Downton Abbey (TV Series)

Christmas at Downton Abbey (2011)

Maggie Smith: Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham

Photos 

Quotes 

• Sir Richard Carlisle : [watching the family playing its annual gane of charades]  Do you enjoy these games in which the player must appear ridiculous?

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : Sir Richard, life is a game, where the player must appear ridiculous.

  Sir Richard Carlisle : Not my life.

• Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : [entering he room where the fight between Richard and Matthew has just been broken up]  Oh, what on earth's the matter?

  Sir Richard Carlisle : I'm leaving the morning, Lady Grantham; I doubt we'll meet again.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : [with satisfaction]  Do you promise?

• Matthew Crawley : [regarding broken crockery after his fight with Carlisle]  Sorry about the vase.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : Don't be, don't be. It was a wedding present from a frightful aunt. I have hated it for half a century.

• Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham : A change is as good as a rest.

• Sir Richard Carlisle : [referring to Bates' lawyer at the table]  Is he confident?

  Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham : He seems to be.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : [dryly]  Lawyers are always confident before the verdict. It is only afterwards they share their doubts.

• Lady Rosamund Painswick : [about Lord Hepworth]  I know he has no fortune, if that's what you mean.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : No fortune? He's lucky not to be playing the violin in Leicester Square.

• Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : [In reference to her having known Lord Hepworth's father in her youth]  Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?

  [But where are the snows of yesteryear?] 

• Sir Richard Carlisle : Why do we have to serve ourselves at luncheon?

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : It's a Downton tradition. They have their feast at lunchtime and we have ours in the evening.

  Sir Richard Carlisle : But why can't they eat earlier and serve us like they usually do?

  Lady Mary Crawley : Because it's Christmas Day!

  Sir Richard Carlisle : It's not how we'll do it at Haxby.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : Which I can easily believe.