The Chronicles of Downton Abbey: A New Era (16 page)

Matthew
I’ve told you before, if we’re
mad enough to take on the Crawley girls,
we have to stick together.

Indeed, Matthew becomes something of an ally for Tom – they are to be brothers-in-law, after all. Matthew’s future role as head of the family means that he is conscious that he must do what he can to make Tom feel comfortable and at home. He is also of the mind that change is not only happening now but is also a good thing. And, as Leech says, ‘Matthew came to Downton as an outsider, too. He’s also learning how to operate in that world. They have that bond.’

Carson
Is there something we can do, sir?

Branson
I just wanted to come down
to say hello. I wouldn’t want you to
think I’d got too big for my boots.

Even the servants find it difficult to adjust to this new situation. To do their job and live the lives they lead requires that they sign up to the ‘deferential system’, and Tom staying above stairs and then popping downstairs throws them into confusion as much as it does their counterparts in the drawing room. It makes them positively dizzy. Carson disapproves, naturally enough, sarcastically quoting Tom: ‘Mary keeps us informed.’ The problem is, says Carson, Tom gives himself away with every word. ‘His lordship would never call her “Mary” when he was talking to me. Never. If he wants to play their game he’d better learn their rules.’

Cora has different worries on her mind when it comes to her daughter. As she reminds Edith, ‘Our blood is much less blue than the Crawleys’. Your father may be against Branson coming back to Downton, but I’m not.’ Rather, she will be thinking about the chances her daughter’s marriage has of surviving. Thanks to her mother, Martha Levinson, Cora will have been kept well informed of these sorts of cross-class weddings, which seemed to happen rather more often in America, attracting a great deal of press attention.

In 1910, a Miss Julia French, ‘of Newport and Fifth Avenue’ (very rich, in other words), eloped with her father’s chauffeur, Jack Geraghty. They had a child but divorced not long after. French stated that ‘It was not the fact that a man had no money which made marriage between a Society Girl and a “nobody” impractical. It was rather the difference of the point of view of the husband and wife.’ Mr Geraghty had lacked that ‘intangible something that springs from social background, a sense of sportsmanship and a feeling for the social values of life’. There were several other members of the ‘400’ – the leading families of East Coast society – who made similar matches, usually ending in the divorce court. Eugenia Kelly Davis married a ‘well-known Broadway dancer’, Edith Webb Miles married a groom, while her elder sister ran off with a policeman. So while Cora and Martha may not have been shocked by Sybil’s choice, they would have been anxious about its chances of success.

Sybil
Somehow none of it seems to matter when
we’re in Dublin. Class and all that just seems
to fade away. I’m Mrs Branson and we get
on with our lives like millions of others.

Violet is perhaps the most pragmatic of everybody. She does not pretend to understand her granddaughter, but now that the thing has been done she seeks to make the best of it by dampening any gossip that will otherwise spread like wildfire through the village. ‘If we show the county he can behave normally, they will soon lose interest in him,’ she tells Isobel, adding as only she can: ‘And I know he’ll behave normally because I’ll hold his hand on the radiator until he does.’

Branson
I can’t go through too many
more dinners like last night.

Matthew
You don’t make it easy for
them. Do you really think you can
recruit Cousin Robert for Sinn Fein?

Sybil herself is in an awkward position. She loves her husband and defends his right to fight for what he believes in, which is not to say she believes in exactly the same things. Nevertheless, she is ready to immerse herself in their new life together in Dublin. She is happy to drop her title and style herself as ‘Mrs Branson’, living a simple existence in which they do not dress for dinner nor concern themselves with Society. She even hints that she is prepared to bring up their expected child as a Catholic, according to Tom’s wishes.

‘She doesn’t want Tom to alter,’ says Jessica Brown Findlay, who plays Sybil, ‘she loves him for his fire and passion, and his desire to change things.’ But when they come home she doesn’t want to cause unnecessary fuss – she adores her family and respects their desire to live as they wish. Unlike Tom, she sees no harm in it. Trying to keep harmony is almost more than she can bear. Sybil confides in Mary – the sister she is closest to – that things are hard, with little money and her husband feeling patronised when they come to Downton. ‘But you don’t regret it?’ asks Mary. ‘Oh, no. Never. Not at all. He’s a wonderful, wonderful man. I just wish you knew him,’ says Sybil, and starts to cry.

This new lifestyle is reflected in Sybil’s dresses. ‘I’ve given her a much more bohemian look,’ says McCall. ‘A lot of printed fabrics, which were very modern, on sack-like, shapeless dresses. They were more practical and are also more comfortable now that she is pregnant. But for when she comes home to Downton she takes out one of her old dresses, so that she fits in with everyone else.’

For Sybil, the most pressing concern is her pregnancy and the impending birth. Childbirth at any time can make a mother-to-be feel nervous, but in the early twentieth century there were a number of what we would think of as fairly ordinary medical complications that could not, then, be easily resolved. Between 1920 and 1924, there were
76.8
stillbirths recorded for every
1,000
live births in England and Wales (now it’s
3.5
per
1,000
). Sybil was lucky – as the daughter of a rich man she would have anaesthetic made available to her. The poor had to make do with gripping a knotted towel. But to prepare for the birth there would have been little information available to enlighten her, other than what Cora could tell her, unless she could lay her hands on a copy of the controversial book 
Family Love
by Marie Stopes, which was published in 1918 and reprinted several times in the first few weeks. A year later, Stopes wrote a sequel,
Wise Parenthood
. Besides comments on childbirth, the books detail methods of contraception, seen by her as key to female emancipation, including the use of ‘a large flat sponge soaked in olive oil’. The results, needless to say, were variable. A popular rhyme at the time ran: ‘Jeanie, Jeanie, full of hopes/ Read a book by Marie Stopes/ But to judge from her condition/ She must have read the wrong edition’. Stopes herself had delivered a stillborn baby after the midwife and doctor refused to let her give birth on her knees, as she had wished. She later said her baby had been ‘murdered’ by the arrogance and ignorance of the medical profession.

Sybil
But I will not be free with
our child’s chances! We need peace and
safety. Downton can offer us both.

At least Sybil can count on the support of her husband, whatever happens. They are a loving couple with a great deal of mutual respect. Brown Findlay says of the pair: ‘There are moments of bickering. But they are very open with each other. They sort things out together. They treat each other as equals, despite their different backgrounds.’ While the situation in Ireland looks to them as if it might rage for some time yet, they do at least have the refuge of Downton Abbey to keep them safe. Tom may not want to be there much, but Sybil draws comfort from her family and her childhood home; she looks to her father to give them his blessing so that they and their child may always be able to return in times of trouble, as much as she hopes for their long and happy life together.

There was a subtle language of hats: small differences
conveyed much information, especially about class.
Branson’s soft felt ‘Fedora’ would have been recognised as
being distinctly lower-middle class compared to the smarter,
more aristocratic and stiffer-brimmed ‘Homburg’.