It comes up also in his
letters to Zmeskall, in which he speaks of his patience in enduring the
insolence of a butler, who had been sent him by Zmeskall.
Complaints about servants appear frequently in his correspondence.
Peppe, the "elephant-footed," and Nanny, who seems to have had a
particular faculty for making trouble, are specially in evidence. "I
have endured much from N. (Nanny) to-day," he writes in a letter to his
good friend Madame Streicher, who was very helpful to him in his
domestic matters. On one occasion, when her conduct became unbearable,
he threw books at her head. Strangely, this method of disciplining the
refractory Nanny produced better results than could have been expected.
He reports soon after to Madame Streicher, "Miss Nanny is a changed
creature since I threw the half dozen books at her head. Possibly, by
chance some of their contents may have entered her brain, or her bad
heart. At all events we now have a repentant deceiver."
In another letter of this time he writes to the same lady, "Yesterday
morning the devilry began again, but I made short work of it, and threw
the heavy settle at B (another servant), after which we had peace for
the remainder of the day.
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