Aristocrats (1999) is a BBC miniseries adaptation of the non-fiction biography of the four Lennox sisters: Caroline Fox, 1st Baroness Holland (1723–1774), Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster (1731–1814), Lady Louisa Conolly (1743–1821), and Lady Sarah Lennox (1745–1826). All four were descended from an illegitimate son of King Charles II and the daughters of the the Duke of Richmond, and so highly placed in mid-18th century English society. And three had very interesting lives, as the mini-series demonstrates: Caroline defied her parents and married leading politician Henry Fox, Emily married the rich Irish Duke of Leinster, while Sarah was rumored to be married to the heir to the throne, the future King George III, but didn’t and went on to have a turbulent life. While there are no spoilers in history, that’s as much as I’m going to tell you — you’ll have to watch the series or read the biography to find out more!
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It has just struck me that the surname ‘Fellowes’ is absolutely a gift to writers looking for a little Old World wordplay and that there really needs to be a JEEVES & WOOSTER type comedy that takes advantage of the cartoonish ambiguity involved when a chap discusses another chap named Fellowes in a period when surnames are preferred to given names and “Fellows” is typically used to address a company, not an individual – and the chap doing the discussion is as woolly headed & loquacious as Bertie Wooster.
“So I said to Fellowes ‘Fellowes, the fellows really might not appreciate this Fellowship and Fellowes, the question of whether the fellows will follow me could leave me bowling at the proverbial sticky wicket if you follow me, Fellowes.”
“HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE IN THIS CONVERSATION?!?”
“Oh just young Fellowes and me, of course.”
On a more serious note, it’s curious to think that the young ladies Lennox were born only forty-plus years removed from His Late Majesty King Charles II, their ancestor (The Restoration and the Georgian eras being so very different to look at).
On a still more Serious note, the pups in these articles pose me once again the Eternal Question: are Cavalier Spaniels THE Period Drama Dog? (The only breed almost as uniformly perfect for just about any major Frock Flicks era is the Pug, at least so far as I can tell).