Notes for: Louisa Phillips

In "Period Piece" p.50 Gwen Raverat wrote, referring to her mother Maud Darwin and Newnham Grange:
In a sense the maids ran the house; and so long as they showed a certain tact towards her private economies and foibles, she was glad they should do so. But it was very definitely her house all the same; only that was the way she ran it. And on the whole it was a success; it was comfortable, the food was always excellent, and the maids stayed for years: the great Mrs Phillips for nearly thirty years. (Mrs was a courtesy title, of course.) It was the most hospitable of houses; the sort of place where you could bring five extra people in to lunch unexpectedly, withut upsetting anyone. Of course, during her reign, Mrs Phillips ran the house completely, but appearances were always preserved. You should have seen the skill with which Mrs Phillips and my mother avoided each other if they happened to be annoyed. But even Mrs Phillips herself had to go through the farce of asking for every pot of jam or box of matches to be given out of the store cupboard, for she herself was never allowed to hold the key for a single instant