APPENDIX II. Mary Powles
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APPENDIX II
Mary Powles 1
MARY POWLES was a person who played a very important part in my life and in the lives of my mother and sisters. She had been a lady's maid, and in that capacity had had various interesting experiences, among them that of serving as second-in-command to the celebrated Duchess of St. Albans, formerly Harriet Mellon, the actress. She came as lady's maid to my mother, but accompanied her to New Zealand as a sort of factotum, her principal duty being that of acting as my nurse. She was also an excellent cook, and indeed there were few domestic duties to which she could not turn her hand with complete success. To her I personally owe a much greater debt than that which men commonly owe their nurses, however efficient and devoted. She played a not unimportant part in my education, and I do not exaggerate when I say that she was one of the cleverest and most sensible women whom I have ever met, and that it was a real advantage to myself and my sisters to have spent our early years in close contact with her. To this day, her sayings and words of advice about everyday matters often recur to my mind, and I seldom recall them without wondering at the wisdom and insight which they show to have been possessed by an almost uneducated woman. When we came to England she remained with us as head-nurse, lady's maid, and housekeeper, until the youngest of us passed out of her hands; she then, as housekeeper, ruled my mother's establishment, to the advantage of all concerned, until she died in 1883. She had by that time been in my mother's
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service for thirty-seven years and had long been regarded as a member of the family, with whom we were on perfectly equal terms, though we were generally conscious that, if it came to a conflict of wills, it was not Powles who would have to give way.
