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

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.

 



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.