Downton Abbey pt.2

[Nessalina]

For continued waffling...

how do the police know that Bates bought a ticket to London/

Is it because Baxter told them or because the station master at York remembers?

If it's the latter, surely it would be remembered if he bought two tickets?

How busy were trains in those days?

would it be remembered if he had arrived at London?

citruslemon yes to Couson Isobel and the Doctor - then they will move to London to run an Xray department or maternity hospital that uses chloroform.

I never think Lord Grantham looks the part. Photos from the Edwardian period show older men with at least whiskery sideburns if not a huge whiskery moustache. They've completely ignored that fashion.

Some serious event is bound to happen to the Batess, they looked happy together for a few seconds in the last prog.

Isis replacement will be a Pekingese for Cora (which will get under everyone's feet) and a wolf hound for LG to look lordly beside in the grounds of the castle.

I think Anna may be pregnant but gets charged with murder..

Just coming on to say don't look at the Daily Mail online today as there's a bit of a spoiler on there.

Ooh thanks!

Also avoid the Independent's photos of DA. I clicked on the photo of Rose and Atticus as it was just that, not weddingy or spoilery i thought. The ones that follow though are v spoilery.

I have a question about servants and retirement!

So I get why Anna and Bates are trying to get some kind of little place of their own, as they hope to have children. But I don't really understand why Carson and Mrs Hughes (and even Mrs Patmore) are so keen to have some little place to retire to?

I thought that servants of their rank and long service were basically guaranteed a little peasant hovel cottage of their own on the estate when they retired? Is that not part of the deal? Noblesse oblige or whatever.

I do get it in Mrs P's case as she has the money unexpectedly and wants to do something with it. But surely C and Mrs H don't have to worry about their old age?

Even in the 50s and 60s retired servants were given grace and favour homes on the estate (not hovels ime) on retirement because, remember, people died in their 60s, so this wasn't a huge burden on the estate and allowed the paying of very low wages.

I think it's JF's usual heavy-handed way of demonstrating the rise of the middle class, you know how he doesn't really 'get' the world outside the upper crust. So obvs the peasants are revolting (Daisy and Miss Thing) and/or becoming homeowners. If Downton did a fast forward 40 years we'd start to see the offspring of the servants overtake Sybbie and George in terms of wealth, unless George takes a pragmatic view of the commercialisation of the estate as his Uncle Pickle would favour if he stayed around.

Rise of the buy-to-let home owner. He's very ahead of his time!

He might have been inspired by the BBC series on Chatsworth House where the Duchess of Devonshire was ending the tradition of putting faithful old retainers up in estate cottages for life in favour of tarting them up as holiday rentals.

Watching her overseeing the renovations was like watching Homes Under The Hammer: The Toff Edition.

Made me come over all Citizen Buntingish, it did.

Interesting! Thanks.

I hope that Isobel doesn't give Lord Merton up because of his bully sons. It's not like Isobel not to have a comeback to rudeness but I guess in this instance, she was shocked.

See, I thought that at first, but increasingly I understand why she's so hesitant. Because okay, maybe they do take after their mother, but it is still such a terrible reflection on him as a person that they are so appalling. And in a certain light, blaming their mother doesn't reflect very well on him either.

I do still really hope they get married! I think he's lovely! But I think she's dead right to be having second thoughts because the fact that they are so uncontrollably awful does him no credit at all.

I don't know if anyone had replied to this question again but you CAN watch itv live on the iPad app!

What's happened to Mad Mrs Gregson? Obviously, we're never going to hear about her again, like we never heard of the bloke with the burned face who may or may not have been the heir. But it's annoying me.

She's now Gregson's widow so she inherits his estate. I know this is the 1920s but surely he can't just sign it away with no challenge to the will?

She might be incapable of doing that but that it would be the responsibility of his executors. It's pre-NHS. Surely Gregson was paying something towards her keep and the hospital would be looking for that money.

And wouldn't Lady Edith possibly feel a bit guilty about taking her inheritance as well as her husband?

Good grief limited, that's a good point! No idea what the rules were in those days, but perhaps his will has provided an income to cover her care? Maybe an ongoing business would be looked at differently? No good entailing a business to a nutter

This was why I was wondering about why he'd even gone to Germany.

Supposedly to find a way to divorce his wife, but was it at all possible?

If edith has the business presumably everything else can be used for his wife & then maybe someone else inherit after she dies?

I suppose we don't know if he managed to sort the divorce before the nasty Nazis got him?

I suppose i just don't see how it was possible to divorce in another country?

Wasn't he going to become a German citizen where they allowed you to divorce insane wives?

He left Edith the business, I presume funds were left for his wife's care. It's the responsibility of the executors to carry out the wishes in the will, not decide themselves what should be done.

Wasn't he going to become a German citizen where they allowed you to divorce insane wives?

I don't know how he fell out with the men in brown shirts. If he'd have waited a few years he could have just transported her to a death camp with the rest of the untermenschen .

I take your point about executors LittleBearPad. It was more that it was being treated like 'Oh, how lovely' when it would be a little more involved.

Boring, without doubt, but no more boring than the clunky conversation Mary and Anna had to explain how Lady Mary's Interchangeable Suitors were able to compete in the point-to-point despite not being members of the local hunt. WTF? Especially since they got the dress code and riding style horribly wrong, according to the riders this thread.

But is Planet Downton and I love it so .

But even if he was a German citizen his wife wouldn't have been & the marriage would have taken place in UK?

I'm thinking also that he couldn't automatically have divorced her after 5yrs.

I know it was just a "device plot" to get rid of him, but really!