Downton Abbey (TV Series)

Episode #1.4 (2010)

Hugh Bonneville: Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham

Quotes 

• Matthew Crawley : The question is, what do I say to Cousin Violet?

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : Oh, don't worry about that. I can handle her.

  Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham : [Violet enters the room]  Really? Well if you can, you must have learned to *very* recently.

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : [about Branson, the new chauffeur]  He seems a bright spark after poor old Taylor. And to think Taylor's gone off to run a tea shop. I cannot feel it will make for a very restful retirement, can you?

  Charlie Carson : I would rather be put to death, m'Lord.

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : ...Quite so.

• Lady Mary Crawley : The only one who never sticks up for me in all this is you. Why is that?

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : You are my darling daughter and I love you, hard as it is for an Englishman to say the words.

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : Won't you miss Ireland?

  Tom Branson : Ireland, yes. But not the job. The mistress was a nice lady, but she only had one car and she wouldn't let me drive it over 20 miles an hour. So it was a bit... well, boring, so to speak.

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : If I'd made my own fortune and bought Downton for myself it should be yours without question, but I did not. My fortune is the work of others who laboured to build a great dynasty. Do I have the right to destroy their work or impoverish that dynasty? I am a custodian, my dear, not an owner. I must strive to be worthy of the task I've been set. If I could take Mama's money out of the estates Downton would have to be sold to pay for it. Is that what you want? To see Matthew a landless peer with a title, but no means to pay for it?

• Lady Mary Crawley : So, I am just to find a husband and get out of the way?

  Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : You could stay here if you married Matthew,

  Lady Mary Crawley : You know my character father, Father. I'd never marry a man that I was told to. I'm stubborn. I wish I wasn't, but I am.

• Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham : [speaking of his former chauffeur]  And to think Taylor's gone off to run a tea shop! I cannot feel it would make for a restful retirement, can you?

  Charlie Carson : [hyperbolically]  I would rather be put to death, My Lord.