September 1918 : By rights Lottie should have a whole chapter to herself at this point; but to live through those things is unpleasant enough without reviving them here. At this moment owing to what she overheard L. say to me before breakfast [oh do tell what Leonard said!], I am uncertain whether we have 2 servants or not, & to tell the truth, completely indifferent, such is the relief of being without them for a fortnight. Considering their unimportance [She is so arrogant about them! this is the real problem: they are important to her but she can't bear that fact] they must be compared to flies in the eye for the discomfort they produce in spite of being so small. [I hope that piece of spite made her feel better.] But let us change the subject.
Sunday 28th September 1919 The Strike
Cut off as we are from all human intercourse [they were at Rodmell] I cannot even be sure of the date. It is said that the entire railways of England are on strike; the miners, & perhaps the transport workers, are with them. This happened yesterday morning, or rather late the night before; & though we got our papers through late in the evening, we are without posts. The signalman gave us some information yesterday & believes himself to be striking against a reduction of 14/- a week in his wages. His strike pay comes to 16/- a week.
Tuesday 30th Sept
The papers are just in, shrunk to single sheets, & untrustworthy in their extreme - Daily Mail and Herald; truthful in the middle perhaps, Daily News. So far nothing but persistent hostility on both sides; no overtures.
Weds 1 October
The strike remains, so far as we can judge, the same. On the other hand, rumours of the strike change from hour to hour. A post came this morning. The post man is reported to say that all trains are running as usual. The signal man appears. situation unchanged, much depressed.
We went down to the signal man with books & offers of help.
Tues 7th October
[Hogarth House] The 'docile herds' whom I describe on Peace Day are not so deluded after all. they have held the country up for eleven days I think. We did a little to support them too, & kept one man on strike who would have gone back without our pound. [Probs the signalman.] There's a private strike to record too. [Judging by the next bit, she meant the servants went on strike.] I should like to write philosophically & analyse what is no doubt a sign of the times. ... Dear old Nelly came in shyly like a schoolgirl & asked to apologise last night; & I see us settled for life, with Hogarth, Monk's House, & two domestics.
[I can't help but feel that Nelly just wanted to take the piss at this point - she was probably thinking that if the Woolfs supported the strikers she and Lottie would go on strike and see if they supported that. I mean, it is funny!!! And poor VW just can't see it at all.]
Friday 28 November
It was the dinner parties that led Nelly to give notice last Monday. She did it in a tentative boastful way, as if to show off to someone behind the scenes which makes me think she would be glad now to change her mind. She would at this moment if I asked her. But on the whole I'm not going to ask her. ... we both [V and Leonard] incline to try a new system of dailies, which never ceases to attract us & what with Rodmell & a lower income... No one could be nicer than Nelly, for long stretches; at this moment she gives Angelica her bath, & is perfectly friendly & considerate to me...But the fault is more in the system of keeping two young women chained in a kitchen to laze & work & suck their life from two in the drawing room than in her character or in mine.
No comments:
Post a Comment