Dismalistas held rapt by the nativity of the first new-generation Crawley in the we’re-all-in-it-together tellydrama Downton Abbey, but who were then dumped into deepest grief by the death of Lady Sybil, will have felt their ears prick up at the announcement of the arrival of “Grassby’s men” to remove her body.
Yes, Julian Fellowes, the writer, who lives at West Stafford, on the eastern fringes of Dorchester, generously name-checked his respected, local undertakers.
Grassby’s have bought up a few local businesses over the years, including the Rose Funeral Service in Weymouth, run by the excellent Sam Wilding, as splendid a figure with crepe tied round a top hat as you will ever see, and to whom the editor of this blog has entrusted his remains when Reaper G gets off his butt.
I wonder whether, during that era, it would have been accurate that the body would have been removed from “the big house” prior to the funeral.
Surely, more likely that the coffin would have been made and taken to the house, and the body remain there until the big day?
Having said that, I didn’t watch the programme, and know little about such things….
Nick
I wondered, too, Nick. Any funeral historians out there? Phoebe?
Embalming became a common practice after the middle of the 1800s, and a noble family would certainly have availed themselves of it. It’s a nasty, messy process, best performed in a carefully-prepared laboratory, which Grassby’s would be sure to have.