Arthur Conan Doyle and Downton Abbey at Baconthorpe Castle Part 2

Although William Baxton, the first member of the Heydon clan, built the Inner Gatehouse in 1460, it was Sir Henry Heydon (William Baxton's grandson) who constructed the rest of the castle inside the courtyard, either during or after the War of the Roses finished. There, they would have lived comfortable lives, their needs attended by servants a la Downton Abbey. His son, John Heydon II, also constructed a wool processing factory along the inner courtyard wall, the ruins of which you can see behind me. By his Sir Christopher Heydon I's time, the family owned 20,000 to 30,000 sheep, and their ability to produce finished cloth allowed them to live in truly grand style, perhaps even better than the Crawley Family in Downton Abbey. For then, in the mid sixteenth century, they employed around 80 servants, and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle.

Unfortunately, as in Downton Abbey, Sir Christopher Heydon I found that his spending outstripped his earnings, and his son was forced to sell off part of the estate and mortgage the rest of the property. 

When I read The White Company by Arthur Conan Doyle, I couldn't understand why Sir Nigel Loring left his castle in England to find glory in France. Recently, I've been reading about the 100 Years War, and how France was less a country back then than a series of adjacent territories overseen by various rulers. The novel is set in 1366 and 1367, when England saw itself as owning much of France back then. So Sir Nigel's decision to lead a company of knights through land of contested ownership, and perhaps in some way increase England's sovereignty, makes sense. 

There was also an economic benefit to the 100 Years War which Arthur Conan Doyle doesn't cover. One region ruled by French rulers was Flanders, which is now a county in Belgium. Flanders was where the medieval world sent its wool to be transformed into finished cloth. The leaders of the wool trade in Flanders appealed to Edward III to help protect their businesses, which were necessary to UK international trade. 

Still, British rulers were too far away to protect Flemish weavers, so they began emigrating to England. Remember, Sir John Heydon II built the wool processing factory, and his first spinners and weavers likely hailed from Flanders. The fact that he owned 20,000 to 30,000 sheep, and operated the wool processing center too, gives you an idea of how powerful he was, and how he could afford such a lavish lifestyle.

Unlike the Crawley family in Downton Abbey, Sir Christopher and his successors couldn't control their spending. So increasingly, servants were dismissed, lands were sold, buildings were mortgaged, or even dismantled and the stone sold by the cartload.

People no longer live year round at Baconthorpe Castle. But visitors come to see the ruins of a castle that lasted from the tail end of the 100 Years War, through the War of the Roses, the British religious reforms of Henry VIII and his successors, and the English Civil War. While we were there, a swan couple found the mere a pleasant place to birth their children. So perhaps successive generations of swans will call Baconthorpe Castle home. Let's hope they prove wise managers of the estate, and refrain from warring with their avian neighbors.

Dragon Dave

Related Links
Baconthorpe Castle at English Heritage
Wool Trade at Historic UK

Arthur Conan Doyle and Downton Abbey at Baconthorpe Castle Part 1

The first thing that greets you at Baconthorpe Castle is the outer gatehouse, which was built around 1560 by Sir Christopher Heydon I. His lordship of the castle seems to coincide with the high point of the Heydon family. Like the Crawley family in the TV series Downton Abbey, the Heydon family by this time had a large manor house inside the inner castle courtyard, and employed around 80 servants.

At first glance, Sir Christopher Heydon I (1518-1579) seems to have benefitted from a period of relative peace in England, falling between the War of the Roses in the 15th Century and the English Civil War in the 17th Century. But then you have to remember that Henry VIII ruled England during the first half of the 16th Century. His government could have been described as anything but placid.

By 1560, when the outer gatehouse was finished, English Christians had been rocked by the formation of the Church of England and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, ultra-progressive protestant rule of Henry's son Edward, and the ultra-Catholic rule of his daughter Mary. No wonder Sir Christopher decided he needed an outer gatehouse, as well as a larger defensive wall to surround the property. 

Oh, and he also decided to crenellate the buildings and walls around this period too, which would give his guards and soldiers better defensive positions.

The stretch of land between the outer and inner gatehouse gives you some scope of what was essentially a manor house and surrounding lands. The area off to the right would have been a large formal garden, completed by Christopher Heydon II (1561-1623). He was a solder, as well as a Member of Parliament and a writer of astrology books. 

The second Christopher's militaristic nature got him into trouble in 1601 when he took part in the Essex Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I. Unlike the 100 Years War, and the War of the Roses, the Essex Rebellion was a comparatively small affair of short duration. Nevertheless, he fought on the wrong side, against Elizabeth, and ended up being fined and sent to prison.

Still, even if his warring nature got the better of him, and he proved an unwise estate manager, at least he appreciated the beauty of nature, as he built a mere as well as the formal gardens.

A moat surrounds the castle. You have to walk across what was once a drawbridge, and is now a permanent walking bridge, to access the inner gatehouse and castle interior. The Inner Gatehouse was built by the founding member of the family castle, built by William Baxton around 1460. 

At first, you might ask why he built such defenses, as this would have been just after the 100 Years War, which lasted from 1337 to 1453. But then you have to remember that the War of the Roses, which lasted from 1455 to 1485, had already begun. Anyone who had significant assets back then, and wanted to protect their family back then, would have owned a defensible manor or castle like Sir Nigel Loring in Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The White Company. 

Although William died rich, and got the castle off to a good start, his son changed the family name to Heydon, as William was a self-made man. Perhaps patrons like William de la Pole, the Duke of Suffolk and a prominent military leader in the 100 Years War, disliked the Baxton name. Or perhaps, John felt that Heydon sounded more prestigious than Baxton in the fifteenth century. 

After all, young immigrant Bedrich Polouvicka changed his name to Richard DeVere in the sitcom To The Manor Born, and went on to found a popular UK chain of supermarkets. And the Heydon family would go on to become major players in the wool trade, which was one of England's major industries in medieval times.

Dragon Dave 

Scarlet And Hyssop Vs Downton Abbey

The formal splendor of an earlier era
in the Victoria And Albert Museum in London, England

While I don't know as much about his life as I would like, Scarlet And Hyssop seems like a rather brave novel for E. F. Benson to write, given how well connected he was with anyone-who-was-anyone in English society back then. His father's high standing in the Church of England granted him entry to the rich and powerful, but if he incurred someone's wrath, that could have made his writing career more difficult. The fact that it is a challenging novel to read, with largely unlikable characters, makes it all the more surprising he would write it. Stories that require understanding a key, or the contemplation of an underlying symbol to really enjoy a story, do not always sell well. Stories that require a second reading to gain a fuller understanding of the author's intent do not always age well. While writers such as G. K. Chesterton, George McDonald, and Charles Williams have not been forgotten, they can hardly claim a place in our hearts like Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens, or J. R. R. Tolkien. 

Perhaps it was a mistake for E. F. Benson to write this novel. His long bibliography, and the sheer range of his writing, suggest that he really loved every type of literary genre. When a writer does not concentrate on one or two genres, but spreads his net wide, it is inevitable that he will not always succeed at everything he attempts. While some reviewers loved it, critical assessment of Scarlet And Hyssop largely tends to be negative. As I mentioned, I found it a challenging novel to read. Still, as my post-reading realization demonstrates, there was more going on in the story than could be initially grasped on the surface level. This left me with a desire to read the novel again. With my better knowledge of the characters, and the goal Benson was striving toward, I'm sure it would be a richer experience. 

It goes without saying that, if I felt the novel was an utter failure, I would not even contemplate a second attempt.

When the TV series Downton Abbey premiered on TV, I took an immediate dislike to it. Although the characters inhabited a world similar to those described by writers such as E. F. Benson, I found little to interest me in their petty schemes and jealousies. Similarly, when I first watched the movie Gosford Park, I had just as much difficulty in appreciating it. Here was a story about a murder among the rich in a country house of the nobility. But instead of allowing me to follow a police investigation that led to the capture of the murderer, screenwriter Julian Fellows forced me to wade through portraits of largely unlikable characters. The murderer even gets away with the crime at the end of the movie!

Recently I watched the movie again, and found it intriguing enough to view a second time with commentary with screenwriter Julian Fellows. This actor, writer and producer, the creator of Downton Abbey, is a modern English Baron, and a peer in the House of Lords. As such, he divides his time between telling stories to the populace and contributing to the government of Britain. He has made his name by writing about the types of people he grew up with, both among the rich and titled, as well as the lowly servants. What might seem to us an incomprehensible social structure is something he understands. On the commentary for Gosford Park he said something that stuck with me. He said that the sense he got, from the relatives and people he knew, was that the high and mighty eventually decided to abolish their complicated systems of etiquette, and relax their highly formalized way of life, simply because they found it too tiresome to perpetuate it. In other words, the system grew over time, until it became to unwieldy that those at the top, the ones who theoretically benefitted most from it, finally gave up on it and opted for a simpler way of life.

Don't get me wrong. I still dislike Downton Abbey. Even after watching it again, I'm still not wild about Gosford Park. But the similarities between those stories and Scarlet And Hyssop suggest that E. F. Benson was writing a story along similar lines to those historical stories being told today by writers such as Julian Fellows. The major difference is Benson was pointing out the dangers of perpetuating certain aspects of English society while they were occurring, while Fellows is looking backward to teach us lessons from the past. Given the interest in--and apparent hunger for--TV series such as Downton Abbey, Scarlet And Hyssop represents an opportunity to immerse oneself in the glamorous and stratified society of an earlier era. If the ritualistic nature of that bygone era intrigues you, and the type of characters who lived and worked within it fascinate you, then perhaps you might find Scarlet And Hyssop an interesting and entertaining novel.

Dragon Dave

The Mistress of Skeldale House: Part 1

Mrs. Hall's busy kitchen

Those of us who have read James Herriot’s books, or watched the TV series “All Creatures Great and Small,” know that Mrs. Hall, the housekeeper and cook in Skeldale House, set a nice table.  Every meal offered large portions of good food that enabled Sigfried, James, and Tristan to keep up their strength as they left Skeldale House at all hours of the day or night to work on the farm animals. 

As a writer, I’m fascinated by how people perform their daily tasks.  When writing a Fantasy or Science Fiction novel, one must determine not only what people eat, but also what type of food is available, where it comes from, how it is grown, harvested, and processed, and how it is prepared once someone in the household buys it.  Of course, when writing a Historical novel, the demands increase a thousand-fold.  Readers can be sticklers for details.  For example, they may write in to let the author know that a particular weave of fabric, or a particular color of cloth, wasn’t available at the time and in the region in which the novel is set.

Mrs. Hall's kitchen table

Alf Wight, who wrote under the pseudonym of James Herriot, arrived at Skeldale House in the 1930s.  There he joined Sigfried and Tristan Farnon in running their veterinarian practice.  But what do I know of life in England nearly eighty years ago?  It seems like an extraordinary time in many ways.  It exists on the cusp of change, or rather, it exists between two distinct periods, one in which running a household was an enormous job, and the present, with all our labor-saving modern conveniences.

In Jane Austen’s era, a host of servants would have been necessary to run a household with a modicum of comfort.  She displays the difference between a family that has money, and one that doesn’t, in Mansfield Park.  In the novel, Fanny, who is raised in comfort by her rich aunt and uncle, goes to visit her parents for a few months.  She is shocked by how stressed and overworked her mother is by the constant demands of running a household single-handedly.  Yet even when she lives with her rich aunt and uncle, for years she is forced to economize by going without a fire in the fireplace of her cold sitting room.

A food scale for ingredients

The recent BBC miniseries “Downton Abbey” shows how many people were involved in running a mansion for the wealthy at the turn of the twentieth century.  Yet not just the rich employed servants.  Anyone who could afford to hire servants would have done so, due to the labor involved in cooking and cleaning.  The more money one had, the more servants one could employ.  This was not just for social status: the technology level back then might have improved somewhat from Jane Austen’s day, but still, it seems to me that English households in the Edwardian era operated at a very basic level.  

So the question remains: how did Mrs. Hall, a few decades later in the 1930s, run her household and care for the needs of her men?  I’ll attempt to answer that in tomorrow’s entry, The Mistress of Skeldale House: Part 2.

Thanks for reading,

Dragon Dave