Many of these small schools were operated on a family basis, often by a married couple (for boys), or by sisters or female friends (for girls).
She set out on this venture with "thirty to forty girls of respectable families, and ten or twelve ladies as parlour boarders".
[2] Thomas Reynolds (1771–1836), the Irish informer, son of a wealthy textile manufacturer, was sent at eight years old as a parlour boarder to the school of Rev.
The Indian diplomat Venkata Siddharthacharry was largely educated in England, and entitled a chapter of his memoir "Parlour Boarder".
One much-valued benefit was the fire, which was lit from mid-autumn "right up to the end of spring", in contrast to the frigid dormitories.