It was quite customery for servants not to be allowed to look at "their betters", also in Derbyshire oneDuke of Devonshire at Chatsworth had all the houses in a new village "Edensor " built with the doors facing away from the road so the villagers could not see him as he passed.
It is no wonder John Sims was tired, he had no idea of the steady rhythm of scything.
I don`t know either why hot water was being carried upstairs in tin baths, it went up in copper ewers, otherwise it would have slopped all over the carrier.
Who the heck is the girl, I don`t think she would sit at table with the family from the big house and certainly not speak to them as this girl did. They got that wrong in Downton Abbey too. My O.H got quite upset at the scene in the classroom as he too was punished as late as the early 1930`s for being left handed.He developed a stammer and difficulty reading.His mother went to the school and threatened what she would do to the teacher if it continued---- you could in those days---- but the damage was already done.When he went into an accountant`s office to be trained he developed a beautiful copperplate style as all ledgers were hand entries of course. But he is cross lateral.
I think the group of graves mentioned might be The Riley graves just above Eyam, the plague village where one poor woman buried her husband and six children in 8 days. The Hancock family. The Riley being the name of the knoll where they are buried.
However despite the nit picking I am looking forward to the next episode. Tissues ready if it is about WW1.
Viktoria.
