<\/p>\n
The social hierarchy of Downton Abbey<\/em> is a cosy one. Yes, the Crawleys own the estate, but they\u2019re on chummy terms with the servants and tenants who keep it running. Whether it\u2019s Lady Mary becoming close friends with her housemaid, Lady Edith sharing a kiss with the farmer John Drake, or Lady Sybil tying the knot with the family chauffeur, Tom Branson, there are all sorts of mingling between upstairs and downstairs at Downton.<\/p>\n Here, alas, is the main discrepancy between the world of Downton Abbey<\/em> and the social strata of bona fide Edwardian England, as Scott F Stoddard and Michael Samuel remind us in Exploring Downton Abbey: Critical Essays.<\/em> They wrote, \u2018The way that series intertwines the upstairs family with the downstairs crowd becomes a hallmark of the series, perhaps the most obliging nod to American audiences who do not always understand separation based on class and service.\u2019 Because, by-and-large, Edwardian aristocrats were not inclined to treat their servants with even a modicum of kindness, let alone a post-tractor-ride snog.<\/p>\n \u2018The truth would be impossible without turning the Earl of Grantham and his family, the Crawleys, into villains,\u2019 Polly Toynbee writes in The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, \u2018with the below-stairs denizens their wretched victims \u2013 a very different story, and not one Julian Fellowes would ever write.\u2019 Toynbee outlines in stinging detail the brutal conditions the \u2018downstairs\u2019 contingent of Downton Abbey would be forced to endure, including the hands calloused by caustic soda, the slopping out of chamber pots at 5:30 am, and the reek of sweat from workclothes they could find no time to wash. Actually, that\u2019s one thing the show did get right: the costume department employed a \u2018no wash\u2019 policy for many of the outfits, to ensure that historically accurate musk.<\/p>\n One thing that kept pulling audiences back to Downton Abbey<\/em> was the love affairs that blossomed between the staff members. It might be that the Crawleys would have been far less kind to their butlers and maids than the Lord Fellowes of West Stafford suggested, but surely they would be able to strike up a romance as they lit the country house<\/a> fires?<\/p>\n Not so, says Dr Carolyn Harris, who told History Extra<\/em><\/a> that aristocrats would have actively discouraged any frissons between their employees during the early 20th century. That means Mr Carson and Elsie Hughes falling in love would have been a major no-no, as would John Bates and Anna Smith\u2019s downstairs dalliance. Dr Harris cites the real-life example of Evelyn Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, who in 1917 very seriously considered firing her lady\u2019s maid Miss Stiles, having discovered her relationship with the Duke of Devonshire\u2019s valet, one Mr Taylor. \u2018We feel sure they are living<\/a> together,\u2019 the Duchess wrote to her mother-in-law, \u2018It is a bad example in the house, even if the worst has not happened.\u2019<\/p>\n Writer Julian Fellowes at Highclere Castle<\/p>\n <\/span>\u00a9Focus Features\/Courtesy Everet<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.tatler.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The social hierarchy of Downton Abbey is a cosy one. Yes, the Crawleys own the estate, but they\u2019re on chummy terms with the servants and tenants who keep it running. Whether it\u2019s Lady Mary becoming close friends with her housemaid, Lady Edith sharing a kiss with the farmer John Drake, or Lady Sybil tying the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1981200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[355369,354535],"class_list":["post-1981199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-downton-abbey-film","tag-features"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/From-upstairs-downstairs-romance-to-visits-from-the-royal-family-How.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1981200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Workplace romances<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Downton Abbey itself<\/strong><\/h2>\n