Bessie Walter, lady’s maid
(Spoiler alert -- don't read this if you don't want to know what happened.....)
Bessie is one of the key characters in the story of Martha and Plas Ingli. She is at the Plas when Martha arrives in 1796, and she is still there when Martha goes (apparently) to her grave in 1855. She was born Bessie Gruffydd in 1776, and starts at the Plas in 1795. Later, after the adventures recounted in On Angel Mountain, Bessie leaves to marry the merchant Benji Walter in 1799. She then experiences tragedy after only three years of happiness, when she loses both her husband and small son in the year 1802. She comes back to the Plas as Martha’s special servant, and is in that position position when David is murdered and during the period in which Martha has to survive as a young widow with a growing family, and at the same time must learn how to run the estate single-handed.
Bessie is one of the key characters in the story of Martha and Plas Ingli. She is at the Plas when Martha arrives in 1796, and she is still there when Martha goes (apparently) to her grave in 1855. She was born Bessie Gruffydd in 1776, and starts at the Plas in 1795. Later, after the adventures recounted in On Angel Mountain, Bessie leaves to marry the merchant Benji Walter in 1799. She then experiences tragedy after only three years of happiness, when she loses both her husband and small son in the year 1802. She comes back to the Plas as Martha’s special servant, and is in that position position when David is murdered and during the period in which Martha has to survive as a young widow with a growing family, and at the same time must learn how to run the estate single-handed.
So Martha’s relationship with Bessie is forged in the fire, and becomes virtually unbreakable. At this time, when Bessie is in her prime, I picture her as very pretty and petite, with a strength born of hard labour in kitchen and harvest field. There are many men who desire her, and Dai Darjeeling remains madly in love with her for many years. She enjoys his attentions, and probably, away from the pages of the book, enjoys an interesting sex life when Mistress Martha is otherwise occupied. As the children grow older Bessie takes over as housekeeper in the year 1812. From that point on she becomes a fierce and efficient successor to the formidable Mrs Owen who was housekeeper when the Saga began.
It is to Bessie that Martha entrusts the last of her diaries, which are then found among her possessions long after her "apparent" death at the age of 81. That is entirely appropriate, because the relationship between Bessie and Martha is in some ways more intimate than that between a wife and a husband. A lady’s maid at the time of the stories would have spent a good part of every day in her company. She would have brushed her hair, laid out her clothes, scrubbed her back in the tin bath, made her bed, lit her fire every morning, emptied her chamber pot, and disposed of bloody rags at the times of her peri- ods. She would have been with her in episodes of childbirth and times of grief.
It is to Bessie that Martha entrusts the last of her diaries, which are then found among her possessions long after her "apparent" death at the age of 81. That is entirely appropriate, because the relationship between Bessie and Martha is in some ways more intimate than that between a wife and a husband. A lady’s maid at the time of the stories would have spent a good part of every day in her company. She would have brushed her hair, laid out her clothes, scrubbed her back in the tin bath, made her bed, lit her fire every morning, emptied her chamber pot, and disposed of bloody rags at the times of her peri- ods. She would have been with her in episodes of childbirth and times of grief.
Little wonder then that Bessie should be more of a friend than a servant almost from the beginning of the stories. She hardly ever over-steps the mark, and she always shows due respect to her mistress, and a good deal of discretion; but she knows Martha almost too well, and is occasionally so impertinent that she risks in- stant dismissal. She knows Martha will not dismiss her whatever she may do or say, because she is absolutely invaluable; in any case, she is Martha’s conscience.
When Liza takes over as Martha’s personal maid, the two women never develop quite the same sort of relationship, partly because Liza has a husband and a life outside the Plas. So even when Bessie is housekeeper, she and Martha remain the closest of friends, and Bessie is normally that person whose duty it is to take Martha to one side and to tell her that she is behaving selfishly or unkindly to- wards other people. At times she is brutally honest, and at times even cruel, but because Martha loves her so much she is prepared to accept criticism from her in a manner that she would never accept from anyone else. The only other woman who has the temerity to admonish Martha occasionally is Grandma Jane in the early part of the Saga, but she speaks to Martha more as a mother would speak to a child, and that relationship has nothing like the same intimacy as that between Martha and Bessie.
When Liza takes over as Martha’s personal maid, the two women never develop quite the same sort of relationship, partly because Liza has a husband and a life outside the Plas. So even when Bessie is housekeeper, she and Martha remain the closest of friends, and Bessie is normally that person whose duty it is to take Martha to one side and to tell her that she is behaving selfishly or unkindly to- wards other people. At times she is brutally honest, and at times even cruel, but because Martha loves her so much she is prepared to accept criticism from her in a manner that she would never accept from anyone else. The only other woman who has the temerity to admonish Martha occasionally is Grandma Jane in the early part of the Saga, but she speaks to Martha more as a mother would speak to a child, and that relationship has nothing like the same intimacy as that between Martha and Bessie.
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