Edith Wharton’s The Mount, part 6

Post published:October 24, 2023

For more on The Mount, see the first post in this series. This post is available as a video at https://youtu.be/bjYuA02O-MU .

Working areas of the house

Fascinating stats.

Imagine doing a maid’s work in a corset. Ayyyyy! The poster below includes an amusing quote from Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Lady Cora Crawley on Downton Abbey: “I think it is the single reason that women are less accomplished historically than men. They couldn’t actually breathe.”

Pecking order among the servants. I’ve read a zillion British murder mysteries but never figured this out. (But where’s the valet?)

The butler’s pantry, on the main floor – the final staging area before the food was taken into the dining room, at left. The dining room is shown in the fourth post in this series.

Edith Wharton’s The Mount. Photo copyright © 2020 Dianne L. Durante

The scullery, not (yet?) renovated, show what a mess the house was after being occupied by various institutions over the course of the 20th century.

The kitchen. No mod cons, but still a lovely light-filled space. Kudos to Edith for thinking about the comfort of her staff when she and Codman designed The Mount!

The stove in the kitchen is contemporary with Edith’s time at The Mount.

More fascinating facts.

View toward the formal gardenfrom the veranda, which opens off the drawing room on the main floor.

View from the veranda toward the allée.

Stables

At the stables, there’s a video about Edith Wharton’s life and The Mount. We had timed tickets, so we didn’t see the video until after we’d seen the house. If you visit, I’d suggest watching it first. The Mount’s docents were pretty self-effacing unless you grabbed them and asked questions.

Back in the summer of 2020, when most museums were still in lockdown or requiring masks, I discovered the pleasures of spending time in elaborate, exquisitely planned gardens. My first excursion was to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, where I visited the Gilded Age mansions of Naumkeag, Ventfort, and The Manor. Ventfort photos are here and here. Naumkeag is in 4 parts, beginning here.
For more Gilded Mansions and their gardens, click this tag.
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