They didn't get paid much, but they were, as a valet and lady's maid, near the top of the pay scale. They also have the money from the sale of Bates' mother's house. Recall at the start of series three when Anna and Mrs. Hughes went to clean out the house, and there was also talk about how Bates had signed over the…

Mrs. Patmore needs to whack them over the head with a soup ladle and shout, "Enough!"

Oh my. I'm swooning!

I'm not as critical as some people are about the show's various story lines, but I think Lord Fellowes might have painted himself into a corner a bit with the Daisy plot line. It makes sense that she would leave service to live at the farm and help her father-in-law run it. She will own it one day, after all, and Mr.…

It's true that the surprise birthday party wasn't a particularly hot jazz experience, but remember that what might seem like a baby step to you or me is one giant leap for Lord Grantham.

You're overpowered because you believe this review of Downton Abbey contains too much left-wing type talk? Good heavens, I'll have to read it again!

Being so wrapped up in your principles that you cannot see truths that lie outside of them is a perennial human problem and one that seems especially relevant to our own times, both in Britain and in the U.S.

"a prickly character capable of using her words to wound deeply, but under that she has quite roundly proven time and time again that she is actually a kind person, an entitled snob mind you . . ."

Christmas episode 2012. Housemaid Edna is all over Tom Branson, until Mrs. Hughes steps in and fires her. Mrs. Hughes' counseling of Tom in the library, where she tells him how proud Lady Sybil would be of how well he has manages and he breaks down in sobs, is one of the most touching moments in any Downton episode.

She did it to try to make up for the fact that her mother had stolen O'Brien in a rather sneaky fashion. Rose was trying to do the right thing, but her incompetence won out in the end, and she would have done better to keep out of it.

Unfortunately it's also a fairly standard psychological state, and I speak from having known several such people.

Mrs. Hughes, as housekeeper, had the right to go through any of the maids' rooms and personal effects. Servants had no privacy rights and deliberately had no locks on their doors. She would have completely been within her legal rights if she had stripped Edna naked by force and had the doctor examine her. Unthinkable…