Nellie Boxall stayed with the Woolfs until 1934, although she frequently threatened to quit, having big rows with Virginia. Nellie was doing her best to take care of Virginia and Virginia despised her. Nellie wanted recognition for all she did and Virginia refused to acknowledge her. They played on each others dependencies. Nellie did quit (after 16 years) and went on to work for the actor, Charles Laughton, in London. She made much more money and was treated with respect, something that she never had received from Virginia. She never married or had children. In her middle age she had saved enough money to buy a house, one of the first people in her neighborhood to do so. The neighborhood children thought she was “a lady” and “a notch higher in her manner,” but also very bossy. Perhaps she was finally able to express her personality that had been suppressed for years.
Lottie Hope (1891-1973) was a housemaid for Virginia Woolf. She was a foundling and grew up in the Home for Deserted Children at Hambleton in Surrey. She left the Home at fourteen and went into service at the home of Roger Fry, where she worked with Nellie Boxall. She left Fry’s home and moved to the Woolf’s home when Nellie did. When Lottie had had enough of Virginia she left the Woolfe’s home in 1924, and went to work for several of the Bloomsbury Group, but finally settled with Clive Bell and eventually went with him to Charleston Farmhouse, the country house of his estranged wife. Lottie was back living near her good friend Nellie Boxall, who was like family to her. She left the Charleston Farmhouse in 1941, to work at a local laundry, and lived with Nellie Boxall, in her house. Like Nellie, she never married or had children, but died at the Hambleton Homes for the Aged.
In the 1911 Census, Lottie was listed as a House Maid, living in at Durbins with Roger Fry and family, aged 19, born in Yorkshire. Her death entry in the Surrey register states her birth date as 6th May 1891. Lotte died in Hambledon, Surrey, on 27th March 1973 and left an estate valued at £361.00.
Acknowledgement
This text and picture (click here to view the picture) are taken from a blog by CadyLuckLeedy at https://cadyluckleedy.com/tag/domestic-life/
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