Tag Archives: “Downton Abbey”

A Downton Abbey Anachronism?

(Note: See comments for an updated answer to the question asked in this post’s title.) My daughter and I both had projects to work on last night and, wanting some familiar, companionable television in the background, decided to put on … Continue reading

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Christmas at Downton Abbey

I try to buy a new CD of Christmas music every December, and here’s my choice for this year 🙂 Buying info and the Amazon description are here (with sample audio clips of all songs).

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Countdown to Downton Abbey – Cora’s YouTube Music Video

Last year I wrote a series of “Countdown” posts in anticipation of Season 4 of Downton Abbey.  I had not intended to do the same this year, but yesterday I stumbled across something that was too fun not to share. So, first the … Continue reading

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (1 day to go!) – The Rise and Fall of the English Country House

“History is bunk,” Henry Ford once said. What he meant was that most history, as written in textbooks and taught in schools, has little to do with life as lived by ordinary people.  War and politics are on the periphery … Continue reading

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (7 days to go) — Cora’s fortune

I knew that it was common near the end of the 1800s for American heiresses to go hunting around Europe for impoverished noblemen.  It was the perfect win-win in some ways: an aristocratic pedigree for America’s nouveau riche and a … Continue reading

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (13 days to go) — The Dowager Countess’s “Mom” Jeans

Or at least the equivalent thereof. Have you noticed that as other women’s hemlines rise and hairstyles modernize, Violet Crawley (played by Maggie Smith) remains somewhat stuck in a pre-WWI Edwardian time warp?  Her hats are a bit smaller and slightly … Continue reading

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Countdown to Downton Abbey (36 days to go) – Pharaoh and Isis

The title of today’s post refers to the countdown clock on the Masterpiece “Downton Abbey” page on the PBS website.  For those of us anxiously awaiting Season 4 (or “Series 4,” as they say in England, where this season’s episodes have … Continue reading

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