Downton Abbey - update required

[StagnantRabbit]

Any big Downton fans out there who can tell me what happened in the very last episode of series 2 and also the Xmas special? Tryin to get ready for the new series on Sunday but is there anything else I missed? (apart from Lady Mary and Matthew getting together that is)

I guess he made some wise investments-unlike Lord G.

But odd as Lavinia stole something to implicate her uncle so that Sir R would write off a debt owed by her father?

Good point stillfeel18inside.

Dan Stevens' jowls are making me feel queasy. In a stiff wind they must make a sound like Rolf Harris's wobble board.

Can't remember which poster said he was a bit tubby but yes, he is.

I did wonder how her dad can possibly have enough to leave to bail out Downton. That does seem odd. Cora was v funny though - words to effect we are going to sell and buy a smaller estate, we aren't going down the mines.

I wish violet would tell Matthew his conscience is terribly middle class or something.

oh yes diddl.

Coronation Street used to have avid fans on retainer to consult on previous plots or things that would be completely out of character.

They don't make telly like in the olden days.

DH gave a typically dour analysis of the money situation: 'Well, if it's 1930 they would be about to lose any money invested in stocks and shares anyway.'

And, why aren't they doing what all the other Aristos did between the wars and sell the London house? They were all sold off more or less around this time, it was why the London season went into decline.

And they still own "half the village"... so sell that!

Lord Fattie said to his lawyer last week the estate and the house have to stay together in his mind, otherwise there's no point to the whole thing. He's wrong though, he's wrong about so many things. But I'm not sure whether JF thinks so.

Eugene tell DH it's only 1920 - still time for plenty of cocktails and dancing the blackbottom.

And as war looms a smart man would invest in armaments.

Something I don´t quite get though

Is/was the estate is entailed to Robert?

If so, is any of it his to sell??

When did entailing end?

1920s??!!

What's entailment diddl?

I did look it up but couldn't understand it.

Well I´m not entirely sure.

The current occupant can´t leave it to who they want, it must go to the next male heir, I think-so that it stays in the family & can´t be broken up, I guess.

Law of Property Act 1925 prevented the creation of new entails. The estate can be sold if its going to go bust, it just can't be left to anyone but the male heir.

1925?

I guessed well there!

It makes sense of course that they can sell.

Would the next heir still get the title?

Re selling off houses in the village, Lord G probably wouldn't do that because firstly they would be lived in by employees who would then be homeless and secondly in those days workers' cottages were worth very little. On a large estate near where we live, even in the 1970s cottages were sold because it cost more to repair them and put in modern kitchens (even pretty basic kitchens) than the cottages were worth.
Nowadays of course these cottages are worth hundreds of thousands.

These big estates-how was enough money ever made to keep them running?

I suppose some was through the land that was also owned?

So as it's before the Act, could Lord 6 sell or would he have to leave it to Matthew, who presumably wouldn't want it because he couldn't afford the upkeep?

Or would Matthew be forced to accept the inheritance he can't bear to take because he's bound by the will to accept Downton and go bankrupt?

I'm so glad my family has always been poor. Vast wealth seems such a headache

Some big estates and aristocrats did extremely well because coal, tin, copper etc was found on their land. Worth a fortune. And then there were the ones who owned chunks of London - the duke of Westminster, e.g., owns most of Mayfair/Belgravia which is why he is so minted.

The land used to make money when agriculture was bigger, but I've read that by the turn of the century the estate owners were increasingly needing to marry for money to raise the necessary cash to keep them going.

I've just looked up entails, and it seems that they were designed to stop an heir generally pissing the estate away with gambling debts etc. An entail can only be broken by a new legal agreement between the current owner and the next heir. So if I've understood that correctly, Matthew has to agree if Downton is to be sold.

So we know Highclere is in Berkshire so there'd be no chance of making money for about 65 years until yuppie country house hotels handy for London got going.

But Downton is near York. Any interesting mineral deposits that way? Never did geology at school.

They were talking about tin last night. They could despatch a character down a hidden mineshaft while sending him out to sniff the meat like Alfred did.

"they were designed to stop an heir generally pissing the estate away with gambling debts etc."

I´ve read that somewhere as well, but I don´t really "get" it.

It surely relies on someone actually giving a damn about being able to pass anything on?

Legally, an entailed estate could not be sold. And for an entail to be created, it just meant that somebody in the past felt that the pride and prestige of the land and aristocratic title should be preserved in perpetuity for their descendants. That's how I understood it, anyway.

They can sell the estate/break the entail if 'it's in peril' accd to the first series.

COME ON LADIES - remember?! matthew and mary fireside chat after violet payed matthew a visit in his office.

Excellent memory you have

If you analyse Mary, she is just a horrible, horrible person. A total snob but yet grabby as hell, wants all the US money but all the English snobbery. Total hypocrit and think the world revoles around her. Mary wants Granny warbucks to stump up the cash in order to allow herself and other granny to ponce around the place being complete biatches to sister Edie.

Mary could have married for love or money and she chose love, so she needs to now suck up the no money situation.

BTW does anyone else think there really is no chemistry between her and Matthew, his personality would have been more suited to Edith.

Moving on to Edith, she actually does seem excited about drippy Strallan, and they share their love of cars. They are a perfect couple, she is a middle ager trapped in a younger woman's body. She'll be up the duff in no time. I think her character is much more genuine than Mary's and therefore I like her more.

Lord and Lady 6 just coast along on other people's coat tails as well. How do they fill their days??