Unmatchmaking Isobel Crawley

Isobel Crawley and Lord Merton on the local streets

Robert: It might be rather fun for her to reinvent herself as the great lady of the county and put us all in our proper place.  

Violet: Yes... I suppose it would be fun...

Why must Violet unmake the matchmaking work she had so diligently been working on at the end of Season 4?  At the start of Season 5, the Dowager Countess realizes she has made quite a blunder; if Lord Merton, recently widowed, proposed marriage to Isobel Crawley,suddenly her sparing partner would not be a part of the middle class.  She would be above Violet in rank. As Cora points out to her husband, if Isobel were to become Lady Merton, she would take up her place in a grand house, would have a living husband, and her rank or position in the county's society would alter greatly.  Isobel and Violet have always been equals in terms of temperament and spitfire, but to have her as an equal or possibly a superior in rank (as the title has passed onto Violet's son and therefore would be less potent than Isobel's potential position), would be beyond the pale.

Labour PM

The downstairs, as well as the upstairs, are all a buzz.England got its first ever labour prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald.  Prime Ministers are referred to as PMs, which are different than MPs, or Members of Parliament. The Labour Party is Britain's democratic socialist party.  It grew out of trade union movement, hence why the servants at Downton believe that Mr. MacDonald will be their voice. He was known as quite an orator.

Downton in 3D

The Daily Mail has a fascinating article on creating a 3D floor plan of Downton.  Of course, thanks to the wonders of Google, one can look at Highclere Castle's floor plan (the location used for filming), but this one is so interesting to examine.

Link:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528645/Revealed-Downtons-intimate-secrets-3D.html

Keep Calm! They Quoted Pride and Prejudice!

Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennet in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice

Lady Shackleton: A single peer with a good estate won't be unmarried long, if he doesn't want to be.

Lady Violet: You sound like Mrs. Bennet.

Downton just paid homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and even the Dowager acknowledges it!

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."                                                                    -Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

If you have not read this novel, and you are in love with Downton Abbey, do yourself a favor and read it.  Or, if you just aren't feeling up to reading, watch the 1995 BBC version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. It is about as word-for-word as a tv show could be and well worth your time.

Edith is the New Jane Eyre

The similarities between Lady Edith Crawley and Jane Eyre are quite remarkable as the plot of Downton goes forward.  Aside from the fact that Edith isn't a nanny (but she did get a job which is similar to Jane in the fact that many women didn't work), here are a few examples of where they line up.

1) Considered to be plain (but really isn't)

2) Has to be the sensible one

3) Not a social butterfly

4) Bit of a brooder

5) Feels the need to take on life's challenges by herself without outside help

6) Resident of England who likes the great outdoors

7) Falls in love with men much older than herself

8) Falls in love with a man who has a mentally unstable wife

9) Sleeps through fires that engulf her room (shares that with Thornton, not Jane Eyre)

Spoiler alert: After Jane nearly kills herself fleeing across the moors when she learns her fiancee is still married to a previous woman, her fiancee's estate burns down (thanks to his unhinged spouse), his wife dies in an accident, she becomes independently rich, she finds family that loves her, and she marries her Thornton.

"Reader, I married him" is the famous line written by Charlotte Bronte.  Perhaps poor Edith can catch a break.

Carson Said What?!

Mr. Carson: The nature of life is not permanence but flux.

Mrs. Hughes: Just so, even if it does sound fairly disgusting.

Poor Carson.  Just when he was being extremely respectable, he said a certain word. He was going for the definition of flux which means continuous motion, but Mrs. Hughes, being a woman and a bit of a tease around Mr. Carson when he has it coming, took it a different direction.  According to the Oxford English Dictionary, flux means a flowing, usually of bodily fluid such as blood.  Anyone who has read several of Eloisa James' Regency romances notes that this term comes up as a word for a lady's time of the month. No wonder Carson is shocked another term for period escaped his lips. Carson, being vulgar!  It's quite shocking.


"flux, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web. 5 January 2015.

Insult like a Dowager

The Dowager Countess and Violet Crawley are experts at the subtle art of British impertinence.  From Downton Abbey to Shakespeare to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, British comedy is a combination dry humor and insults so perfectly given that they seem almost polite.

There really are only 2 steps to a proper, British snub.  Use them against coworkers, family or friends who are making you peevish but only sparingly.  Apply liberally and you might get stung. But should you wish to try your hand:

1) Give an insult, wrapped up in comedy and brevity

2) Laugh at your own genius

The laughing is key.  If you wish to look at it historically, the Dowager is one of the highest in rank in the room at any given time when filming Downton Abbey. A sense of propriety is naturally going to fill the air as everyone waits to take their cue from her.  It isn't funny until she deems it as such.  Therefore, when she adds her little titter, others at the table or in the the salon may join in. It probably works the same for when Dame Maggie Smith is on set.  At the beginning, when everyone is still new, ain't nobody laughing until Maggie Smith is laughing.

Daisy Dreams of the Future

Daisy, performed by Sophie McShera

"Thirty-four years.  If I were to marry this year, what would life be like in 1958?"

Upon hearing the news of Cora and Robert's anniversary, Daisy starts pondering her future.  Of course, right now the sights aren't looking too good for marriage for Daisy if she stays in the kitchen all day, but still, England would be entirely different in just a few short years.  Having survived a second World War, the country would see the end of sweets and fuel rationing, watch anti-war rallies erupt in Trafalgar Square against England's military involvement in Egypt, the Mini Cooper car would come a long, and Queen Elizabeth, the current reigning monarch, would become queen.

For a fascinating further read, go to David Kynaston's article for The Daily Mail: A Vanished Britain.

Link:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224231/A-vanished-Britain-50-years-ago-country-doors-left-unlocked-children-played-street.html

Downton Abbey Season 5 Premier

It's back.  Downton Abbey season five premiers tonight in America after the long haitus.  We shall see if it is better than ever (but fingers are crossed).  Stay tuned afterwards for a documentary with Alastair Bruce, Downton's historical advisor.

The Mystery behind George Clooney

The debonair George Clooney, who blinks his lashes at everyone adorably, can now be seen in Post World War I England in his guest appearance on a Downton Abbey sketch.  He plays the perfect epitome of the Earl lording over Downton had Hugh Bonneville's character never been born.  Thankfully, Lord Grantham comes to his senses before the end of this sketch created for the TV special Text Santa (which is a television fundraiser done by ITV TV during the holidays- this year they donated over 5,000,000 pounds to the Alzheimer's Society, Guide Dogs, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Teenage Cancer Trust, Together for Short Lives and WellChild).  To read more or watch the cast taking selfies, playing strip poker (shocking, we know), or chatting with Mr. Selfridge (another TV show on the same channel as Downton Abbey, this one specializing in showing the story of the American, Harry Selfridge, who brought the department store to England around the same era), go to:

New York Daily News:  http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/george-clooney-plays-lord-hollywood-downton-abbey-skit-article-1.2051770

Carey Mulligan on Downton?

Carey Mulligan

Carey Mulligan, actress from Never Let Me Go, Pride and Prejudice, An Education, and best known in America for her roles in Drive and The Great Gatsby, has revealed that she would like a role in Downton Abbey.  She gives Julian Fellowes' the credit for seeing her first in her younger years and getting a role that landed her in Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice.  I think she should be Rose's new confident and friend.  Let's face it, Rose is a girl who needs a best friend.

To read the full article, check out Digital Spy.

Modernizing the Apple Charlotte

Way back when, in Season One of Downton, there was a dreadful Apple Charlotte recipe concocted.  Of course, it is only dreadful if one pours salt rather than sugar on it.  That goes without saying.

In Mrs. Beeton's cookbook, the recipe goes as follows:

Butter, for greasing the pie dish and buttering the bread
9 slices of bread, crusts removed
6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Sugar, enough to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (isn't a modern stove a wonderful invention?)
Butter a pie dish and the bread slices.  Place a layer of bread at the bottom, then a layer of apples.  Sprinkle over these a portion of the lemon zest and juice, and sweeten with sugar.  Place another layer of bread, and then apples, proceeding in this manner until the dish is full.

Then cover it up with the peel of the apples, to preserve the top from browning or burning.  Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes; turn the charlotte onto a dish, sprinkle sugar on top, and serve.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this recipe (notice the lack of salt).  However, the Victorians had a very different taste palate than our modern tongues are used to.  Here is a modernized version of it that I whipped together for lunch today.

Ingredients:

8 slices of bread, any type but I'm sure something like a french loaf would taste best
4 large apples, cored (I kept the peels for a bit of color)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.

Smoother a pie dish with butter (I suppose you could use cooking spray if you are counting calories).  Cut your bread slices in half (triangles are the only way to do this properly but other ways can be tried), and butter one or both sides (depending on how you fight the battle of taste verses health).  Layer four of the slices of bread onto the bottom.  On top of that layer, add the apple slices.  Sprinkle with sugar and lemon juice.  Repeat bread, then apple, until you have run out of ingredients.

Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Ingredients for Caramel Sauce:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla

While it is baking, whip together a caramel sauce for a topping.  In a saucepan on medium-low head, whisk the brown sugar, milk and butter together.  Keep whisking it until it boils (I usually turn on a jazz tune and whisk to the tempo and until it starts boiling up).  Add the 1 tablespoon of vanilla and remove it from heat.  Note: This is a thin caramel sauce.

When the Apple Charlotte is done baking, pour the caramel sauce over it and serve.  Bon appetite!

Nanny West vs. Thomas

Anna, Lady Mary, Nanny West and the adorable Master George

 

Nanny West has been sacked within one episode, and I am certain most of us said good riddance to her as soon as we saw how she treated dear little Sybil.  However, this does not explain why she has gotten her feathers all ruffled over the way Thomas treats her- after all, Thomas treats everyone quite terribly who he doesn't take a shine to, and that is the better of the two options. 

"The real discomfort of a governess's position in a private family arises from the fact that it is undefined.  She is not a relation, not a guest, not a mistress, not a servant- but something made up of all.  No one knows exactly how to treat her."
                                                                                -Elizabeth Missing Sewell, Principles of Education

Does Nanny West have the right to boss Thomas around?  Possibly.  In a house this size, she would have soon had staff under her, a nursery maid or a nursery cook who would be preparing the dinners for the nursery so Mrs. Patmore could focus on the main dinners (children did not dine with their parents until they could deport themselves with grace and elegance and altogether be miniatures of their parents).  So if she had staff under her, she would be at the same level of say Mr. Carson, Mrs. Hughes or Mrs. Patmore.  Even without staff, she reported directly to the family, not to the head butler or housekeeper, ranking her higher up.  Bossing anyone isn't going to win friends, but she did have a right to send messages with Thomas so that she could be back with her little charges sooner.  However, she would have appeared so infrequently from the nursery until the children were older that one can hardly blame Thomas for taking offence at being given orders by a stranger.

Master and Miss

Master George, Miss Sybie and their parents, the ones that lived

 

Fun fact: Children of the aristocracy had their own titles.  Little boys were referred to as Master ______ and little girls referred to as Miss __________ by anyone who was socially lower than them- nannies, servants, neighbors, etc.  It was a sign of respect for the children who would one day take the place of their parents in the aristocratic realms.  Of course, when they have grown up, these titles were left behind as a sign of respect.  As noted in the BBC tv series Cranford by two ladies, "Master William Buxton!"- "Although I think we should not call him master now, he is so much broader than when we last saw him." Of course the two ladies are chattering about the fully grown Tom Hiddleston who has been quite grown up for a while now.



Day Off

Ed Speeleers & Cara Theobold as Jimmy & Ivy

 

Let's take a sad moment to face reality- very few young ladies now a days would be asked out on a date if they had to face the interrogation squad of Mrs. Patmore, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson.  Just asking for permission from Mr. Carson would send most boys off the thought of ever asking a girl out.  Can you imagine if Mr. Carson had a daughter?  She would never be married.  No man would have the strength to ask for her hand in marriage.

 

So, whether Jimmy is just playing around with Ivy's emotions or not, it must be said he has gone through quite a lot to take her to the theater.  Why all the fuss?  Because a house such as Downton must be full functioning and running 24/7.  Servants lived there, they ate there, they were expected to be there.  There was no such thing as 9 to 5, 5 days a week back then.  One day off was allowed, and that did not mean the entire day.  Every other Sunday afternoon was often a stipulation of the job, and if you were lucky another member of staff had that every other Sunday off as well so you had some company.  Not always likely though.  Usually only one or two members of staff had off at the same time so that the others could cover the slack of missing workers. 

 

In the Downton staff, Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes would have first priority of time off due to their seniority, but it is doubtful they used much of their "vacation" time.  Of course Mrs. Patmore had off any time she wasn't cooking- it is why so many young girls took on the hardest role in the house of being a kitchen maid so one day they could live a good life as a cook. The Bates, now married, would probably get time off together.  This leaves the understaff with the scraps for time off, despite the young probably being the ones most in need of it.

 

Margaret Powell, in her book Below Stairs writes of the elaborate outings she had planned whilst working in London verses the reality as a kitchen maid:

 

"But I was always too darned tired.  I just wanted to go to the films where you could sit in darkness, where it didn't matter that you hadn't dressed up.  On my day off I used to go to the nearest cinema and get all my romance second-hand.  It took a lot less energy.  I often thought I wouldn't have had the strength if a marvelous lover had swum into my life.  I couldn't have done anything about it.  Once a fortnight I used to get a Sunday evening off with Gladys the under-housemaid, and we used to stroll around Hyde Park..."

 

The reality is, Ivy and Jimmy may fall asleep in the audience of the theater due to work exhaustion, but at least they tried.



Mourning Mary

 

The entire household in mourning colors.

 

 

When Queen Victoria's Albert died at an early age, she never got over the loss of her husband.  She was seen wearing black for the rest of her life, and paid such homage to his memory that she had her servants lay out his clothes every day for the rest of her life.  She was devoted to him to the end, and the Victorians embraced Victoria's choice of black for mourning as much as her choice of white for weddings.

 

Mourning was a full-scale event that consumed one's life.  Death was not uncommon.  After all, having watched Downton, the viewers have watched the end of the Victorian Era, when infant mortality rate was atrociously high, and have seen them come through a World War.  We have said goodbye to William, Sybil and Matthew.  We are just as aware of death as they seem to be.

 

Clothing wardrobes were either remade all in black, or dyed to be the suitable color (often being bleached later and then recolored).  Black silk crepe was an absolute necessity as long as one could afford it.  The staff could come out of mourning much faster, partially because they were expected to keep life moving as normal, and partially because no one wished to pay the extra expense of new clothes.  Little reminders, such as a black swatch of cloth around the arm, would not go amiss. 

 

It was of course on the widow that the most obligations of mourning resided.  In Victorian times, full black was expected to be worn for the first year, and then one may move to lighter colors such as mauves and grays during the second year.   A weeping veil was employed to discreetly hide the face of the widow.  This allowed the widow the time to grieve; it gave a cue to society that she was in a delicate state, and I am sure warned many a young suitor to stay away and not bother what could potentially be a wealthy young lady in her time of need.

 

Mary breaks all rules and regulations after six months by stepping out of black and into purple.  Of course, after the country had been through a Great War when no one may have escaped donning black, the rules of mourning loosened.  It was also helpful to audience members.  We can only sympathize with a lifeless Mary for so long before we want to give her a talking and a quick slap  to bring her into reality.

New Fangled Inventions

 

The brave Daisy testing her mettle with the electric mixer.

 

 

The electric mixer has hit Downton.  Whilst Ivy and Daisy seem to relish it (rather like the modern day equivalent of the latest cell-phone in the hands of children verses their parents- simply envision when you had to teach someone a generation older than you how to unlock the screen of an iPhone, let alone make a call), Mrs. Patmore is terrified of it.  And with good reason.  Not only can it turn your fingers into mush if you get them between the beaters when it is on (or so my mother always threatened when she let me whip up a cake mix as a little girl), but it was a sign that technology was being let into the manor houses.  More gadgets meant less servants were needed to be paid, and soon someone will have to leave if they are no longer necessary.  However, at the moment the electric mixer doesn't seem too terrible of a threat.

 

KitchenAid Model A, available in the 1930s.  As you may note, not in mint condition.

 

A Baltimore tinner by the name of Ralph Collier invented the first mixer, moving a whisk up in the world by giving it rotating parts in 1856.  The first one run by electricity was credited to Rufus Eastman in 1885.  By the 1910s, the first KitchenAids were being manufactured as well as the first electric standing mixers.  However, they remained out of the homes until the 1920s.

 



Casting on the Other Side of the Pond

A fun fact for those of you who haven't had a chance to get your hands on the book, Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey written by Emma Rowley.

"Unlike American series, which tend to lock in their cast for five or seven years, Downton works, as is the standard in the UK, on contracts that 'option' (lay claim to) an actor for up to three years."

This is the most rational explanation to the huge overturn; Dan Stevens, Jessica Brown Findlay, the upcoming leave of Siobhan Finneran all leaving in less than a season's length of time.  They are free to leave at this point having fulfilled their three-year contract.  Why, of course, one would want to opt of Downton is a completely different matter all together.

Rowley notes that Dame Maggie Smith has no 'option' with the show.  She may come and go when she pleases.  Of course, it is almost certain that the show goes when she goes, so we shall all have to keep our fingers crossed that she doesn't option out anytime soon.

Well It's About Time

Finally Season 4 is premiering tonight in America. 

Having spent the weekend curled up inside away from the -60 degree wind chill, I would highly recommend reading Margaret Powell's book Below Stairs.  If you are a fan of Mrs. Patmore or Daisy, this very truthful account of being a kitchen maid will grant you plenty of insight, and a new gratitude towards modern marvels such as electric kitchen beaters and dish washers (of course my dish washer hasn't worked in years, so I go Victorian and do them all by hand).

I would also highly recommend watching Downton Abbey tonight.  Perhaps urge would be a better term. 

Returning for a Fifth Season

Masterpiece Theater has confirmed that they will be airing a fifth season of Julian Fellowes' Downton Abbey in America.  It will begin filming in 2014.  I am so excited I must make myself a cup of tea.

For full details, check out Masterpiece Theater.