A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes (2 page)

And so the years ran on, through the twenties with the strange Janus-like quality of that era, facing back into the nineteenth century as well as ushering in so many of the inventions that would define the modern world; followed by the thirties, with the decade’s sharp contrasts of carefree luxury and terrifying want, as the privileged were released from so many of the strictures and rules that had governed their parents’ choices, while the less fortunate were fighting their way through the collapse of the economy. Until finally Britain reached the war, six years of fighting that would wash away any lingering doubt that the old world had vanished like the snows of yesteryear. There was a brief chimera to be gone through in the 1950s when the government wanted to put the returning soldiers back to work and women were encouraged, in campaign after campaign, to return to their pre-war, even Edwardian, role; when Dior and the other houses would revive the crinoline, when white tie came back for men, but these times were an illusion. No government on earth was able to persuade men, let alone women, that nothing had changed, and their Canute-like attempts to stem the tide came to an abrupt end in the sixties, when the Beatles and the Rolling Stones blew such notions out of the water forever, leaving us all as citizens of the New Age.

Julian Fellowes

July 2014

The Year Ahead

Mr Carson

Lady Mary stirs below her blankets; she shan’t wake till a maid has lit the fire to warm the bedroom. Besides, there would have been a celebratory dinner the night before, a glass or two of Champagne at midnight before the cheers for 1924 sent her up the stairs. We have faith that the year ahead brings her new feelings of hope and vigour – in series four, we watched her allow herself to start living a life that looks forward after the death of her beloved Matthew. Lord and Lady Grantham slumber too, together in their bed, perhaps forestalling the moment when they open their eyes to a world that has been changing at a pace that often leaves them feeling bewildered rather than excited. Lady Edith lies awake in the dark – troubled thoughts are never far away, but she can only hope this year is better than the last, with her daughter no longer overseas and safely looked after only a short walk away. Tom Branson snores lightly; I like to imagine he’s the kind of father to creep up the stairs to the nursery, to kiss his daughter Sybbie good morning before he goes down to breakfast. Nanny wouldn’t always approve of the disruption to the children’s routine, but surely Tom remembers how his mother was in the cottage he grew up in, in Ireland, and would not be able to resist. The day will be an easy one for the family, a few guests to entertain before the morrow’s shoot, but no business to attend to or errands to run. There will be a long lunch, a walk in the afternoon, another dinner in the evening.

For the servants, of course, their day is quite different, in that it is exactly the same as almost every other day when it comes to their duties and routine. They will have had a small New Year’s Eve celebration of their own in the servants’ hall, one that would have livened up considerably once Carson and Mrs Hughes had gone to bed shortly after midnight struck. A few of them will wake regretting the last glass of beer they drank. But there’s no shirking; the house must be got ready, shutters opened and fires made, rugs swept and the table laid. Two breakfasts need to be cooked, two luncheons must be prepared (for the family and for the servants), the menu for the family’s dinner written out. Carson is up and at the head of the table below stairs as smartly on time as he is every single other day of the year.

For the fifth series, we have returned to Downton Abbey in 1924. It may be only twelve years since we first stepped through the vast wooden door of the castle and met the cast of characters we are now so familiar with, but the changes have been so great, it is as if a century has passed. Change has been the theme of
Downton Abbey
since it began, reflecting the extraordinary developments in science and society that happened in the real world during the same period. But it is only now, as we head into the middle of the 1920s, that the full effects of those changes are being absorbed into our characters’ daily lives.

The differences between 1912 and 1924 are marked: motorcars are a frequent sight on the roads; a passenger may travel to Paris by aeroplane as easily as by ferry; women have seats in the House of Commons; the hems of women’s dresses are several inches shorter and the corset has almost been consigned to history. More tragically, a generation of young men has been killed in a brutal war.

By contrast, what we witness at Downton Abbey is a world that still prefers to move slowly. The drama comes as we watch our friends and see how they each react in their own ways to these modern intrusions. Some are sympathetic, some fight against them, others actively encourage them along.

The gatekeeper to Downton Abbey is Mr Carson – our fierce defender of the old way of life. The butler of the house, he holds absolute superiority below stairs – and occasionally, it seems, above stairs too. Carson knows the glory days are behind him – the so-called long Edwardian summer before the war, when he enjoyed a full retinue of servants at his command, liveried and polished, always at the ready to serve the nobility in the dining room. Now he must scrape along with Thomas as under-butler and Jimmy and Molesley for footmen; he’s even endured a maid serving in the dining room. Most unsettlingly of all, rather than a family of pure blue blood, the former chauffeur, Tom Branson, now sits at the dinner table. Snob though he is, we must try to be sympathetic. If Carson minds so terribly about whether or not the correct pudding glasses have been put out, it is because he feels that unless he does so, the whole world may as well have gone to rack and ruin and his entire life and career will be completely without meaning. Of course, every house did things differently, but the code by which Carson lives is not simply a set of rules to manage the Downton household – it underpins his very existence.

Mrs Hughes, as housekeeper, is Carson’s ally below stairs and together they rule the servants, managing not only their daily tasks, but giving them guidance in their personal lives. In many respects, Carson and Mrs Hughes are the mirror reflection of their master and mistress, Lord and Lady Grantham, as the parents of the servant family. Mrs Hughes is different to Carson in one important respect, however – while she enjoys her job, with the dignity and responsibility that it brings, she is not in thrall to her employers. Mrs Hughes has a career and, although it does not seem that she has much time away from it, there is a definite sense that she has, at the very least, a life of her own, if only for an hour or two at a time. It means that she is able to regard the changes in the world with a sympathetic eye – not any moral lapses, mind, but when it comes to relieving the work of the maids with an electrical gadget or two, she is more than happy to try new things.

The last time we saw Carson and Mrs Hughes they were walking hand in hand together into the sea. Could this be the beginning of a romance? If it is, it would not be altogether surprising, as many butlers went into retirement to open a seaside hotel with their former housekeepers or housemaids. Of course, we hope that this would be more than a pragmatic arrangement between our two much-loved characters, but we shall have to wait and see.