Not Abbey Road

Like many other Americans, Brits and others I suppose, I am now experiencing Downton Abbey withdrawal, and I haven’t even seen the first season yet. The second season of the popular British period drama, set in the early 20^th century at the fictional Downton Abbey in Yorkshire, England has just ended with no more episodes due until early 2013, at least for those of us in the U.S. The show follows the ups and downs of the fictional Earl and Countess of Grantham, their aristocratic Crawley family and the many servants that keep them in fed, pampered and clothed in style.

And what style it was, at least for those on top. One aspect of the show that I’m sure brings in lots of viewers like myself, is the depiction of the whole upstairs/downstairs society with the butlers, footmen, chauffeurs, maids and other servants doing all the dirty work to keep the blue-bloods living like rich folks ought to.  We do get a glimpse of how at the beginning of the 20^th century some of the old traditions were breaking down with respect to the class structure and who ought to marry whom. And along with the news of the sinking of the Titanic, the First World War and the outbreak of the Spanish Flu, well, how did they survive?

Highclere Castle            

Author: JB+UK_Planet

Much of the filming has taken place at the stunning Highclere Castle in Newbury, some 50 miles west of London and it has plenty of real history of its own. It was largely rebuilt for the 3^rd Earl of Carnarvon by Sir Charles Barry between 1839 -1842 in the Jacobethan style, after he had finished working on the Houses of Parliament.  

George Edward Stanhope Molyneaux Herbert was born in 1866 and succeeded to become the 5^th Earl of Carnarvon in 1890. He was first known as an owner of racehorses and a reckless driver of early automobiles. In 1895 he married Almina Victoria Maria Alexandra Wombwell. It is widely held that she was secretly the illegitimate daughter of Alfred de Rothschild, an unmarried member of the Rothschild family, who in 1918 made her his heiress.

In the second season of Downton Abbey, the huge house is turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers returning from the war. In 1914 the real Lady Almina turned Highclere into a soldier’s hospital with a first-rate operating room. She was considered an adept nurse and skilled healer.

We don’t know if Lord Carnarvon’s real claim to fame will make it to the small screen, but by 1922 he had spent some $15 million in today’s money over fourteen years funding the archeological work of Howard Carter in Egypt. In November of 1922 Carter realized he had found something special and wired Carnarvon to join him in Egypt. In February of 1923, in the Valley of the Kings, they entered the inner chamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun, which would turn out to hold one of the greatest finds in modern archeology. Later in April, Lord Carnarvon died at the Continental-Savoy Hotel in Cairo, leading to the story of the “Curse of Tutankhamun”. Carter escaped the curse and would go on to live another sixteen years.

For those who need more, Vic Sanborn at Jane Austen’s World has written extensively about the show and time period it portrays. So for those of us who are waiting, we’ll have to be content to read up on Highclere/Downton and the Carnarvon/Granthams until we can get our fix when Downton Abbey returns.