![]() ‘Julian and Emma were coming to stay with us when the second episode was transmitted. ‘They ask questions and later we notice the characters saying things we’ve said. ‘Obviously we talk around the dining table when Julian and Emma stay,’ says Fiona Carnarvon, who moved to the estate when she married her husband Geordie in 1999. Writer Julian Fellowes and his wife Emma are close friends of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, and the series is really his hymn to the family who have lived here since the 17th century, and the soaring house they built. But Highclere is much more than the series’ location it is its inspiration. It is now said to be Britain’s most famous stately home. The global phenomenon of the ITV period drama has propelled Highclere Castle, where it is shot, into the front rank of visitor attractions. And from the windows, the view is of Middle England over china cups, as visitors eat their tearoom fancies at garden tables. There is a fidgety queue at the great front door. Arriving by car, I count ten coaches parked beneath Capability Brown’s broadleaf trees. Life in the real Downton Abbey has noticeable cons as well as the obvious, glorious pros. ![]()
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