When the 18th-century artist John Walters received a summons to paint a series of portraits at the country house of Erddig, near Wrexham, he must have been delighted. Philip Yorke, the owner, might not have been the richest squire in Wales, but this lawyerly family was eminently respectable, and the house was one of stolid charm, gazing down on the picturesque meandering Clywedog River. Certainly, the commission was not to be sneezed at.
Who knows whether Walters’ delight became tinged with surprise when he discovered that his subjects were not to be Philip and his wife, but Yorke’s staff – and not just the ‘top rank’ servants, either. Mrs Jane Ebbrell, aged 87, sat for him, in front of her simple, brick-built lodgings, mop and broom by her side. Garbed mainly in black – her apron and glances of white cotton providing the
