Lord of the Manor - An Unreliable Narator

The Lord of the Manor

They all know that I am important, and they don’t complain about their treatment, why would they, I am an excellent boss. Not only do I provide them all the men and boys with jobs in my mill, I even let some of the woman and girls work as well. When they get to old to work in the mill I let them work on my farm.

I am also an excellent landlord, I provide a roof over their heads, and I don’t charge them much, I built a shop in the village, so they can buy all the food and goods they need so they don’t need to travel to the next town any more.

I even built a school so the younger children, those under 8 would have somewhere to go while their parents are at work, and I don’t charge as much as some of those city schools, and to make it easier for my workers I take it straight from their wage, that way the men can’t spend it before the fees are paid. The boys learn to write their letters and count, always handy for when they start work, the girls they learn to sew, no point with girls learning numbers and letters, it would be too much for them. Then I provide them jobs, or find them jobs in my bothers mill, he is good man takes on lots of children, orphans mainly, gives them work, looks after them.

We are both on the board of the Workhouse, and have put a lot of our own wealth into the place, we provide for the poor unfortunates, look after them. Some say that they are not looked after well, that we should give them more, but no they have to earn everything, you can’t go giving these people something for nothing. They have to want to leave, work their way out, become useful.

The village I built for my employees has everything they could want, I built a public house for them, so they have entertainment.

I am surely the best of employers, my workers all love me, they worship me, in fact. They all donated generously towards my statue that had commissioned to stand on the village square. Now they can look out and see me looking down on them always. Generations to come will know what an important generous man I was, and how much my workers loved me.

I am an excellent husband and father as well, my wife is very well looked after, she spends her days sewing or painting I think, she didn’t have to look after the children, we had nannies and governesses. I don’t bother her in the bedroom, not since we took on that pretty young maid, if you know what I mean, terrible pity about the last silly girl, had to let her go when she got herself into trouble.

My children are all looked after well, they went to boarding school from 7, my sons will all follow me into the business, my daughters will be married off to my friends sons, all good households.

I am a very good man.