Pastimes: Master and Servant ; the Lives of William Shenstone's Servants Are As Fascinating As Their Master's, Writes Chris Upton

Summary

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History is rather like a fishing net. It catches the great and the good, but lets through the rest, who swim off into oblivion and obscurity.

It's a sad, but generally irreversible state of affairs. We often know much about the owner of some stately house, but what do we know about the others who sheltered under the same roof - the servants and maids, gardeners and housekeepers? Come to that, what did their master know of them either?

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Pastimes: Master and Servant ; the Lives of William Shenstone's Servants Are As Fascinating As Their Master's, Writes Chris Upton

There are, however, exceptions to the rule. Take William Shenstone, for example. Shenstone was one of Halesowen's great sons, 18th-century poet and raconteur and landscape gardener, who transformed his estate...

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