A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes (39 page)

This is a popular accompaniment to Christmas pudding and is known as ‘hard sauce’ in the US. It can be made several days in advance, as it keeps very well.

SERVES 8–10

Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand whisk until pale and smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract, and beat until it is all incorporated. Add the brandy gradually, to taste, and stir well.

Spoon the brandy butter into a small serving dish, cover and store in the fridge until needed. Serve very cold, with the Christmas pudding.

Despite all the changes in the kitchen, one thing has resolutely stayed the same. ‘Her work ethic,’ says Lesley of her character. ‘It’s not changed and it never will. She’s proud of her job and has high standards.’ At Christmas, when it’s more important than ever to put on a good show, Mrs Patmore will be pulling all the rabbits out of the hat (and into the cooking pot).

Service is Mrs P.’s world; she’s barely out of the kitchen, let alone Downton village. ‘It’s the disappearance of the structure she knows,’ says Lesley. ‘We’ve got to know more about her insecurities. She started as a slightly scary woman, indomitable and hard-faced, but Julian’s allowed us to see her frailties and her more vulnerable side, which of course everybody has. We’ve stripped away the professional layers to reveal the woman beneath.

‘I do think she’s happy. We have to bear in mind the time – in those days people were less concerned with their own happiness. Instead they thought about their sense of duty, belonging, respect – all of those things make her content in that she has achieved something. She has security: a good position, a roof over her head, a chum in Mrs Hughes, she’s fond of Daisy and people even laugh at her jokes!’

Ah, yes, the quick remarks. Mrs Patmore is the below-stairs version of Violet: they are both the matriarchs of their domains, set in their ways – resistant, even frightened, of change – but unbowed when it comes to protecting their family. And they both have the same wry wit. ‘Julian said at a press conference in New York that he didn’t originally write Mrs P. as a funny character, suggesting that I had brought something to it as an actor,’ reveals Lesley. Nor was this the only way in which her portrayal may have affected Julian’s scripts. ‘I think because I get on so well with Sophie [McShera] and we love working together, there’s a real chemistry. I think he saw that and took the potential to investigate it. There’s more of a mother and daughter dynamic between her and Daisy now.’

Isobel Crawley

When the servants have finished their luncheon, the footmen serve tea in the library and the family give their presents. To each other, they will be naturally indulgent, although nothing like on the scale that is frequently seen today. Mary and Edith may have done their shopping in London, bringing back glass bottles of scent, fine silk stockings, small items of jewellery and leather-bound books. Robert probably best appreciates a box of cigars. Violet may have had to do with finding her presents in the village, though one rather imagines her to be the type to re-wrap something she was given before that she didn’t like and pass it along. There’s always room, too, for the hidden message: Isobel has given her a nutcracker.

1920s advertisement for Christmas gifts from Asprey, Bond Street.

‘Life is a game, in which the player must appear ridiculous.’
VIOLET, DOWAGER COUNTESS OF GRANTHAM

At 6 p.m., as usual, the dressing gong sounds and everyone dresses for dinner. Although things have become more relaxed in 1924, at Christmas, it will be white tie, just as it has been for over a century at Downton Abbey. There may be a fairly large party for dinner, with outer branches of the Crawley family tree present, as well as some of the grander local families. Champagne is drunk and the star of the show will undoubtedly be Mrs Patmore’s pudding, with a sprig of holly on top and flaming brandy. Violet plunges in the first spoon, wishing one and all a happy Christmas as she does so.

Grand houses, or certainly those with at least twenty servants, such as Downton Abbey, would hold a servants’ ball, usually in the days between Christmas and New Year, though there were no hard and fast rules about this. King Edward VII, at Sandringham, annually held three balls on a single night: the county ball for the local elite, the tenants’ ball for the leading families of the shire and one for the servants.

The ball would be attended, obviously, by all the servants of the house, and sometimes those from other smaller, local houses would be invited too. The party would start when the master of the house had the first dance with the housekeeper, and the mistress with the butler. Eileen Balderson, a maid of that time, recalled her sister making a faux pas at a house where she was head kitchen maid. The eldest son of the family asked her for the first dance and, not knowing who he was, she said she was already promised to someone else: ‘The mistake is readily explained. Except for the butler’s pantry staff and the lady’s maid, the rest of the servants very rarely saw the family, the kitchen staff least of all.’

Thankfully for the servants, the family would leave after half an hour, at which point a servants’ ball could become livelier. Especially once the butler, cook and their guests had left. ‘After that it was really enjoyable!’ remembers Eileen. Servants’ balls usually only began at 10 p.m., so they would find themselves out of their beds for the whole night, with just a quick wash and change of clothes before returning to work in the morning. And so on, for another year …