they calling them thongs...
ReplyDeleteBetty Kiera, I'd careful about saying any phrase that ended in box, unless I absolutely knew what was in it.
And I always coveted the Hope Chests that my other friends got for their 16th birthdays. My mom had a very old falling apart piece she called her Cedar Chest. We were forbidden to look at the contents. And being a good little girl, I only tried once. Years later when I discovered Prof. Vue der Plane did woodworking, I requested one. I'm still Hope-Chest-Less. (He did make me a hutch/china cabinet, so I still love him.)
I'm with you, BettyMary - that "box" thing is DANE. JER. US. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have a lovely hope chest. A gift from my then-boyfriend when he wanted instead to buy me an engagement ring. Good thing I married him. I'd have had to leave it behind if I'd married someone else. :)
It holds our board games now, for lack of a better place to store them.
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I had a metaphorical hope chest growing up... it was the promise of inheriting my grandmother's pre-war china, crystal and silver (we have wondered for years pre which war?). I did inherit it several years before I married, and my mother kept it in the garage for the interim. It was ignominiously housed (but well packed) in a cardboard box, symbolically referred to as a "china barrel." I remember folks couldn't understand why I didn't register for china for my wedding. 21 years later, we still use it very regularly, and with fond rememberences of Grandmother. Luckily, it is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt was receiving a set of dishes from my grandmother's home that made me want a hope chest so badly.
ReplyDeleteMy dishes weren't her best ones - my aunt kept those and I presume my childless, bachelor cousin has them now. I sincerely doubt he uses them regularly, or ever.
The set I got are from the Depression Era - "Dish Night at the Movies," which her large family collected well, giving her a complete service for 12. It's an Edwin Knowles pattern with a snowy farm, very pink and brown on creamy plates. I love it, and it sets a very pretty table. A complete place setting disappeared over the years, and some of the serving pieces are gone. Replacements are rather pricey - seems Dish Night things are very collectible.
:)
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There are so few movies that I want to go to a theater to see anymore that I can't help but think that bringing back 'dish night' would help. What a great set you must have!
ReplyDeleteHi Bettys, I had a glory box before I was married back in 1970 Australia. Yes that is what they were called and you filled it with things you would need to set up house once you got married. Of course its so long ago I don't even remember what was in it but these days girls may still do a similar thing but not sure to what extent. I enjoyed this book, I have the whole collection reading through them all, so I'm up to this one now. I don't even think I had read it before and I've had it for quite a long time. Still its nice to discover a novel not read before and obviously there to be enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have a hope chest, per se, but once I started working--while still living at home with my parents--I would use part of each paycheck to buy something that I'd need for my first apartment. By the time I did move out, I had almost everything I needed! I'm still unmarried (at 29, making me identify with a lot of Betty's older heroines), but when I do get married I won't have much to register for!
ReplyDeleteGood for you, iowagirl11. I had a large hope chest (cardboard box that slid under my bed). I did the same thing. I know I started collecting things in high school. I am still using my plain white Corelle dishes and also my Corning Ware. I can't remember the Corning Ware pattern, but it has 1975 for the copyright. Ha! Oh, and my original cookware! We still use the glasses we received as wedding gifts too. We're working on 29 years now, so obviously my cardboard box hope chest items were money well spent.
ReplyDeleteBetty AnoninTX
I did not have a hope chest or bottom drawer, but when I was little it was customary for parents to start collecting a nice set of flatware (silver plated in my case) and other things for girls that they would need later on when they left to get married or live in a place of their own. So birthday gifts and Christmas gifts from friends and family would include knives and forks and spoons and so forth, linen (towels, table-linen...). No wonder we did not have an over-abundance of toys like kids these days! And quite often, when none of these hope-chest-type gifts were given, next to a little toy, a set of underwear was a popular gift. Ha!
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