Household Staff

The Household Staff were the human staff of the Strange and Wonderful House.

Children aged between six and twelve were recruited from the people of the surrounding Fields on some Harvest Days to grow the ranks of the Household Staff. If chosen, they would spend their whole lives within the House. On one occasion, twelve-year-old boy Rondel was chosen, despite being the son of the current Master of the Fields. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Great South Gate)

Directly under the authority of the “Masters of the abode” were the battle-ready, all-female Housekeeping corps, who were sworn to clean out every room in the House at least once per year. They were led by a forceful woman. They had an enmity with the Artifectors, eccentric inventors who worked in the Laboratory on devices nominally intended to make the lives of the residents of the House more convenient, although they often did the opposite or else wholly failed to pan out. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Lab, The Lab: The Alarum Goes off, The Lab: Setting The Alarum)

Other staff included the guards keeping watch over the door to the Conservatory from the Guardroom, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Guardroom) the zookeepers patrolling the Zoo, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Zoo) Malthus who watched over the morgue, (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Rose Cottage) and Montresor, the Keeper of the Cellar. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: Montresor)