Day One, Evening, Salisbury
- The novel picks up with Stevens on the first night of his trip, in a guesthouse in Salisbury.
- Stevens reflects on his trip so far: that morning, he set out an hour later than planned.
- After driving for a while, he stopped on a hill to appreciate the scenery.
- Upon arriving in Salisbury, Stevens did a bit of sightseeing and admired the Salisbury Cathedral.
- Now, comfortably settled in his guest house, Stevens muses over what makes for a "great butler."
- Stevens dismisses a Mr. Jack Neighbours, who apparently was the rock star of all butlers for a while before he died in the war (presumably World War II).
- Stevens next considers the controversy over the Hayes Society, an exclusive club of butlers in the '20s and '30s. He doesn't think a great butler is necessarily tied to a distinguished household—i.e., nobility—but he does think they have a point with the notion of "dignity."
- Stevens considers his father to have been just such a paragon of butlerhood.
- Stevens Sr. (Stevens's father) had a favorite story about a butler in India who removed a tiger from his employer's dining room.
- Another anecdote: Stevens Sr. was driving around some guests who were insulting their host (his employer). Stevens Sr. stopped the car and opened the passenger door without saying a word. The guests promptly shut up.
- Yet another story about Stevens Sr.: his older brother Leonard was killed during the Boer War when the military officer in charge failed to take necessary precautions. Later, when the military officer stayed with Stevens Sr.'s employer, he was perfectly polite to the man.