Last week I was introduced to a room I’ve never seen before. It is called the Still Room, and is used to make an enormous number of things – everything from ointments, soaps, and flea powder, cough syrup, furniture polish and too many things for me to remember here!
The maid in charge of the stillroom needed to get an assistant, because her under-maid was dismissed suddenly. I don’t know why. Mrs. Burns suggested me, since I was new in the kitchen and there really are more maids there than are needed. It seems like an interesting job, but there is a lot to learn, that’s for sure!
My superior in the still room is called Agnes, and she is a happy and talkative one. We are allowed to talk with each other, due to the nature of what we do. For now I just do what she tells me – fetch the mortar and pestle, scrub the table, fetch this and that from the herb garden – I like this part best. I am learning to know how Thyme can be prepared in an ointment for skin problems, Sage can be boiled down to ease a sore throat and Rosemary can be broken up into a powder for cleaning the teeth.
Today we are collecting the last of the roses to grind the petals into powder for talcum. Agnes also had me collect the rose hips, some to be made into tea, the rest for a cold medicine.
I have also had a chance to see my cousin Heather at last. She was sent by the head parlourmaid to get some lemon oil to polish the furniture with. We had a chance for a quick hello and make a plan to spend our next Sunday together.
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