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basement servants’ quarters, indeed of the servants’ hall, have really vanished for ever. 76
     
    Domestic staff are still a component in country houses, even if very different from their Edwardian counterparts. That this is still a lively employment market is shown in the advertising pages of
The Lady
magazine as well as the back pages of
Country Life
and its ilk, which still sport numerous adverts for domestic and estate jobs. There are several schools for butlers in existence, including those founded by Ivor Spencer, while gardeners will now often be trained at horticultural college, and cooks at catering colleges. Indeed, it has been argued that there has been something of a revival in domestic staff numbers in more recent years. 77 On 3 June 2007, the
New York Post
even ran an article on the international shortage of butlers in which it was observed that butlers were required by newly wealthy families to help them learn how to enjoy their wealth with the polish associated with the old rich. It was calculated in the
Post
that top butlers were earning $200,000. 78 The
Guardian
had also run an article on the scarcity of trained butlers four days earlier.
     
    Stephanie Rough, director of the established company Greycoat Placements, deals with placing full-time and temporary staff for many country houses. She argues that, as with country houses through the ages, staffing numbers vary hugely and depend on the family and size of property: ‘People who entertain only a little might have just a housekeeper and two dailies.’ She was asked to imagine the likely staff today of a country house at the centre of a 2,000-acre estate with an owner in his forties working in the City. ‘Probably they would have three or four people working in the house: a couple perhaps, a daily and a cook, with extra staff brought in for events, and a headgardener plus one other. Depending on the estate, there might perhaps be an estate manager of some sort. With a married couple, the wife would usually act as housekeeper while the husband might act as butler, or houseman, or do more general duties, such as driving, security and maintenance.’ 79
     
    Is a butler is still something people look for?
     
A family who entertain a lot might want a butler, but he might be called a butler-houseman or house manager. Today, a butler is not so much about formal entertaining, but managing staff, sorting out the digital camera, iPod, Blackberry and house technology; liaising with contractors; and being the first port of call for bills and administration. This trend is much more on the management side, but there is still a demand for the very traditional ‘service’ butler. Some people have full-time drivers.
     
    What sort of person would be a typical contemporary housekeeper?
Again, a kind of house manager, running the household, sorting out the laundry and making beds, who could cover for the butler. One could be on duty when the other is off, and vice versa. Housekeepers or house managers tend to have a grounding in some related skill, as a chef or a property manager; there is still some sense of working your way up through the ranks, perhaps having come from working on yachts, in ski chalets or in hotel management. 80
     
    Where are the many foreign couples drawn from who go into service? ‘There are certainly a number of Asians, Filipinos, Eastern Europeans and St Helenians.’ She too has found that it is not unusual to come across people, often local, who have worked in the same country house for thirty or forty years: ‘In the countryside, bigger estates would certainly be more likely to employ locals. Staff who are treated with respect and valued will stay a long time. Country houses do take a lot of looking after, especially if you have a house party; the laundry alone could take a week to sort out. No two houses are quite the same these days. Managing staff can be quite demanding.’
    Is the word servant still used at all? ‘No, nobody