ABSTRACT
In 1835, the editor of the Hereford Journal received a letter railing against the spending habits of female servants, particularly their clothing purchases, and the downward spiral of moral decline that this led them into:
All articles of consumption among female servants in particular are nearly fifty per cent cheaper than during the war … [and there is an] extraordinary highness of wages [for female servants] … there are few tradesmen or farmers’ daughters having no other dependance [sic] who think they can afford to put upon their backs clothing to the same amount as an ordinary servant can … the consequence is that servants are now eaten out with pride … besides, the vanity of mind induced by dress, produces that fickleness of disposition 1
