‘…(Un) Happily ever after…’

A new exhibition has just been launched here at Arlington.
It takes a look at the darker side of Victorian life and childhood.
A fascinating yet melancholic subject, we discovered some sobering facts about food, drink, travel and life in general. Depending on how wealthy your family was, would also have a dramatic effect on your life expectancy…

Simple products like bread and milk would need to be as cheaply produced as possible to meet the high demand of an ever growing population in the nineteenth century.
Unfortunately, this led to less than ideal additives being put in, to make the product go further. This included chalk and plaster in flour, and boracic acid in milk that was though to purify it.

This was the age of invention, but it came at a high cost. New ‘cures’ for teething for example, were found to be opiate based and a new wonder product from America for teething and troublesome infants, was found to contain around 65% Morphine.
No wonder children were seen and not heard. Toys were often painted with products that contained lead, that if consumed would be extremely hazardous. Even high quality wallpaper paint, contained lead. We have a fantastic example in the Morning room of the house!

If you were unlucky enough to be born into a poor family, you could expect to be put out to work at a factory, mill or farm from as young as 5 years old. You could expect to work eight to twelve hours a day, six days a week. This would have been a dangerous environment and as there were few regulations to protect workers until the end of the century.
Unfortunately, a young workforce could easily be exploited. Some factory machines could only be operated by children due their small size. Illness would also be a common occurrence, as diseases like small pox and scarlet fever would spread quickly in poor living conditions.

Mortality, came to call on all and the rich were not spared. Carriage travel, seen as a status symbol, was often hazardous. As the population increase was at a significant rate in the eighteen hundreds, more and more vehicles were using the same streets.
The most common incident would be a frightened horse that would often gallop away with the carriage in tow, with or without its occupants. In 1866, four people per week were killed in London, from horse and carriage related accidents.

Where did Rosalie Chichester fit into this picture?
The last of her branch of the family, she was the only daughter of the estate owners and had a life of relative luxury. Schooled at home and looked after by a governess, she was encouraged in her leisure pursuits such as painting and photography, giving us a record of her passion and interests.
The exhibition runs until the end of October.