The visible and glorious household : from the late Middle Ages to the end of the sixteenth century -- The beginning of the back stairs and the servants' hall : the seventeenth century -- The household in the age of conspicuous consumption : the eighteenth century -- Behind the green baize door : the eighteenth century -- The apogee : the nineteenth century -- Moving up or moving on : the nineteenth century -- In retreat from a golden age : the first half of the twentieth century -- Staying on : a changing world : the later twentieth century.