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Lord Grantham's entire life is bound up in being lord of the manor and running of his estates. To have been told by his SIL and heir that his previous efforts weren't up to snuff on top of loosing much of his fortune in bad investments must have been galling on some levels. It is only because of a second unexpected infusion of cash (Matthew's investment) that LG is able to hold onto DA in the first place. As with many other great estates the Grantham's pissed through the money brought in from an heiress and unless another were to be found.....
Lady Mary is indeed not her mother; she is an English lady, a *GREAT* English lady if one may be so bold. The way she tells off Carson was priceless and right up that type's street. Having seen the entire season four am here to tell you as things roll on you will see LM come into her own and sort act as a bridge between her father's time and the outside world that is banging at the gates.
The Dowager Countess even more than her son represents the last gasps of the old (we're speaking Victorian Empire here) order. The world she knew of emperors, empresses, kings, queens and so forth was already dying and was blast asunder by WWI.
Those dynamics, played out for real by many a family, are why this time period is interesting. It's change coming without a way to bar the gates. No doubt Lady Mary will be a great English lady. She has one foot in the past and another in the future. She isn't hobbled like her father. Her mother, despite the money she provided, was trained to fit in.
One of the biggest casualties of the modern age was the Country gentry. Maintaining these old homes cost an enormous amount, and many ended up being demolished. In the specials about the ones existing today, the thing which stands out is all of them were willing to look beyond the 'expected' and find new ways to live. Given the series, I have a feeling that the real house standing in for Downton Abby will be a money maker for years. What they had to be willing to give up was the expected rules. They had to want to maintain the house and put up with tourists, filming and rethink how to use their estates to be able to hold onto them. The generation we see with Mary and Mathew and even Tom is the one who would tip that balance.
I think if Downton was real and the ghost of Robert could come back to visit in the house today he'd be horrified to see what it had become.
I think that the Dowager Countess is so interesting in that she is the last of her line and her world was already gone. Yet she remains a human being, able to tell her grandaughter that she could choose to live and let go or die. Maggie Smith's awesome acting doesn't hurt either.
In addition to Upstairs Downstairs, I thought that Berkeley Square did a pretty good job of depicting class division.
Upstairs Downstairs, loosely based on the life of Jean Marsh's mother, depicted the disparity in lifestyle between the middle-class and aristocracy, as well as the division between servant and nobility classes. Like the article mentioned above, one of the characters gets a job as a sole servant in a middle-class home. As much as she was worked to death in the big London house, the workload as the only servant in the house for a middle-class woman was unbearable for her.
There was one attempt at historical commentary in last night's DA episode, when Edith commented to her new beau the changes in loosening of the code of acceptable behavior. She mentioned that is was permissable for a single lady ike herself to be able to dine out.
Those dynamics, played out for real by many a family, are why this time period is interesting. It's change coming without a way to bar the gates. No doubt Lady Mary will be a great English lady. She has one foot in the past and another in the future. She isn't hobbled like her father. Her mother, despite the money she provided, was trained to fit in.
One of the biggest casualties of the modern age was the Country gentry. Maintaining these old homes cost an enormous amount, and many ended up being demolished. In the specials about the ones existing today, the thing which stands out is all of them were willing to look beyond the 'expected' and find new ways to live. Given the series, I have a feeling that the real house standing in for Downton Abby will be a money maker for years. What they had to be willing to give up was the expected rules. They had to want to maintain the house and put up with tourists, filming and rethink how to use their estates to be able to hold onto them. The generation we see with Mary and Mathew and even Tom is the one who would tip that balance.
I think if Downton was real and the ghost of Robert could come back to visit in the house today he'd be horrified to see what it had become.
I think that the Dowager Countess is so interesting in that she is the last of her line and her world was already gone. Yet she remains a human being, able to tell her grandaughter that she could choose to live and let go or die. Maggie Smith's awesome acting doesn't hurt either.
Large country estates became dead as Dodo's once taxes began to increase post WWI.
Great families had been used to paying rates around six percent and just couldn't make things work with the various new and increasing rates including death taxes.
The other thing was simply having all that land without it being productive also killed great estates. Unless you have wealth from other sources an estate without income from the lands to support it will not last long. Once the corn laws were repealed and goods from the USA and elsewhere reached UK markets, farmers/landowners lost a captive market for their goods.
Many great families had no choice but to sell up in whole or part to the National Trust. Yes, many aren't happy with tourists and so forth roaming about but there often were few alternatives. The heirs of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson moved back into their ancestral home, Sissinghurst Castle with it's famous garden and quickly found out who ran the place. Then there was the peer that had his estate stuck off the trust list for wedding ceremonies because he refused to allow a gay civil union in *his* home.
In addition to Upstairs Downstairs, I thought that Berkeley Square did a pretty good job of depicting class division.
Upstairs Downstairs, loosely based on the life of Jean Marsh's mother, depicted the disparity in lifestyle between the middle-class and aristocracy, as well as the division between servant and nobility classes. Like the article mentioned above, one of the characters gets a job as a sole servant in a middle-class home. As much as she was worked to death in the big London house, the workload as the only servant in the house for a middle-class woman was unbearable for her.
There was one attempt at historical commentary in last night's DA episode, when Edith commented to her new beau the changes in loosening of the code of acceptable behavior. She mentioned that is was permissable for a single lady ike herself to be able to dine out.
I think that comment alone shows how enormous the change in social mores was to be and how much women's lives were controlled. It's not surprising that there were few restraunts since it would have limited the supply of customers.
It's interesting that today there are maids who work in upper middle houses who would still understand the plight of the single maid back then. The difference is today its only the tip of the economic class where then it was expected they would have at least one servant.
I recently saw Life with Father, and the servants were seen more like robots and at the slightest fault were sent off and replaced. And that was in the US.
Just as many Americans have a fascination with British royalty, there also seems to be a fascination wtih British class division. American army captains in WWI did not bring their servants with them to wait on them in the trenches and barracks. Such a different perspective.
To add a bit about the legality of Mathew's letter and its validity as a will. I was kind of surprised at Lord Grantham's comments that Matthew's letter to Lady Mary that the letter had no worth. American law is largely based on British law and in American law that would be called a "holographic will" (holographic meaning handwriting) and is considered a legal document with 'testamentary intent" as he found out. If there is no formal will typed, witnessed and notarized, a probate court will take a holographic will into serious consideration in lieu of a formally will. The purpose being that the law bends over backwards to fulfill the wishes of the deceased first and foremost.
I can't help wondering if Lord Grantham really knew that but was was trying to keep Mary out of the picture and by not wanting her to know the letter even existed. He did say he did get several opinions as to its validity. Or he was really ignorant of the fact that it was going to be considered as a legal document.
I thought the same and was surprised his legal counsel advised him correctly; I thought they might try to write the storyline as it not being valid. I think the writers must have intended Lord Grantham to really believe the letter was not a valid will.
Can anyone explain the double taxation on the death taxes?
If Mary inherits in her own right, George will eventually have to pay taxes on Matthew’s estate twice: on Matthew’s death and Mary’s death. If he inherited from Matthew directly, he would only pay once. It’s another argument for invalidating (or even destroying) the letter.
If Mary inherits in her own right, George will eventually have to pay taxes on Matthew’s estate twice: on Matthew’s death and Mary’s death. If he inherited from Matthew directly, he would only pay once. It’s another argument for invalidating (or even destroying) the letter.
How soon is eventually? George is just a baby. Although they don't know it, with Robert at the helm they would lose it sooner or later.
I wonder if they would eventually go with the model for the real home, where everything on the estate makes money. It's their only option for keeping it and keeping it maintained.
Robert would probably make that argument, but mostly since he's lost without his job.
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