2020 in-between - part 8: Downton Abbey exhibit at the Biltmore Estate - Travel With Us

After spending a few hours walking around the Biltmore House, we took off for the Downton Abbey exhibit that is on another part of the estate. So looking forward to this!

We’ve seen the series a couple of times on TV, and Barney even joined me for the movie on our trip last fall to the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Since the time period for both the show and the Biltmore House is about the same, it’s great seeing them on the same day.

An upside of Covid-19 is that the number of visitors going into the exhibit is a small percentage of the usual number so we were able to spend a lot of time looking at pictures and signs!

So nice to be part of the family, even though I’m not dressed for the occasion.

Two families lived under this one roof: the blood-related family and the work-related family of servants. But everyone had the same purpose of handing down the house intact to future generations.

The servants cleaned and maintained the furniture and furnishings, provided good food, and ensured general comforts. The family managed the house’s income from the farms and entertained their guests. Life after WWI made their tasks more challenging as the world’s economy and politics changed.

As I watched the show, I was amazed at how the writers were able to include the changes in society in the story line. This exhibit gives us more information on the life that the Crowleys and the servants lived during the early 1900s.

WWI – 1914 to 1918

While only a small percentage of British soldiers deserted during the war (like Mrs. Patmore’s nephew), some were so desperate to escape the horror of war that they purposely wounded themselves so they could go home. This was Thomas’ experience. Such wounds were known as a “Blighty,” an affectionate nickname for Britain.

Front line hospitals provided emergency treatment before soldiers could return home to get healthy again and come back to fight.

As it became apparent that more space was needed for these recovering soldiers, many great houses, like Downton Abbey, were temporarily converted into hospitals and convalescent homes as part of the patriotic war effort.

Families were able to continue living in their homes if they were being used for convalescence. Even though surgeries weren’t being done in these homes, often the injuries were severe enough to require frequent dressing changes and care to prevent infections. Otherwise, all that was needed was rest and recovery so that the men could be sent back to the front.

The number of soldiers suffering extreme injuries on the battle field meant that more had to be done to heal them, requiring fast improvement in scientific treatments.

All of these improvements meant that the local village hospitals and doctors couldn’t keep up with what was available. These changes led to the power shift in medicine from local hospitals to larger institutions. While it could mean better medical care, it also meant the loss of personal, intuitive treatment at the local level. This conflict and change played a big part in Downton Abbey for Cora, Violet, and Isobel.

At the same time, working class men and women found themselves in big trouble if they got sick or injured and couldn’t work.

If ill or injured and not able to work to support themselves and pay for their medical care, or didn’t have family or friends to help them out, the working class people were often forced to enter a workhouse institution for the poor where they did hard, manual labor in exchange for a bed and food, conditions that were more like a prison.

Remembered how this issue was covered when Mrs. Patmore started having problems with her eyes and she was afraid to say anything? Robert stepped in to pay for her cataract surgery. She had the help she needed but others without a kind “boss” might not have. The need for a change in medical care was being felt by the working class.

By 11/11/1918, the war was over. But more than 17 million people around the world had died and 20 million more were wounded. Many who returned home were unfit for work because of physical or mental injuries.

Women who had always thought that they would marry and have children now found that there weren’t enough men to go around. This situation meant that more opportunities became available. Women were given the vote, socialism gained popularity, and new technology meant better job opportunities for the working classes. Such was the case for Gwen when she learned to type and then got an office job.

service

Most maids left service in their 20’s to get married, while others found employment with farmers and shopkeepers who liked girls from “the big house” for their social skills and contacts.

Housekeepers and cooks often selected the brightest girls from a rural village school to come and work in the big house. After WWI, service became a less desirable career as other possibilities opened up in England’s fast-growing towns and cities.

Boys as young as 12 would enter service as a “hallboy” who would do such jobs as carry coal to the fireplaces and deliver messages. The butler would train him to serve the upper servants before he could serve the family.

The long hours and need to live in the house meant servants who stayed in service usually didn’t marry until they had retired. Many a butler and former maid would marry and go on to run a small seaside hotel. Mrs. Patmore had such retirement plans of running a small hotel that encouraged Carson to make plans too.

life of a . . .

The butler’s main job was to ensure a well run and comfortable house so important guests would accept invitations to visit. The butler was also in charge of the wine cellar, maintained records of wages paid, made sure the silver was polished before being stored in his pantry. (All of this was done by Carson.)

While they could take time off, butlers often didn’t do so because they didn’t always trust their deputies to do everything as well as they did.

The housekeeper ran the household alongside the butler. Her position was so respected that she was always given the title “Mrs.” even if she wasn’t married.

The housekeeper oversaw the housemaids who cleaned and dusted the state rooms and bedrooms. She also ensured that the guests’ rooms were freshly made up and ready for their arrival. Creating frustration for the cook, the housekeeper ran the ordering and accounts for the dry foods, which caused the odd battle over the store-cupboard keys. We certainly saw this conflict between Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore.

A valet was one of the upper servants in the house and close to the head of the family. He prepared the bath and helped his master dress and undress. As tricky as some of their outfits were, such help makes sense.

A valet would travel with his master on trips to London or abroad and would be expected to know exactly what was needed for any given trip, down to the correct cuff-links for an army dinner. (Regimental clothing was the most complicated when it comes to protocol.) Also, a valet helped serve meals if an extra footman was needed for a grand dinner. All of this sounds like Bates, doesn’t it?

I missed this green baize door on the first floor, but I remember a door that the servants would use to enter the family’s area. It was a definite moment between their backstage preparation and being on show for the family. The appearance of the house was totally different on both sides of this door.

When in the library or drawing room, a servant was expected to adhere to strict protocol, carry out tasks, and swiftly return to the servants’ quarters downstairs. In return, the family rarely breached their work area unless they were invited or because of an emergency.

While servants could rarely find a moment for themselves, any rest between jobs was taken in the servants’ hall. However, small spaces could be found when needed, and one area was the boot room in Downton Abbey where Anna and Bates could snatch a conversation, Jimmy and Ivy could steal a kiss, and Baxter could encourage Molesley to work in the school.

changes in society

After the Industrial Revolution of the mid-1800s, a fast-growing middle class emerged in England. This new middle class was more educated, had aspirations, and was ambitious for the finer things in life and was ready to work for what they wanted.

Middle class men and women worked in medicine, law, teaching, and retail. (Sounds like Matthew.) They had money to spend and encouraged the development of leisure-saving gadgets, as well as leisure itself. Weekends, holidays, and a trip in the motor car were their pleasures. They were the only ones to use the word “holiday” until after WWII. No wonder Violet didn’t know what a weekend was!

**Old Money.** Estates like Downton Abbey were run as small kingdoms, with tenant farmers and villagers providing both an income and employees for the families.

The world of these people was small, and travel was slow and difficult. But as trains and then motor cars allowed people to travel easily for work, their horizons began to stretch, especially as people want to try a new way of life after WWI.

**New Money.** New technology meant new industry, and some profited well from the turn of the 20th century, bringing them into the drawing rooms of England.

This new group of people were newspaper barons, factory owners, and later on, war profiteers. Self-made men like Sir Richard Carlisle in Downton Abbey wanted to demonstrate their success by imitating the ways of “old money,” with large houses in the country, the best servants money could hire, tailored tweed suits, and lessons in shooting—and marriage with a woman from “old money.”

The “Irish Problem” in the early 20th century affected many in the country, like Tom.

Under British rule, the Irish had fought a long campaign for independence that became increasingly fierce on both sides after WWI. Dublin in 1920 was almost a war zone with assassinations, the torching of aristocratic houses, and brutalities against civilians. The conflict culminated in Bloody Sunday when 31 people died. In another part of town, 14 people were killed and 65 injured as they watched a Gaelic football match.

Lady Sybil was our voice of suffrage and women’s rights in Downton Abbey.

While the movement began in the late 1800s, it was under the leadership of Emily Pankurst right before WWI that the movement gained real momentum. Violence by some to attract attention had the opposite effect for many, however.

The war paused the campaign, but the work of women while men were away fighting brought the result suffragettes wanted. In 1918, propertied women over the age of 30 were given the right to vote. The following year, Lady Astor became the first woman MP (Member of Parliament) to take her seat in the House of Commons.

After King Henry VIII dissolved the Catholic Church in the 16th century, almost all wealthy families were protestants and marriage with Catholics was frowned upon until the 20th century. Now we understand the problem with Lady Sybil marrying Tom Branson, who was from a working class Irish Catholic family.

After WWI, the population of black people in Britain began to grow. Merchant seamen and soldiers, as well as students from Africa and the Caribbean, settled in London’s East End and the northern cities.

Few black people infiltrated upper class life, and interracial couplings were still very rare during the early 1900s. However, a black American jazz musician, Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson, enraptured the gossip columnists. He became famous for his affairs with high-society London women in the 1920s, possibly even including the wife of Queen Victoria’s grandson, Lord Louis Mountbatten.

Now we understand more about Lady Rose and singer Jack Ross.

Perfect in every way—almost. Atticus is Jewish. While the Crawleys don’t oppose the match, especially since Cora is the daughter of a Jewish man, Atticus’ father opposes the marriage since he doesn’t want his grandchildren to be Gentile. But Rose’s good heart turns him around.

Before the war, upper-class women expected to be married and have children just like their mothers and grandmothers had. Everything in their childhood prepared them for this lifestyle, which was the only way to escape their parents’ house and gain independence and power of their own.

Unmarried women lived at home and were chaperoned everywhere they went. After the war, because of the surplus of women, marriage was no longer an option for many, and they had to find a different path for themselves. We saw this challenge for Lady Mary and Lady Edith.

Life happens, and babies come along when women aren’t married. Ethel found herself in a tough spot and almost didn’t make it. Jane passes herself off as a widow. And Lady Edith first gives up her daughter and then brings her back to Downton Abbey as a foster daughter and finally as her daughter. Adoption became a legal option in 1926.

In 1901, forensics was introduced with fingerprinting to catch criminals. Trials for murder were conducted in front of a jury and a judge like today, but punishment at that time was execution. Even if a criminal escaped the ultimate sentence, many feared life in prison since many Victorian prisons remained unmodernized.

Prison life was a deliberately dehumanizing experience. Convicts would be referred to only by their assigned number. All wore ill-fitting, scratchy woolen suits, ate revolting porridge or broth, allowed minimal exercise, and were forced to complete hours of daily hard labor.

Conditions were spartan with narrow cells, only bed boards to sleep on, and few personal possessions allowed. Letters were censored by the guards, and all visits were heavily supervised. The air was stale, the lighting poor, and in the winter months, the prisons were bitterly cold.

Our hearts went out to both Bates and Anna when they were in prison.

Education for the working class had been a hot topic for politicians since the mid-1800s so that even the poorest, like Daisy, would have had basic literacy and numeric skills.

Before the war, children could not leave school before the age of 12 and some continued until they were 14 years old. However, most rural families needed their children to go out to work. Rarely did anyone in the working class make it to university. Only public school educated boys attended; after the war, a few middle-class women were allowed to attend.

Now we understand why Daisy was so intent on learning and why Molesley wanted to teach children in his village.

Some of the books available during the years of Downton Abbey.

Following the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s, Parliament imposed higher taxes for the wealthy families and improved wage structures for the working class..

Estate owners not only had to find new sources of income but also find a new purpose for maintaining their estates. If they couldn’t provide employment for the local population, then what were they for? Many couldn’t answer this question and ended up having to sell their estates, breaking up the land and its assets for the first time in centuries.

Between 1918 and 1939, more of England changed hands than at any time since the Reformation in the 16th century. Without their houses and income, these families lost their influence and power, bringing an end to the aristocracy as the ruling class. And leaving many without jobs.

Many of these homes became part of the National Trust so visitors like you and me could visit and see another style of living.

changes for the Downton Abbey family

From the 1880s onward, a steady stream of American heiresses married into the English aristocracy as part of an exchange of class and money between the families. Such women brought with them their dowry to help out their British husband’s need of money for his estate to continue operating.

Some partnerships were successful, such as Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill (parents of Winston Churchill). Some were less happy. These young girls from America left behind all of their friends, family and society to enter a completely different world that was a whole ocean away. They quickly realized that they had to learn a new set of complex rules of behavior and protocol (and that weren’t written down). They found themselves at the end of their lives in a world very different from the one into which they had been born.

Now we better understand Cora and Robert’s marriage.

New technology could present a dilemma for the great houses and their servants.

Remember Carson practicing how to answer the telephone when it rang?

The grandest families usually also owned a London house (or would rent one) so they could celebrate the season with their friends and “see and be seen.” Beautifully dressed men and women delighted in showing off their best outfits and having as much fun as possible.

Along with the Summer Exhibition, key events were the Chelsea Flower Show and horse racing at Ascot, which still takes place today. London was a whirligig of amusements during this time.

In the early summer, the place to be if one was fashionable and rich was London. The capital was the center of “the season,” which began in the first week of May with a Private View of the Royal Academy Summer exhibition at Burlington House and lasted until the end of July with the races at Goodwood.

In between were endless parties. At the heart of the season was the presentation at court of the country’s debutantes—a young woman who left the schoolroom for the ballroom, in hopes of finding love and marriage with an eminently suitable man. Cora presented Lady Rose to the King in Downton Abbey.

Probably the most visible markers showing the changes in the Downton Abbey years is the women’s style of clothing, hair, and make-up.

Before the war, all women had long hair that was pinned up, and make-up was worn only by actresses and prostitutes. After the war, make-up was worn more frequently, and the more daring women bobbed their hair short. Remember Lady Sybil’s pantaloons and Mary’s short haircut?

Another change after the war was the undergarments that women wore. Young women stopped wearing corsets, while the older women wore a different, less restrictive type.

The fashionable figure in England in the 1920s, just like in America, was more boyish—straight up and down—so women tended to wear girdles, a tight but flexible piece of underwear that reached from just below the bosom to mid-thigh. They wanted their dresses to hang smoothly with no visible bumps or seams. Women also wore suspender belts for their stockings made of silk or wool.

Men kept their fashions more simple with vests and long johns or drawers that reached down to their knees.

a look at the house

Now we get to take a look at the house, upstairs and down.

public rooms on the main floor

Robert and Cora welcome us to their home.

The heart of Downton Abbey, the Great hall is the central point on which all else turns with the state rooms leading off it in an almost perfect circle.

In the morning, the servants clear up from the night’s activities before the family comes down for breakfast. This is one room where the family and servants can gather, such as at Christmas for the Servants’ Ball, for a concert by Dame Nellie Melba, or to listen to the King speak on the radio for the first time.

The Library is the heart of the family’s rooms. Its masculine space is where Robert has his desk and where he can be found during the day if he’s not out of the house. At tea time, the family gathers and later the children come down to spend an hour with their parents and grandparents. A footman serves tea, sandwiches, and a slice a cake (that’s never eaten with a fork).

The south-facing drawing room is the prettiest of the state rooms. This feminine room is where life’s more gentle activities are carried out: talking, embroidery, and playing a pretty composition on a grand piano. Rarely is this room used during the day unless Robert and Cora meet together before dinner. The family joined them here before dinner.

During the war, this room is turned over to the convalescing officers as their dormitory—a completely different function for this lovely room!

The family gathers 3 times a day, sometimes with guests, to eat and to talk. When the family is eating, the butler and the footmen remain in the room, standing silently by the wall. These long hours are needed for up to 7 courses when it’s a white tie dinner. Eavesdropping is surely their reward.

For all their British reserve, around the Downton dining table we have heard gossip, arguments, revelations, and flirtations from the Crawleys.

In this room, letters, telegrams, and newspapers have arrived bearing life-changing news: the sinking of the Titanic, the death of Sybil’s soldier friend at war, and a job as a columnist for Edith.

Robert has his medical emergency in this room, and Mary enjoys some of her courtship with Matthew here. This room is also where she joins the tenants’ lunch, a turning point in her grief after his death.

This picture doesn’t do justice to this room because of the flash on my camera. The room was dark with lights coming from the candles, lamps, and polished silver.

Its beauty took my breath away.

close up of the place setting—so many utensils!

Where one sat at the table showed a person’s importance.

The lord and lady of the houses sat opposite each other in the middle of the long sides. The grandest lady would sit on the host’s right, and the grandest man sat on the hostess’s right. If the guests had titles, then the order was easily done. If no titles, seating would be more complicated, but a skilled hostess would manage.

Guests were served “a la Russe,” which means that the footmen brought the dishes around for them to help themselves from the left.

The hostess would turn to the person on one side for the first course, and each woman would follow her lead. When the next course was served, she “turned” to the other side, ensuring no one was left out of the conversation.

At the end of a dinner, the hostess stood first, and the ladies followed her out for coffee in the drawing room. The men remained behind for a glass or two of port and a cigar.

upstairs

Mary’s bedroom is the room we see most on the 2nd floor, especially this view of her dressing table.

downstairs

And then there’s the stairs that connects the servants and the family. Can you imagine how strong their legs must have been from going up and down the stairs so many times each day, often with heavy loads?

These back stairs go up to the state rooms on the first floor, the family bedrooms on the 2nd floor, and the servants bedrooms on the 3rd floor.

Sometimes these stairs were the only place the servants could privately talk to each other. Thomas and Miss O’Brien plotted, Anna and Bates exchanged a sweet nothing, and Baxter confided in Molesley that she had a terrible secret to confess.

The servants’ quarters really took up the whole basement of a great house, which meant a lot of walking through the long corridors. Carson and Thomas could easily put in a several miles a day serving the family. The long corridors would help keep the smells from downstairs from the family upstairs.

The corridor to the back door that we often saw open to allow workers to enter on the left and to the kitchen on the right.

Mr. Carson’s pantry

In Carson’s butler pantry, the silver safe is found since the butler was considered to be the most trustworthy of the servants. The footmen will polish most of the silver, but the butler will handle the most valuable pieces himself.

Carson decants the wine and port in this room, pouring it through a piece of muslin to catch any dregs. He also records the accounts in his ledgers. This room is where he could interview a potential servant and give another one a dressing down. The servants’ telephone is kept in his room, much to his displeasure.

the servants’ hall

This one room has many functions for those who work in the house. After an early start to the day, lunch times provide a welcome rest and chance for gossip along with a meal.

This is the room where they can take a quick rest and enjoy a time to take a breather, write their letters, dance by the piano, and even enjoy some romance.

If needed by the family, the bells on the wall will let them know.

Here Thomas puts his feet up to rest, Mrs. Baxter catches up on her sewing, and Molesley reads a book.

While we may find the bell board attractive, it probably wasn’t that way all the time for the servants since it could summon them back to work at any time. Each room in the house has a long rope—a pull on this will sound the appropriate bell in this room.

For the footmen, though, this board was an improvement. Originally they had to sit on hard chairs in the Great Hall for hours at a time in case they were needed to send messages to the other servants or make up the fire.

the kitchen

With the footmen coming in and out to fetch the dishes for the dining room, kitchen maids Ivy and Daisy find some spare time for romantic intrigue too.

Women at work during the show—it looks the same as what we’re seeing today!

All of the sets were designed for all 6 seasons of the show. On the first day of filming, the legs of the central table had to be cut down because of Mrs. Patmore’s height so she wouldn’t have to stand on her tip toes for the next 6 seasons. Although a set, the kitchen was plumbed for real water and steam rises from the kitchen range so it looks like a real working kitchen.

Good food is central to the success of a house like Downton Abbey since they need to impress important guests.

The cook would meet the lady of the house to discuss the menu, often consisting of 4 or 5 courses. Highly decorated food was very fashionable in the 1920s but tricky to create, so the cook and her maids must keep their skills as fresh as their seasonal ingredients.

This group of cooks would prepare up to 8 meals a day for the family and the servants.

time to say goodbye

Here’s the gong that Carson used in the Great Hall to let the family know that it was time to dress for dinner.

Now on to the lovely clothes from Downton Abbey!

2020 in-between – part 8: Downton Abbey exhibit at the Biltmore Estate

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