Rules to be observed in walking with Persons of Honour, 1682

If you walk in a Gallery, Chamber or Garden, be sure to keep the left hand; and without affectation or trouble to the Lady, recover that side at every turn.  If you make up the third in your walk, the middle is the most honourable place, and belongs to the best in the company, the right hand is next, and the left in the lowest estimation.  If the Lady with whom you walk, hath a desire to sit down […] it would be very ridiculous and slighting to leave her to her rest, whilst you continued walking on’.

A glimpse of the intricate and sometimes ridiculous rules governing the life and jobs of those surrounding a queen comes from the life of Queen Caroline, wife of George II.  When she washed her hands, the Page of the Backstairs brought the basin and ewer but the Bedchamber-Woman set it before the queen.  ‘The Bedchamber-Woman pulled on the Queen’s gloves, when she could not do it herself.  The Page of the Backstairs was called in to put on the Queen’s shoes.  When the Queen dined in public, the Page reached the glass to the Bedchamber-Woman, and she to the Lady-in-waiting.  The Bedchamber-Woman brought the chocolate, and gave it without kneeling.’