Servants’ strict ranking system
QUESTION
Is there a reason why some servants are known by their Christian names and others by their surnames in Downton Abbey?
ONE of the many joys of Downton Abbey is its attention to detail.
There was a strict social structure within the servant class employed in a ‘big house’. As a rule, those lower down in the food chain would address their superiors more formally, i.e. by their surname, those above would address their minions by their Christian name.
The top rank were the butler and housekeeper. They were always addressed as Mr Surname and Mrs Surname (married or not), both by their co-workers and their employers. They would address all lower ranks by their Christian names.
Lower down it would depend on relative rank, for instance, a groom would call the top footman Mr Surname, and he would call the groom by his Christian name, a housemaid might address a lady’s maid as Mrs Surname etc.
There were exceptions. The head cook was usually called Cook by everyone. Sometimes the family called the person by their job title such as Jacob Coachman, regardless of their real name.
Jeanette Anne Bennett, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
QUESTION
Is there any archaeological evidence for the Battle of Jericho?
THE Battle of Jericho, as described in the Bible, was the Israelites’ conquest of the city of Jericho under the leadership of Joshua. The Biblical narrative, found in the Book of Joshua, describes the walls of Jericho falling after the Israelites marched around the city for seven days. According to the Biblical timeline the Israelite invasion took place no earlier than 1440BC.
Tell es-Sultan, the site identified as ancient Jericho, is on the outskirts of the modern city of Jericho in the West Bank. A ‘tell’ is a small hill which has built up over centuries of activity. Villages and towns were rebuilt in the same location for hundreds and, in the case of Jericho, thousands of years. Archaeological excavations have been conducted at Tell es-Sultan since the mid-19th Century. The most important was led by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950s. Her excavations did not provide evidence supporting the Biblical account of the Battle of Jericho as a historical event. Kenyon did confirm the destruction of a civilisation known as City IV at Jericho. During this period, Jericho was destroyed in a violent manner.
Kenyon dated the destruction of City IV to the end of the Middle Bronze Age, around 1550 BC. Radiocarbon dating has backed this up, tying the timeline to the eruption of a volcano on the island of Minos around 1,600 BC. The current consensus is that the site was then uninhabited until the 10th/9th centuries BC.
Biblical archaeologists have attempted to refute Kenyon’s findings and reconcile these dates. American Bryant G. Wood has argued that Jericho could have been captured in the Late Bronze Age by Joshua. Wood is a Young Earth creationist and his views are not mainstream.
A. P. Smythe, Cheltenham, Gloucester.
QUESTION
Do wind direction and temperature affect the audibility of sound?
BOTH temperature and wind affect sound levels. We live a short distance from a dual carriageway with fast cars. At its nearest, it is due east of us and with the prevailing westerly winds is not especially loud. When the wind turns to the east not only does it get colder but the sound of the road is much louder.
People say that the wind is blowing the sound towards them, like smoke from a fire, but it is a bit more complicated. Winds tend to travel at higher velocities with altitude due to friction with the ground plus windbreaks. This continuous variation of wind speed with altitude causes the path of the sound going upwards to be bent back to the ground, in an example of sound refraction. When the wind is westerly this sound is bent up to the sky. It’s the residents on the other side of the road that get the noise.
Refraction occurs when a wave changes speed hitting a different medium. Light refraction is familiar as the bending of a beam going from air to glass or water. Sound is a waveform and behaves similarly. Even in calm conditions, there is still refraction due to the air being cooler higher up.
Sound travels faster in warmer air and sound waves are refracted upwards. At night the temperature gradient can invert (think ground frosts). Then sound is refracted back to the ground. When things are more audible at night it is not just because everything is more still!
Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hampshire.
QUESTION
What are the best examples of ‘back slang’ used by Victorian criminals?
FURTHER to earlier answers, I was a butcher for 18 years before doing the ‘knowledge’ and becoming a licenced taxi driver. I drove black cabs for 42 years and still sometimes think or talk in ‘kabgnals’.
In the meat trade it came in very handy if a pretty girl entered the shop. You could alert the other butchers by calling out ‘evah a kool at the gels’ (‘h’ was always pronounced as a ‘ch’). We could hold a fluent conversation.
Other examples were ‘dloc’ (cold), ‘toch’ (hot), ‘posh’ (shop), ‘niedis’ (inside) and ‘lems a tib’ (smells a bit).
Martin Warwicks, London SW1.
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