Note 981 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Ibid. i. p. 145. Mrs. Pepys assisted Lady Sandwich to find a French maid (Diary, Nov. 15, 1660), and was herself very desirous of one.
The prejudiced Rutledge writes nearly a century later: "As the lower classes of the French are so completely qualified for Domestics, it is not surprising that such numerous colonies of French valets de chambre, cooks and footmen are planted all over Europe: and that the nobility and fashionable people of so many countries shew an avowed Propensity to Prefer them even to their fellow natives" (Account of the Character and Manners of the French, 1770, pt. ii. p. 172).