The Suspicions of Mr Whicher

* The press reported that Samuel Kent was paid £800 a year, a figure he did not correct; but the Home Office archives show that his salary was actually only £350 in 1860. He may also have had a small private income. In The Book of House-hold Management (1861) Mrs Beeton calculated that an income of £500 per annum was required to fund a three-servant house-hold (the average wage for a cook, according to the same book, was £20, for a housemaid £12 and for a nursemaid £10).