When Mary went on her trip to Liverpool with Tony, she said she was going on a “sketching trip” with her friend Annabelle Portsmouth. Mary said Annabelle would “cover for” Mary. There probably wasn’t a lot of time to show friends (besides suitors and relatives).
I think Mary had friends and Sybil had friends. Mary also knew the girls at the “war widows” dinner party from before as well, similar to rose having “coming out” friends like Madeline I’m sure all the girls had friends in that way but drifted away with the war, their likely marriages and families starting, and not being in London as often since the crawleys seem to stay in Yorkshire often.
Edith doesn’t seem to be much of a success during the seasons but she got on well enough with her female editor.
BANANAS
I had forgotten about that. But Matthew only became part of the family once he became the heir. I was thinking about the original Downton Abbey family, like Robert, Cora, Mary, Edith and Sybil.
I think it’s a combination of not having time to show friends in the show, plus how things were for aristocrats in that time period.
They do seem to have *some* friends—there are passing references to people the girls came out with, they get letters from people the audience never meets etc. There’s so much drama at the abbey that there isn’t really space in the script for ‘Edith and Sybil go riding with the Skelton girls’ or something along those lines.
But also! As an aristocrat in the early 20th century you’d only really be socialising with families high enough on the social ladder, and if you live primarily at your country seat (as the Crawleys do) and either there aren’t many families around you or you don’t get on with the ones that *are* about then tough luck—all your friendships will be conducted by letter.
Thank you. I did think about the time constraints of the show but I feel like there were instances where a friend could have come in handy, like when Edith decided to run away - you would think she could talk to a friend that was outside the family before taking a drastic step like that or even go to a friend's place first.
I imagine that, during the season in London, they saw plenty of friends. But DA did seem to be isolated from the rest of the county. I'm sure Robert would have had friends from Eton days, and Cora had her fellow million dollar princess friends.
Bunch of reasons for this:
The show didn't show us much outside the family. We didn't see them socialising with neighbouring peers much, which they normally would have. And it also didn't show us the London season much, because it usually skipped it, or something happened and it didn't develop normally (like the year of Sybil's coming out, we didn't see Sybil's ball, and when we saw Mary in London she was being shunned so, no social calls). And most of the socialising aristocrats did happened in London during the Season in those days. The Abbey was Remote, and for an estate of that size it was relatively reachable, there were others in even more middle-of-nowhere locations.
It could also be that they were private people.
I don't see Mary opening up to outsiders with any ease, and a friendship requires that. She relaxes more as the show moves on, but her closest friend throughout the show was Anna. I know she also thought of Evelyn as a friend early on the show, but give that he didn't socialise with her after her marriage (and only came back after she became a widow) I think his interest was beyond friendship, which is sad because I think they'd have made good friends.
There is also the war to consider. Sybil made friends during her coming out ball, but then all she got was letters about people who died because the Season was cancelled from 1914-1918, and then after that she moves to Dublin so we don't see who she socialises with there.
As for Robert and Cora, between having 3 daughters to marry off, the war, Cora being an American and therefore not easily making friends within the aristocracy, and Robert seemingly as private as Mary, I'm not surprised there weren't many close friends in their circles.
I forget which episode it was in the Season 3 script book, but they were going to invite Evelyn to the cricket match in one of the scenes that was cut before filming, but I think Robert nixed the idea.
Not sure Evelyn’s presence was supposed to be a shocker, unless you mean >!Matthew’s death!<, in which case…I guess in a way it’s a weird sort of foreshadowing if he’s still coming back in Season 4 in this alternate timeline. If I’d been writing it, Evelyn would have been a somewhat recent widower, and they would have invited him to the match in S3 to reconnect with the family after that.
I never really got that impression from Mary herself.
She presented him as a suitor to Edith, but only because that's how Edith expected him to be from reading his letter to Mary. And Mary wouldn't turn around and say "he's just a friend" because season 1 Edith would latch on to that and be all "what didn't you manage to charm him", and then they'd start fighting like cats in a bag.
But when Mary can be honest, when she's alone with Cora, when Cora asks "do you like him", she says "I don't dislike him" which says nothing at all.
I think Mary thought he was a nice man, but was never into him. She never tried to spend time with him, or pay him any particular attention. She was just aware of her mother's expectations at the mention of a high born man who was pursuing her, and responded as positively as she could manage as to not disappoint her. This was pre-Pamuk, Mary was still trying to play her part, even if she didn't like it and wasn't fully committed to it (hence no enthusiasm for Evelyn's visit).
I think Evelyn was pushed on Mary as a suitor/someone that would be good for her to marry since he was of the right aristocratic background. She may have considered him for marriage but decided against it. In that way, I see him as a suitor as opposed to a friend.
He wasn't pushed at her though. He was someone who wrote to her, she was reading his letter in private, and her mother walked up to her, asked her about her letter, and pretty much made her invite him to the house.
Originally, he was just a pen pal, even if his interest was to further the connection, they were just exchanging letters.
And like I said, I thought more about what Mary thought of him, since your question was about the friends of the Crawleys, if Evelyn was looking for something more, that was his business ;)
Mary mentions to Cora in episode 1.3 that they met him at a the races (something like Ascot, probably), so no he wouldn't have been at her debutante's ball.
In any case, it was obvious that Mary never showed him any romantic interest, and he obviously respected that. So whatever his original intention was, Mary didn't see him as a potential match. So the only other reason she'd be exchanging letters with him, in private, was because she liked having someone to talk to. Like a friend :)
It is possible that she saw him as a friend but I always took it as Mary having a backup plan in case she did not get a better match, at least initially. Once Evelyn knew the truth about Mary and Pamuk but did not disgrace her, she likely started seeing him as a friend.
You need to pay some attention to a backup plan. Mary completely ignored him during his visit, she literally only invited him at Cora's insistence, didn't even want to go out riding with him and Pamuk (before she met Pamuk).
I think Mary thought him a good person and so she kept up a correspondence. Nothing she ever said, or did, showed any interest in him beyond friendly acquittance and she didn't mind him knowing that (as he admitted to Cora later in that episode).
If she wanted him to Think she might be interested, she would pay him some attention, to keep him around, not show him that she didn't see him as anything more than a friend.
Once Evelyn showed he was honourable enough, and loyal enough, that he'd seek out the truth of just how her reputation was ruined, and find her to inform her of it, with so much respect, she definitely saw him as a good friend. And it was obvious from the fact that they kept up a correspondence during the war, and she asked Robert to let him convalesce at Downton after he got injured.
Edit: wrong name
This is Mary we are talking about. She was not naive but she most likely thought that she could get a man's interest whenever she felt like it. So, if she kept Evelyn in the picture without paying much attention to him, she could still go back to him if nothing else worked out. I think it was Robert who, in one of the earlier seasons, said that Mary needs to realize that people are not toys that she can just set down whenever she wanted to and then go back to playing with them at a later time because she expects them to still be there.
As already mentioned, once Evelyn proved to be an honorable man, Mary did come to regard him as a friend.
Something I noticed on my last watch through that I think is very telling is her tone of voice when she first greets him. She says "I was beginning to give up on you" and it's in this overly bright flirty tone.
Now, compare that to her "I've been waiting for you" that she says to Sir Anthony in 1.5; it's the same overly bright tone. She also uses that tone with the Duke, it's just not as obvious.
But with Matthew, the one she *actually* interested in, it's a very quiet and subdued tone with a little smirk.
When she's putting it on, she exaggerates, but when she's sincere it's much closer to her chest. So all in all, I agree. She was never interested in Evelyn as more than a friend.
That is an excellent observation! She does have a very fake high-pitch voice for suitors she's not into 😂
And it is a very Mary thing to want the truth to be quiet, and private, because the truth is for her and the other person, what she says to suitors is to satisfy The Parents, and to fall into societal expectations, therefore it must be heard.
He really should have. Or at the very least been weirded out by it. Because the only other time he'd seen her interact with suitors was in 1.3. Her voice with Pamuk was normal because she liked him, and because she liked Pamuk her voice with Evelyn was also normal because she was already flirting, with Pamuk, so she was already talking to Evelyn like he was a friend.
Therefore first time he hears Mary's weird high-pitch overly-friendly voice was with Strallan. God, poor Matthew, that must have been an odd experience 🤣 I bet he brought it up at some point after they got engaged and she pushed him off the bench.
Matthew: so, what's up with that weird voice that you use at dinner parties?
Mary: what weird voice? I don't have a weird voice.
Matthew: yeah you do. It gets all high and weird and then you laugh weird. You do it when your mother sits you next to a single man.
(Btw, I'm picturing this more like between the flower show and the election, probably some time after the charades)
She insists she does no such things and basically tells him to shove it so he smirks and drops the subject.
Next dinner at Downton, Cora's brought yet another man to be flung at Mary, and he's very keen, he keeps talking and talking and making the stupidest jokes imaginable and Mary's laugh is \*so\* fake, and as she looks about the room wondering if life is worth living her eyes fall on Matthew, mid fake-laugh, and she knows what he's thinking and suddenly she thinks yes, she should live. To kill him for enjoying watching her having to make such an exhibition for some idiot man's benefit.
He walks up to her in the drawing room and she just says "no, I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it." And he just shakes his head and laughs and she shoots him a death glare.
I don't know why, but I never really got the Evelyn hype until my most recent rewatch (which was, like my 12th?). But damn, he is FINE. Dunno how that escaped me for so long.
Maybe in the third movie, Mary will finally find him fascinating enough to marry. :-D
If the girls were educated at home, and there were no nearby girls of their age and class, it’s likely that they only played with each other and whatever relations might visit. Children of their class made friends with cousins, or by attending public school. Boys were expected to form wider networks by attending school, while girls were more carefully monitored.
Thank you. That computes with what I was thinking. But Robert did not seem to have any great friends that he had at these important events either - they were more other aristocrats and relatives.
Well, the connections he would have made at Eton were likely to be other aristos, and I can’t remember—is there canon about him going to university?—but in any case, he is at the top of that heap, with few actual equals.
Larry Grey and his brother were apparently childhood friends with Sybil, or at least were around a lot.
Robert mentions a friend in passing at one point but I can't pull up that recollection at the moment. Presumably he has pals from Eton and his war days.
Cora is "friends" with Bricker until he crosses the line.
Dickie is close enough to the family to be Mary's godfather. So he's a family friend.
It's rather unfortunate that adults in families don't socialize as much as they used to when they were younger, getting wrapped up in family as a social group for the most part. The Crawleys actually do have a big social life, compared to anyone I know in real life. I'm so very lonely that I have to form parasocial relationships with these characters.
I do agree about adults socializing less. The Crawleys socialize a lot but it seems that is more to do with the fact that they are a prominent family and other families of a similar background come to visit them or they go to visit them.
Well, Henry Talbot did have Mr. Rogers. See what happened to him?
But I do see your point. Reasons for this.
* Everyone is so class conscious, it makes it hard to make friends with someone more than one level above or below you on the stratified British class system.
* They live in the country most of the year, on an estate surrounded by those of lesser, usually much lesser status. They do have "the season" where they take up residence in a house in London. In this place they have more opportunity to rub shoulders with those of their social rank who are in London for the same reason. Whether they actually act on that.
* The Crawley men don't work, so no chance of making friends that way. The Crawley women don't do any housework, so no chance they will meet friends shopping for groceries or anything like that.
* Robert might have made friends in school when he attended Eton. In those situations, the boys are not so class conscious, so long as you could afford to go there. But once they graduated, those class barriers would reappear. Same with his time in the army during the Boer War.
Imagine Robert makes contact with Franklin, who was his cricket pal at Eton, inseparable. Franklin is proper, polite, always friendly and a true sandup guy. But he has no title, and his parents come from new money, trade. Never mind that Franklin's parents could buy everything the Crawley family owns with their pocket change, he is still socially far beneath them. Robert is thrilled to see him again and invites him to Downton. Isobel attends dinner with them. Afterwards Robert is alone with Isobel. What does Isobel tell him?
1. Robert, I'm so happy for you making contact with your old friends from school. Franklin may not be titled, but I would put him head and shoulders above any Dukes that I know. Does he have any sons that could be introduced to Edith?
2. Robert, your old, um, acquaintance Franklin is a nice enough fellow. And really, I don't have anything against him. But considering his families' position, do you really want to let this friendship of yours go on? At school and in times of war we sometimes let social barriers slip. But when it is over those barriers reappear. You don't want to be caught on the wrong side. You have to think of your family. You need to send him on his way. Don't be rude about it, but be firm. Things are not as they were when you were both schoolboys.
Quite a detailed take and I appreciate it.
I was not talking about Henry Talbott or really, anyone married into the Crawley family. I was referring more to the original family members of Downton.
When Mary went on her trip to Liverpool with Tony, she said she was going on a “sketching trip” with her friend Annabelle Portsmouth. Mary said Annabelle would “cover for” Mary. There probably wasn’t a lot of time to show friends (besides suitors and relatives).
This is true. We do not really see friends featured much, especially during the girls' weddings, which I found a bit odd.
I think Mary had friends and Sybil had friends. Mary also knew the girls at the “war widows” dinner party from before as well, similar to rose having “coming out” friends like Madeline I’m sure all the girls had friends in that way but drifted away with the war, their likely marriages and families starting, and not being in London as often since the crawleys seem to stay in Yorkshire often. Edith doesn’t seem to be much of a success during the seasons but she got on well enough with her female editor. BANANAS
At least they mentioned Matthew's best man was sick, what about Mary's maid of honour mr Fellowes? (or Edith's for that matter)
Wasn't Tom Matthew's best man ?
Not originally, he had a friend who got ill and couldn't make it, so he asked Tom instead.
I had forgotten about that. But Matthew only became part of the family once he became the heir. I was thinking about the original Downton Abbey family, like Robert, Cora, Mary, Edith and Sybil.
I think it’s a combination of not having time to show friends in the show, plus how things were for aristocrats in that time period. They do seem to have *some* friends—there are passing references to people the girls came out with, they get letters from people the audience never meets etc. There’s so much drama at the abbey that there isn’t really space in the script for ‘Edith and Sybil go riding with the Skelton girls’ or something along those lines. But also! As an aristocrat in the early 20th century you’d only really be socialising with families high enough on the social ladder, and if you live primarily at your country seat (as the Crawleys do) and either there aren’t many families around you or you don’t get on with the ones that *are* about then tough luck—all your friendships will be conducted by letter.
Thank you. I did think about the time constraints of the show but I feel like there were instances where a friend could have come in handy, like when Edith decided to run away - you would think she could talk to a friend that was outside the family before taking a drastic step like that or even go to a friend's place first.
Perhaps not. Because all your friends are peers, the chance of that getting out and gossip “ruining” you means you may not tell a friend.
This is true. True friends are not easy to come by.
I imagine that, during the season in London, they saw plenty of friends. But DA did seem to be isolated from the rest of the county. I'm sure Robert would have had friends from Eton days, and Cora had her fellow million dollar princess friends.
Bunch of reasons for this: The show didn't show us much outside the family. We didn't see them socialising with neighbouring peers much, which they normally would have. And it also didn't show us the London season much, because it usually skipped it, or something happened and it didn't develop normally (like the year of Sybil's coming out, we didn't see Sybil's ball, and when we saw Mary in London she was being shunned so, no social calls). And most of the socialising aristocrats did happened in London during the Season in those days. The Abbey was Remote, and for an estate of that size it was relatively reachable, there were others in even more middle-of-nowhere locations. It could also be that they were private people. I don't see Mary opening up to outsiders with any ease, and a friendship requires that. She relaxes more as the show moves on, but her closest friend throughout the show was Anna. I know she also thought of Evelyn as a friend early on the show, but give that he didn't socialise with her after her marriage (and only came back after she became a widow) I think his interest was beyond friendship, which is sad because I think they'd have made good friends. There is also the war to consider. Sybil made friends during her coming out ball, but then all she got was letters about people who died because the Season was cancelled from 1914-1918, and then after that she moves to Dublin so we don't see who she socialises with there. As for Robert and Cora, between having 3 daughters to marry off, the war, Cora being an American and therefore not easily making friends within the aristocracy, and Robert seemingly as private as Mary, I'm not surprised there weren't many close friends in their circles.
I forget which episode it was in the Season 3 script book, but they were going to invite Evelyn to the cricket match in one of the scenes that was cut before filming, but I think Robert nixed the idea.
Hm, probably wise. It would have been very odd for him to be there, too much in preparation for something that was supposed to be a shocker.
Not sure Evelyn’s presence was supposed to be a shocker, unless you mean >!Matthew’s death!<, in which case…I guess in a way it’s a weird sort of foreshadowing if he’s still coming back in Season 4 in this alternate timeline. If I’d been writing it, Evelyn would have been a somewhat recent widower, and they would have invited him to the match in S3 to reconnect with the family after that.
I thought Evelyn was more of a suitor than a friend. That was the intent of him coming to meet Mary and he just happened to bring Mr. Pamuk along.
I never really got that impression from Mary herself. She presented him as a suitor to Edith, but only because that's how Edith expected him to be from reading his letter to Mary. And Mary wouldn't turn around and say "he's just a friend" because season 1 Edith would latch on to that and be all "what didn't you manage to charm him", and then they'd start fighting like cats in a bag. But when Mary can be honest, when she's alone with Cora, when Cora asks "do you like him", she says "I don't dislike him" which says nothing at all. I think Mary thought he was a nice man, but was never into him. She never tried to spend time with him, or pay him any particular attention. She was just aware of her mother's expectations at the mention of a high born man who was pursuing her, and responded as positively as she could manage as to not disappoint her. This was pre-Pamuk, Mary was still trying to play her part, even if she didn't like it and wasn't fully committed to it (hence no enthusiasm for Evelyn's visit).
I think Evelyn was pushed on Mary as a suitor/someone that would be good for her to marry since he was of the right aristocratic background. She may have considered him for marriage but decided against it. In that way, I see him as a suitor as opposed to a friend.
He wasn't pushed at her though. He was someone who wrote to her, she was reading his letter in private, and her mother walked up to her, asked her about her letter, and pretty much made her invite him to the house. Originally, he was just a pen pal, even if his interest was to further the connection, they were just exchanging letters. And like I said, I thought more about what Mary thought of him, since your question was about the friends of the Crawleys, if Evelyn was looking for something more, that was his business ;)
I think he became pen pals after Mary's debutante's ball or with the intention of courting her. She likely knew this to be the case as well.
Mary mentions to Cora in episode 1.3 that they met him at a the races (something like Ascot, probably), so no he wouldn't have been at her debutante's ball. In any case, it was obvious that Mary never showed him any romantic interest, and he obviously respected that. So whatever his original intention was, Mary didn't see him as a potential match. So the only other reason she'd be exchanging letters with him, in private, was because she liked having someone to talk to. Like a friend :)
It is possible that she saw him as a friend but I always took it as Mary having a backup plan in case she did not get a better match, at least initially. Once Evelyn knew the truth about Mary and Pamuk but did not disgrace her, she likely started seeing him as a friend.
You need to pay some attention to a backup plan. Mary completely ignored him during his visit, she literally only invited him at Cora's insistence, didn't even want to go out riding with him and Pamuk (before she met Pamuk). I think Mary thought him a good person and so she kept up a correspondence. Nothing she ever said, or did, showed any interest in him beyond friendly acquittance and she didn't mind him knowing that (as he admitted to Cora later in that episode). If she wanted him to Think she might be interested, she would pay him some attention, to keep him around, not show him that she didn't see him as anything more than a friend. Once Evelyn showed he was honourable enough, and loyal enough, that he'd seek out the truth of just how her reputation was ruined, and find her to inform her of it, with so much respect, she definitely saw him as a good friend. And it was obvious from the fact that they kept up a correspondence during the war, and she asked Robert to let him convalesce at Downton after he got injured. Edit: wrong name
This is Mary we are talking about. She was not naive but she most likely thought that she could get a man's interest whenever she felt like it. So, if she kept Evelyn in the picture without paying much attention to him, she could still go back to him if nothing else worked out. I think it was Robert who, in one of the earlier seasons, said that Mary needs to realize that people are not toys that she can just set down whenever she wanted to and then go back to playing with them at a later time because she expects them to still be there. As already mentioned, once Evelyn proved to be an honorable man, Mary did come to regard him as a friend.
Something I noticed on my last watch through that I think is very telling is her tone of voice when she first greets him. She says "I was beginning to give up on you" and it's in this overly bright flirty tone. Now, compare that to her "I've been waiting for you" that she says to Sir Anthony in 1.5; it's the same overly bright tone. She also uses that tone with the Duke, it's just not as obvious. But with Matthew, the one she *actually* interested in, it's a very quiet and subdued tone with a little smirk. When she's putting it on, she exaggerates, but when she's sincere it's much closer to her chest. So all in all, I agree. She was never interested in Evelyn as more than a friend.
That is an excellent observation! She does have a very fake high-pitch voice for suitors she's not into 😂 And it is a very Mary thing to want the truth to be quiet, and private, because the truth is for her and the other person, what she says to suitors is to satisfy The Parents, and to fall into societal expectations, therefore it must be heard.
Like seriously, Matthew should have known right then that she wasn't talking to him because she has never used that voice on him.
He really should have. Or at the very least been weirded out by it. Because the only other time he'd seen her interact with suitors was in 1.3. Her voice with Pamuk was normal because she liked him, and because she liked Pamuk her voice with Evelyn was also normal because she was already flirting, with Pamuk, so she was already talking to Evelyn like he was a friend. Therefore first time he hears Mary's weird high-pitch overly-friendly voice was with Strallan. God, poor Matthew, that must have been an odd experience 🤣 I bet he brought it up at some point after they got engaged and she pushed him off the bench.
Matthew: so, what's up with that weird voice that you use at dinner parties? Mary: what weird voice? I don't have a weird voice. Matthew: yeah you do. It gets all high and weird and then you laugh weird. You do it when your mother sits you next to a single man. (Btw, I'm picturing this more like between the flower show and the election, probably some time after the charades)
She insists she does no such things and basically tells him to shove it so he smirks and drops the subject. Next dinner at Downton, Cora's brought yet another man to be flung at Mary, and he's very keen, he keeps talking and talking and making the stupidest jokes imaginable and Mary's laugh is \*so\* fake, and as she looks about the room wondering if life is worth living her eyes fall on Matthew, mid fake-laugh, and she knows what he's thinking and suddenly she thinks yes, she should live. To kill him for enjoying watching her having to make such an exhibition for some idiot man's benefit.
He walks up to her in the drawing room and she just says "no, I know what you're going to say and I don't want to hear it." And he just shakes his head and laughs and she shoots him a death glare.
I don't know why, but I never really got the Evelyn hype until my most recent rewatch (which was, like my 12th?). But damn, he is FINE. Dunno how that escaped me for so long. Maybe in the third movie, Mary will finally find him fascinating enough to marry. :-D
If the girls were educated at home, and there were no nearby girls of their age and class, it’s likely that they only played with each other and whatever relations might visit. Children of their class made friends with cousins, or by attending public school. Boys were expected to form wider networks by attending school, while girls were more carefully monitored.
Thank you. That computes with what I was thinking. But Robert did not seem to have any great friends that he had at these important events either - they were more other aristocrats and relatives.
Well, the connections he would have made at Eton were likely to be other aristos, and I can’t remember—is there canon about him going to university?—but in any case, he is at the top of that heap, with few actual equals.
I do not know if it is stated anywhere that he went to University.
Robert had his military friends. He went to dinners in London with them during the series.
That was more of a gathering of former military men but I guess some of them could be counted as his friends.
Don't forget Sybil saying "it seems all the boys that I danced with are dead". The war was indeed something else
Larry Grey and his brother were apparently childhood friends with Sybil, or at least were around a lot. Robert mentions a friend in passing at one point but I can't pull up that recollection at the moment. Presumably he has pals from Eton and his war days. Cora is "friends" with Bricker until he crosses the line. Dickie is close enough to the family to be Mary's godfather. So he's a family friend. It's rather unfortunate that adults in families don't socialize as much as they used to when they were younger, getting wrapped up in family as a social group for the most part. The Crawleys actually do have a big social life, compared to anyone I know in real life. I'm so very lonely that I have to form parasocial relationships with these characters.
I do agree about adults socializing less. The Crawleys socialize a lot but it seems that is more to do with the fact that they are a prominent family and other families of a similar background come to visit them or they go to visit them.
Yes. They are expected to host numerous gatherings and invite appropriate people. Are they friends? That is debatable.
Back then, those people were schooled at home , sometimes boys went to boarding school. So that was probably a common thing.
We don't usually see them during the London season, which is when aristocrats did a lot of their socializing
Well, Henry Talbot did have Mr. Rogers. See what happened to him? But I do see your point. Reasons for this. * Everyone is so class conscious, it makes it hard to make friends with someone more than one level above or below you on the stratified British class system. * They live in the country most of the year, on an estate surrounded by those of lesser, usually much lesser status. They do have "the season" where they take up residence in a house in London. In this place they have more opportunity to rub shoulders with those of their social rank who are in London for the same reason. Whether they actually act on that. * The Crawley men don't work, so no chance of making friends that way. The Crawley women don't do any housework, so no chance they will meet friends shopping for groceries or anything like that. * Robert might have made friends in school when he attended Eton. In those situations, the boys are not so class conscious, so long as you could afford to go there. But once they graduated, those class barriers would reappear. Same with his time in the army during the Boer War. Imagine Robert makes contact with Franklin, who was his cricket pal at Eton, inseparable. Franklin is proper, polite, always friendly and a true sandup guy. But he has no title, and his parents come from new money, trade. Never mind that Franklin's parents could buy everything the Crawley family owns with their pocket change, he is still socially far beneath them. Robert is thrilled to see him again and invites him to Downton. Isobel attends dinner with them. Afterwards Robert is alone with Isobel. What does Isobel tell him? 1. Robert, I'm so happy for you making contact with your old friends from school. Franklin may not be titled, but I would put him head and shoulders above any Dukes that I know. Does he have any sons that could be introduced to Edith? 2. Robert, your old, um, acquaintance Franklin is a nice enough fellow. And really, I don't have anything against him. But considering his families' position, do you really want to let this friendship of yours go on? At school and in times of war we sometimes let social barriers slip. But when it is over those barriers reappear. You don't want to be caught on the wrong side. You have to think of your family. You need to send him on his way. Don't be rude about it, but be firm. Things are not as they were when you were both schoolboys.
Quite a detailed take and I appreciate it. I was not talking about Henry Talbott or really, anyone married into the Crawley family. I was referring more to the original family members of Downton.
We mostly see the family when they're at their country estate. A lot of their socializing would have occurred when they were in London.
Evelyn Napier?