I must admit, I didn’t watch Downton Abbey when it was first on television. It has a very profound reason: it was a period in my life when I was not interested in watching television or series at all. As a result, I completely missed Downton Abbey. A few years ago, however, I wanted to catch up and tried to buy the box set, the Hungarian version though, because I tend to prefer an edition which has both Hungarian and English languages available. Well, it was impossible, everything was sold out and nothing to be found on the likes of eBay etc. I was really sorry, because since I moved to England, the social history of this particular era (well, not quite, but almost: from the late Victorian times until the Second World War) with everything that involves (servants lives, social life, etiquette etc) has become one of my favourite topics which I started to research intensively. 

How it all started…

As we visit different country houses and estates in England and we walk from the ball rooms downstairs, to the servants hall or up to the attic where the servants had their bedrooms, I can feel the history coming through the walls and I am sure if they could talk, they would tell many stories… It has been a few years now since I read the first book on this topic, yet for the time being the only film reference for me was ‘You rang, M’lord?’ And other English or Canadian films.

I cannot recall how we ended up with the idea of buying the box set in English, but in the end we did buy it at end of March 2019. As there was nothing interesting on TV, we decide to watch all the seasons and episodes. Hmmm. That’s a challenge!

You know what? I  do not mind now at all that I missed Downton many years ago. Firstly, because the topic and the era of Downton touched me in this period of my life and made me research it now, secondly because I did not have to wait days or weeks for the next episode and more importantly, I did not have to wait for adverts. We watched at least three episodes every night, at the weekends even more until early in the morning. We managed to watch all seasons and episodes in two weeks and once we have finished, it felt odd having nothing reasonable or sensible to watch.

The truth of a story lies in the details

There have probably already been, thousands of posts praising Downton and explaining why it is a brilliant series. It has been written about many times, how well it reflects the Edwardian era, the fact that they tried to use as many original clothes as possible, that an expert explained every details to the actors for example how far they can pull out a chair from the table and how they should move, that they used original motorcars, that they spoke a language of the time and they did not touch or hug each other because it simply was not fashionable. Downton has become the King of period drama for all of these reasons and I believe if it ever captures you, it will get under your skin.

It was a pleasure to see visually what I have read about so far, the series confirmed (almost) everything perfectly. I watched it also with a ‘professional’ or ‘historian’ eye. Of course there have been many books about the series and I have only read two of them. Although they were written by the writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, I did not find these books particularly exciting or authentic. However, since March I have read a few books about the era, which made me realise many elements of Downton Abbey are based on the lives of real aristocrats in Britain. This is not an issue by any means, it rather shows and justifies that Downton is indeed a true reflection of the era.

My only concern when watching the series in English, was that I will not enjoy it as much as I would in Hungarian, but I was completely wrong. I could not have enjoyed Mrs Hugh’s Scottish accent, Tom’s Irish accent and O’Brien’s, Daisy’s and Thomas’s Yorkshire accent in the Hungarian version, as there is no distinction in Hungarian. Still, the Hungarian voices are always wonderful, but this time… well… I did not think Lady Grantham’s or the Dowager Countess’s voices were spot on. Elizabeth McGovern has a much softer voice in English and Maggie Smith’s voice is really far from the Hungarian actress, Erzsi Pásztor‘s voice. Do not get me wrong, I love her voice and she was brilliant in Anne of Green Gables where she did Marilla‘s Hungarian voice, or many other roles in different films and series. She is brilliant, but not for Maggie Smith, I am afraid.

Can you have a favourite character in such a great film…?

But let’s just leave the Hungarian voices for a moment. Can one have a favourite character in a brilliant series in which all the characters seem to be perfectly spot on? Hardly! However, I am sure everyone of us has a secret favourite or favourites who we like a tiny bit more. I love Maggie Smith’s performance and her always polite but ironic punchlines. The other one I like a lot is Thomas. Yes, him. I know what you are going to say and I agree. He was really nasty at the beginning and perhaps we all wanted him out of the series and could not wait for the moment to come. Downton Abbey is a so called Bildungsroman which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonists and indeed every character goes through changes. In my humble opinion, Thomas is one of them who goes through the biggest and possibly the hardest change and that deserves respect. Besides, allegedly it is always more difficult to play a negative character than a positive one.

From Bampton to Highclere

Having watched the series the next tasks sort of became obvious: visiting the filming locations. And how lucky we are to have almost all of them around us, within one hour driving distance. When we visited Faringdon in April, on the way back we popped in to Bampton, which is the home of the Downton village scenes. I can not put it into words how happy I was when I saw the spiral of that distinctive church, the little place in front of the church with the huge oak tree and Mrs Crawley’s house. I was hopping around like a little rabbit, although it was just one of the many limestone villages of Oxfordshire, even if the scene was spoilt by cars.

As far as Downton Abbey ie Highclere Castle is concerned, I have been thinking about visiting it anyway, but never made it. The castle is open to the public on certain days only. This year, I did not miss it and managed to secure tickets.

Whenever I visit a place that is close to my heart, or has some sort of significance, I am close to tears. Highclere Castle was no exception. However, I was very disappointed as it started to drizzle just right before we entered the grounds, but as soon as I saw the famous towers, I had a huge smile on my face and forgot about the weather, but within minutes the sun appeared and blue skies showed Highclere in all its glory.

How did it feel  standing in front of Downton Abbey? ‘Surreal but nice‘ as William (Hugh Grant) said in Notting Hill. 🙂 That is the thing about England: no matter where you go in the country, you can be sure to bump into a filming location of a world famous movie.

Interesting facts about the castle and Downton:

• Highclere Castle has 300 rooms of which 61 rooms are bedrooms. Even today there are some 50 rooms which are uninhabitable and need renovation.
• During the Great War the castle was opened as a convalescence hospital and Lady Almina, the Fifth Countess of Carnarvon offered her services as a nurse – just like Lady Sybil did in the series.
• George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon found Tutanhamon’s tomb with his friend Howard Carter in 1922. It is said that the Mummy had a curse on him for bringing artefacts from Egypt to Britain. Maybe this is why he died one year later…?
• Before Downton Abbey, in 2009 the owners of Highclere Castle, Lord and Lady Carnarvon were struggling to save the building and they needed in the region of 12 million pounds for renovation.
• Lord and Lady Carnarvon live in the castle during the winter season and they move to one of the cottages in the grounds during the summer when the castle is opened for the public.
• Lord Carnarvon is the Queen Elizabeth the II’s godson.
• The servants quarters downstairs have long gone and accommodate the Egyptian exhibition. The kitchen, the servants hall and servants bedroom scenes were filmed in a London studio.

I have been to quite a few country houses in England and I know that all of them are different and have a unique ambience. Therefore it is pointless to compare them. However, I did notice a few things.

Positives:

• If anything, this castle should feel extremely commercialised, but it does not. Even the Downton craze is displayed in a very subtle and elegant way, I think. We did not have the feeling that we were pressurised to buy anything (I think you do it anyway when you are there, especially if you are a Downton fan), and everything was very relaxed. This makes a huge difference as we have been to places where we felt everything was done for the masses and was commercialised. Whether this is because Highclere is still a family home and lived in, I don’t know. Maybe! Like I said, even Downton appears in a reserved way and that is quite right. The castle should reflect the history of the Carnarvon family and not purely Downton. Having said that, I am not sure how popular Highclere would be without Downton. Although being a Jacobethan country house makes it unique. I am sure many people would equally develop feelings to any country houses that appears in a series.
• The food in the restaurant/café was very good and they offered different meals to what you are used to at country houses. Again, they are right to do so, as a place like Highclere can not afford serving bad quality food. It should be spotless so that your experience becomes even nicer and you will never forget it.
• Surprisingly all the guides in the building seemed to be extremely knowledgeable and knew much history of the house and objet d’art. It is worth talking to them as you can learn other stories as well. For example we learnt that Hugh Bonneville (Lord Grantham) has become a friend of the Carnarvon family and he is very much into the history of the castle, so much so, that sometimes he guides guests around the castle himself. We also know now, the 2019 film was shot in October 2018 at Downton/ Highclere and the crew – which consisted of some 230 members – only spent 15 days filming at Highclere.
• The shop again was lovely because it was not full of Downton souvenirs. Don’t get me wrong, there were pens, T-shirts, fridge magnets or bookmarks with Downton theme, but you could not find books or DVD about Downton.

What we missed though…

• Was a map of the grounds. It would have been nice to get a map at the time of the entry, or to have at least a display by the entrance so that you can check how to get around the estate.
• It would be nice to be allowed to make at least some photos in the building. I do appreciate it is still a family home, but still… However, it is not necessarily a bad thing to pay attention and take in everything you see rather than seeing everything from behind your phone or camera. It was funny to see the ‘red room’ where Kemal Pamuk died or Lady Edith’s room. It is a shame you can not go to the rooms, but I understand they try to preserve those that are used today or used for the shooting.

~

All in all it was a wonderful day and I even the weather changed from drizzling cloudy miserable to sunny and pleasant. I could not have wished for better. As a Downton fan Highclere Castle is definitely a must.

Perhaps you would agree with me that the English humour is different, distinctive and the English are quirky. Benny Hill, Monthy Python’s Flying Circus, Mr Bean, You rang, M’Lord? just to mention a few of the most popular English comedies and characters. After such a catalogue, it might not be a surprise that the English aristocracy is abundant in eccentrics and funny characters.

I have already read Lord Berners name in several books, but it was not until April, when we visited the folly that was bulit by him and the town he lived in, then I decided to get to know more about his life and dedicate a post to him.

Lord Berners name might ring a bell to you because of his folly. His eccentric idea to build a folly on the top of a hill because he believed ‘This hill needs a tower’. ‘The great point of the tower is that it will be entirely useless’, he said. Because he had money, he could go for it. Locals first objected to his idea, but later they actually quite liked it and showed their landmark proudly to visitors. Lord Berners knew his friend Lord Wellesley detested Gothic architecture, therefore he commissioned him to build a Gothic folly! As it happens, Berners was away during the building works, which made Wellesley’s life easier and he carried on building the folly in a Classical style. Upon Berners return just before finishing the building, he insisted on a Gothic finish. The result is rather eclectic. The folly was finally ready in 1935 and was a birthday gift to Berners 28 years younger life-time companion, Robert Heber-Percy. Perhaps the folly’s quirkiest sign added by Lord Berners is:

Members of the Public committing suicide from this tower do so at their own risk.

 

 

Lord Berners‘ eccentricity showed its signs quite early: At age of six, he tried to teach his mother’s dog to fly by throwing it out of the window, because he heard that dogs can be taught to swim by throwing them into the water. (The dog survived the ordeal by the way.) But do not think young Berners was useless and had no talents. On the contrary! Little Lord Berners was indeed very talented especially in music. Later on he wrote several ballets and music pieces. His friend, Stravinsky described him as the finest British composer of his generation. Wow!!

So there is a creative, musically talented, funny chap who after his parents’ death inherited not only wealth but Faringdon House in Berkshire. With no financial issues, he could happily live and enjoy an aristocrat’s life. He met his life-long love, Robert Heber-Percy in 1932 who was 28 years junior. Interestingly, Heber-Percy married a 21 year old girl with whom he had a daughter.

Berners composed music, wrote plays and poems and sometimes he also painted pictures. On one occasion he decided to paint a portrait of his friend’s horse, but he did not go to the stables, the horse was taken to his living room! It is not a joke. Besides he loved dying his pigeons in pastel colours, and his whippets wore diamond collars.

 

 

Lord Berners often threw lavish diner parties in his London house in half Moon Street just a few minutes taxi drive from the theatres of the West End and in his country house in Berkshire. Needless to say, he enjoyed pulling his guests’ legs. On open-air summer parties he pretended he had just been stung by a wasp – something that ladies feared greatly.

He often took the ‘Mickie’ out of London’s elite as well. On one occasion he sent a diner invitation to the snob social hostess, Sibyl Colefax saying the P o W (Prince of Wales) is also invited. In those days the London elite would have killed for a diner with the Prince of Wales, so no wonder that Sybil dropped everything and finally rushed to the diner party. To her surprise and disappointment she dined with the Provost of Worcester.
Other times, Berners wore a pig’s head mask and drove around his estate to frighten the locals.

 

 

Well, I think this already might be over the top, however there is something which surprised me when I was walking around Faringdon and saw a statue of a deep sea diver. What on earth is this? And why is it here? I had absolutely no idea, but I could have thought it had something to do with Berners.

 

Apart from Stravinsky, Berners had other prominent friends Salvador Dalí for example. Dalí was over in England to open the Exhibition of the Surrealist Art in London for which Berners thought Dali should wear a deep sea diver’s outfit.
When Berners was arranging to hire the outfit, he was asked on the phone: ‘How far does Mr Dalí wish to descend?’
‘To the depths of his subconscious’, Berners replied.
The voice responded: ‘Oh, in that case he’d better have a special helmet.’ Can you imagine Berners and Dalí practising in the lake on Berners estate where Dali nearly drowned? Moving forward can you visualise Dalí strolling down the streets of Faringdon in a deep sea diver’s outfit and then opening the exhibition in London wearing the same outfit, where he had to be extricated as he nearly suffocated. It all happened!

~

Whether Berners was crazy or eccentric and quirky, I let you decide. One thing is for sure: he was a distinctive character of Faringdon and London’s high society. As I was walking down the streets in Faringdon, everything reminded me of Berners: the coloured pigeons in the windows, the funny and quirky notes on the walls, the statue of the deep sea diver. I am sure, Lord Berners would be happy to see his legacy is still alive.

These women were slightly in a different and special position at grand houses because they looked after the family’s children which required great trust. They all had direct contact with the lord and mistress of the house and due to their responsibility they were highly regarded, both by the employers and by the servants. However, out of the three, the governess was in the most difficult and unpleasant situation, because she was an educated woman, often from middle class, yet she worked for money and was a servant who was treated accordingly. Because of her knowledge, servants tended to avoid the governess and she was often handled as a “black sheep”, who did not belong to them.

Difference between a nanny and a nursemaid

Before having a look at their roles and responsibilities, we have to clarify the difference between a nanny and a nursemaid. Although the word “nanny” is a synonym of nursemaid, there is a slight difference between their roles. A nanny would be a young woman who was a nurse of a child, meaning she would change the nappies, care for them when they were ill and functioned as a surrogate mother, or as a granny, whilst the nursemaid was a 12-14 year old girl most of the times from one of the farms nearby and whose relatives were most probably working on the estate in other positions. She would look after the children, dress them, wash them, sew their clothes etc. In spite of their privileged position in the household, both the nanny and the nursemaid were more exposed to danger. They could walk freely with the children in the house and gardens during working hours and with the presence of the children (who were not old enough to understand what was going on) men felt encouraged to approach them and address them which would have been uninvited.

Roles and responsibilities

During the Victorians era of English history, they started to look after animals, plants, people and children in need. Therefore, it was important for the Victorian aristocracy and for the higher-class to get the best care and education for their children. Because of a high birthrate during this period, mothers hired nannies or nursemaids who looked after their children 24 hours a day.

Nannies often stayed with the family for decades, especially if they were highly regarded. However, as soon as their services were not required anymore and the kids grew up, they were sent away. The separation often was painful and hurt both parties as nannies had more emotional connections to the children than their own parents, who would see them for an hour or so every day at a certain time. As a result, children often felt their parents were alien to them.

Not every nanny was good and loving and caring, there were scary ones as well who did not treat children properly, or beat them. If children could not fall asleep or stop crying, they would get a solution which contained morphine or alcohol.

The nursery

The nursery and the nanny’s room were on the upper storeys far from the parents‘. Nannies and nurses even had their own bathroom and lavatory which again shows their privileged position and they were also allowed to have their meals in the housekeeper’s room (“pug’s parlour”). The nanny defined what equipment, or amendment, the nursery needed.

The Wet-Nurse

There is another type of “nurse” we have to mention and that is the so called “wet nurse”. Although in the Victorian era, mothers were encouraged to breastfeed their children and were told they would get back they figures faster by breastfeeding, still this was considered to be “too animal” so that they rather hired wet nurses, who were young mothers but had enough milk to feed others‘ babies as well. I find it interesting that wet nurses were advised not to drink spirits, but were encouraged to drink beer as they needed fluid and beer was safer to drink than water. Of course, wet nurses too were employed as long as their services were required.

The Governess

Governesses first appeared in the 17th century after the Civil War when many women lost their husbands and they needed to secure their income. Only the wealthiest families could afford to have a governess and only girls were taught by a governess as boys were sent to boarding schools. Daughters of the aristocracy had to learn to play music, how to dance, be familiar with fashion and to have a general education, so that they can find a rich husband later. Therefore, families often hired a dance teacher who had to be French and a governess who had to be well brought up – daughters of clergymen were preferred.

The governess always had to dress well, which was difficult given her low salary. Although she did not have any perks like other servants in the household, she was allowed to use the library, instruments and she joined the family on trips. Just like the nanny or nursemaid, the governess was sent away once her services were no longer required, which in her case was when girls married and left the family. Retired governesses often opened a private school together in order to secure their income.

~

Although these women lived in better conditions and were more regarded by the family than other servants, their lives and jobs were equally difficult and often lonely and sad. Not to mention the fact they were sent away when they were not required anymore which made their future insecure.

Lord Grantham, Lady Chatterton, Baron Merton, Countess of Grantham, Lord Meldrum, The Honourable Mr. Teddy, Sir Ralph Shawcross…

You can hear different titles of the English aristocracy just like Lord, Earl, Baron, Viscount, Lady etc in many films. I must admit the English peerages have never been clear to me and it started to annoy me, so I looked it up.

Like many other things in England, peerages are not simple either. In fact, they are rather complicated, therefore, I attempt to sum it up the best as I can to give you the essence of it without being exhaustive.

Basics

01.

Titles of the peerage are created by the reigning monarch.

02.

There are two types: peerages for life which cannot be inherited and heritable titles: Life Peers and Hereditary Peers.

Life Peers

From time to time the reigning monarch created life peers that could not be passed onto someone else by inheritance. For example the bishops of the Church of England belong to the House of Lords, however, neither their title or spiritual function could be inherited.

Hereditary Peers

The title is always owned by one person only, meaning the son of an Earl is not considered as an Earl. (Remark: in Hungary it would be.) When the current holder dies, his title passes to his eldest, legitimate son. If he does not have sons at all, the title would pass on to the next male relative in line. If there is no heir to inherit it, the title becomes known as “extinct”. (Interesting how different these things were back in time: in Hungary the daughters of a peer would inherit both the title and the wealth.)

03.

Every peerage belongs to the House of Lords, but not every Lord has a peerage.

What does it mean? It means that lord is an umbrella term which includes both the aristocracy (peerages like Earls, Dukes etc) and important members of the state like prime ministers and spiritual leaders like archbishops, bishops etc. In other words: the latter are not aristocrats, so not “blue blooded”, they get their title because of their important function.

04.

Peers have five ranks in Engalnd in the following, ascending order of hierarchy:

Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess and Duke. Interestingly, in my home country, Hungary there are 4 ranks of peers only: Baron, Earl, Duke and King. We lack of the ranks Viscount and Marquess. The below chart shows the female counterpart of every rank plus how to formally address them.

The names of peers often consist of 4 elements:

Other interesting facts:

• A peer can hold several titles, meaning if an Earl becomes a Marquess he can retain both titles, but will use the highest rank.
• The son of a Duke, a Marquess and an Earl always uses the father’s second highest rank.
• Every legitimate wife of a peer is entitled to use the female counterpart of the rank, but it does not apply the other way round: husbands of female peers are not entitled to use it.
• The official title of the Mayor of London is The Lord Mayor of London.
• Judges of British courts are called My Lord.
• You could ask what about the title Prince. Well, this could be the 6th rank of peers, however, there is only one rank of that kind: the Prince of Wales.
• Baronets and Knights belong to the class Gentry and they are not peers.

Coronation Robes

Now that we know the basics of the peerages in England, let’s have the icing on the cake! I noticed at the home of Lord Nuffield, the founder of the Morris Mini car, that he and his wife owned a coronation robe. As I am always up to a little bit of fun, I put the costume on, but more importantly, I made a bit of research why they had a coronation robe at all.

Every peer had coronation robes and coronets (not crowns!) which they only ware at Coronation(s).

I must admit, I was not aware that peers are differentiated by their robes as well. The main difference is the coronet – see below drawings (no royalty-free image available, hence I drew it myself).

1) Duke – 8 strawberry leaves
2) Marquess – 4 strawberry leaves, 4 silver balls
3) Earl – 8 silver balls with strawberry leaves
4) Viscomt – 16 silver balls
5) Baron – 6 silver balls

This is not the only thing that reveals the rank. The number of rows of the spots on the ermine cap of the robe, also does that. A duke has 4, a Marquess has 3, an Earl has 2 and a Baron has 1 row of spots. Equally in case of a peeress not only the spots were symbols of her rank, but the length of the train (longest 1.82m, shortest 91.44cm) and the width of the ermine edging.

On top of this, peers had another robe which they wore (and still do) in the House of Lords. These were striped most of the times.

~

Wow, I have to say. Mainly because it is incredible that these old traditions are still alive in the UK. This is very strange for somebody like me who comes from a country where we do not have monarchs and traditions linked to it. Although the peerage system is much more complicated than explained above and I am sure Meghan Markle has to do some more in-depth study, hopefully this post helps to understand films like Downtown Abbey much better. 🙂