An English Governess in Egypt

Little is known about Englishwoman Emmeline Lott, other than the facts published in her 1865 memoirs, The English Governess in Egypt. In 1863 she gained a post as governess to the son of Ismail Pacha the Viceroy of Egypt. 

Miss Lott was initially excited about her exotic new life within the Viceroy's Harem, but she was quickly disillusioned.

Of meeting the Harem women, she wrote: “I failed to discover the slightest trace of loveliness in any of them. On the contrary, most of their countenances were pale as ashes, exceedingly disagreeable; fat and globular in figure; in short, so rotund that they gave me the idea of large full moons...as hideous and hag-like as the witches in the opening scene of Macbeth...Their hair and their finger-nails were dyed red with henna; many of them looked like old hags...They had been favourites in their youth.”

Some of her views, which would now be considered extremely racist, did not help her to settle in. She eyed the “disgusting looking negresses with low foreheads, sure sign of cunning, malice, deceit, and treachery.”

 A Cairo harem c.1870

Dejected by the absence of her favourite tipples – pale ale and claret – and her bare lodgings, Miss Lott was glad to meet her charge, the Grand Pacha Ibrahim, “a happy, round-faced cherub.” But he was not as cherubic as he seemed, commanding his governess to play at banking, and charging her extortionate interest. At times he could be wilful, even violent:

“...one of the female slaves, whom I afterwards found was his half-sister...offended him. He immediately seized hold of her by both her arms, pinched them most violently, and like a Tiger bit them until he drew blood, after which he put his fingers into the poor little creature's mouth, and tore both sides of it until the blood streamed down her chin like water.” On another occasion a slave was chattering loudly, so “the Prince took up a shovel, full of burning charcoal, and flung it into the poor creature's face.”

Miss Lott despised “the filthy manners, barbarous customs, and disgusting habits of all around me,” which were compounded by the mosquitoes and insects, the heat. Even worse, in her view, she was not treated with proper respect, rather as the servant she was – forced to give fashion shows to the Prince's mother, who laughed at her bonnets, and endured “the mortification of having the German laundry-maid as my companion.” She began writing a diary, which became a “catalogue of annoyances.”

She also felt the ill effects of dining on “dry bead and a little pigeon or mutton” (as she found the Arab food “nauseous”) and living in the Harem, where most of the women smoked large quantities of tobacco and opium. Finally, suffering from a “frightful melancholy,” Miss Lott feared for her sanity.

She tried to take solace in educating the little Prince, but this was a constant battle with Harem authorities: “Sometimes I received orders from the Grand Eunuch, which were issued at the caprice of HH the Princess Espouse...to take the Grand Pacha out walking at six o'clock in the morning...And when once the little Prince was in the gardens, it was exceedingly difficult to get him to return. His will was law...”

A few women in the Hareem were concerned that Miss Lott might be transferred to the Viceroy's bed, and they watched her “with the closest interest...lest HH the Viceroy should bestow upon me...attention too marked.”

 The European glamorous view of an Egyptian Harem, by French photographer Hippolyte Arnoux c.1880. Source.

She also observed them with a critical eye: “A most erroneous impression has been drawn by authors as to the manner in which the inmates of the Harems pass their social life. It is certainly true that the greater portion of the day is spent in doubling themselves up on divans....generally [in] dirty, filthy, crumpled muslin dresses...smoking their Tchibouks or cigarettes, and drinking coffee à la Turque, as dark as porter...

...their Highnesses were about and stirring as early as four o'clock in the morning...At the dawn of the day the Princesses partook of coffee and smoked cigarettes; then they remained quite motionless, apparently in a dreamy state...About seven o'clock they received a visit from the Grand Eunuch...The morning toilette began by the slaves bringing into the Grand Pacha's room several small pans, not deeper than soup plates....They only combed their hair (which was full of vermin) once a week, on Thursdays."

After breakfast “Khanum Kaleouns, 'pipes', into which are placed small pills of opium...were handed to them, and each Princess retired to her own apartment.” In the afternoons and evenings they might walk in the gardens or play dominoes. Miss Lott heartily disapproved of the custom of story-telling “the most lascivious tales about women and their immoralities” while “munching away at bonbons, fruit, and most luscious sweetmeats, and smoking cigarettes.”

Finally after less than two years, sick with a “nervous fever” and “troubled” in mind, Miss Lott was close to breakdown and she was forced to resign her post.

Miss Lott's fortunes improved when she returned to England and penned several books about her experiences. The New York Times commented snippily in 1867, “It seems to us that [Miss Lott] has brought home much that is utterly worthless and a great deal that is particularly nasty...the quality known as 'delicacy' has little place is Mrs Lott's composition....Harem life is not a subject about which ordinary readers want to know much.” Happily for Miss Lott, the Times were quite wrong – in fact her books were bestsellers.

There are plenty of reprinted copies of Emmeline Lott's The English Governess in Egypt: Harem Life in Egypt and Constantinople (London, 1865) available on amazon.

Margaret Hervey has written an interesting piece about Ellen Chennells, another English governess to an Egyptian royal at the Guild of Hypatia blog.