Comment by nephihaha

1 day ago

This isn't completely true. Some of them got so little sunlight that they developed illnesses as a result.

2 comments

nephihaha

I did not know that. But almost everybody in the working classes suffered from awful work-related health problems in Victorian Britain. Some vitamin D deficiency for a scullery maid compares to a miner's black lung or that ghastly phossy jaw that afflicted match girls.

nephihaha 1 day ago

I think the best form of this work was probably to be staff on an absentee landlord's estate. While the master or mistress was away, you would have little work to do except cleaning or maintenance, and probably could get away with having a life of leiaure.