Downton Abbey Discussion continued...

[ErikNorseman]

Here!

I took the comment about eyes opening to mean that Mathew had been filled in on the details of the loss of the fortune. He didn't know this before the wedding.

I think it was put in to sound rude but wasn't really iyswim!

Oh I think the 'eyes had been opened' comment was a definite nudge, wink type reference.

That's how I heard it too!!

He wouldn't have been a virgin though would he?

It did make me cringe a bit I have to say. Bit crass.

Definitely a virgin I would think. He doesn't have enough pep in his step to be careering around town with fast and loose women. Lavinia didn't exactly look like a minx either.

Yes, hardly a remark one would make to one's father-in-law, even today.

would mary have been able to prevent a pregnancy? she sounded like she was on top of things in that department 'time for babies down the line'... but they didn't have condoms in those days did they?

Perhaps Mary is a Marie Stopes customer?
If Sybil dies in childbirth,as I think she will,Mary will be terrified of becoming pregnant....

i think it will be lady edith or cora that dies. lady edith could chain herself to some railings and a horse and carriage could crash into her.

or, maybe matthew will die, but,,,,,,,,,,,,,, PHEW, not before impregnating lady mary.

I think a gentleman would have had a reusable French Letter in those days. Matthew is far too buttoned up to dare look at his own penis, so Mary could have popped it on without him noticing.

They'd had rubber condoms for more than 50 years - discovery of vulcanisation. They were a bit thick though. Animal gut and cloth ones since about 1600 impregnated with spermicide of varying effectiveness tied with ribbons and washed after use. They were prone to holes (who'd have guessed?) They were used to protect men from VD rather than women from pregnancy.

The British Army didn't distribute them in the First World War because they were immoral. They relied on the spectre of syphilis to control the troops' desires. Don't know if it's true but I read somewhere that prostitutes with visible sores could charge more than healthy women and soldiers who wanted to escape the guns would go with them and hope to be invalided out after a court martial. Can you imagine the terror of the war that would make someone opt for such a horrible illness?

The 20s brought the invention of the latex condom - thinner and less likely to burst into flames. It wasn't the friction, more that rubber ones were manufactured using benzene making a condom factories a dangerous place to work. Mind you, most factories were lethal in one way or another.

Some feminists opposed condoms because they put birth control in the hands of men. Freud opposed them because they interfered with sensation.

Can you tell I used to work in a town that was very proud of its Durex factory and museum?

I like the idea of Lady Edith outraging public decency by shrieking 'off with condoms, on with the cap' in a feminist protest.

Is there no end to the wisdom that one can acquire on Mumsnet?

I'm fascinated with the idea of animal gut be-ribboned Restoration condoms! I bet they smelt oh so inviting.

I can see Johnny Depp poncing about in nothing but a full-bottomed wig and a beribboned lamb's gut condom.

The same place was famous for Lee Enfield rifle which was a formidably lethal weapon. In WWII soldiers would use their condom rations from the town's other big local employer to protect the muzzle from getting damp.

Is there no end to the wisdom that one can acquire on Mumsnet?

Every days a school day!

that's interesting LImited!! the idea of a man reusing it is gross!

New waiter looks like Simon Baker (Mentalist)

Bates still has a face like a saggy Bollock

Oh yes. I don't like him already. He is smarmy and full of himself.
I want Thomas to have a fulfilling love affair and cheer up.

New bloke I mean not Bates.
Bates goes from aw isn't he sweet to gawd what a righteous bore. Exacerly like his character in larkrise. Either way I would not Do him.

I had a dream about Carson last night. Weeing into a special recepticle in his butlers table placed in front of the fire. Was most disconcerting. Think watching 2.5 seasons in 2 days was perhaps a tad too much for my brain to cope with.

Have you already covered what happened to Mary's broken engagement to the newspaper man? How come he didnt print the story when she ditched him??

I think he did print the story but then we've moved on two months and it's all been forgotten

Lol at Carson dream ... he has a great voice though ... was he weeing or you?

port cheers. Oh to have a memory that short on real life.

Carson was peeing. It was one of those dream about weeing dreams and wake up panicking you have in the bed ones...

Did Mary actually get engaged to newspaper man? Lady Rosamund discovered he'd been blackmailing Lavinia is all I remember.

I don't think he did - at the end of last series she told Matthew who was a bit catsbum about it but said they would get Through It Together and it snowed and was all pwetty and I cried.

But I don't think he has. At the time the actor was on Spooks, Strike Back and Downton simultaneously, which were pretty much the only things I was watching. It was very odd watching him in three different parts.

I loathed Lark Rise.