History Literature / OrdinaryTime

* BassoProfundo: The Duke, to oktavist levels: including in speech, when he is Making Things Very Clear to one.

* BoyBand: The Fonts, of course, with added ducal [[BassoProfundo foundation-shifting bass]]; Hetty's [[Music/OneDirection obsession]]; and, in the [[InUniverse ducal opinion]], in [[RealPersonCameo cameo]], [[Music/McFly McFly]].

* SuddenlyShouting: Sher, when he cracks. The Duke, being a BassoProfundo, doesn't shout: he booms.

[[folder:Tropes A through F]]

* ADeathInTheLimelight: Several, including, violently [[spoiler: a fireman in the Vale]] and [[spoiler: Canon Paddick’s old friend, police sergeant Ste Trantor, in the West Midlands]].

* AllGirlsLikePonies: The Duke’s niece is aging into a newer sense of the trope: with the Hon. Gwen (and Lady Agatha), she’s becoming a fixture of [[UsefulNotes/HorseRacing the Turf]]. As an owner-to-be. Which is reflected in her birthday gifts....\\
Never applied, to Sir Giles’ relief, to Emma Seaton MRCVS, his new junior: she’s an ovine specialist, leaving him free to continue as an equine specialist, which is what he got his K for.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Every. Other. Page. Or so it seems. Happens with [[Literature/TheQuran the Qu’ran]] with Muslim characters on occasion, too.

* {{Barsetshire}}: And a standing rebuke to all that’s going on in [[Theatre/RichardII “less happier lands.”]]

* BatmanGambit: A whole spoilery pile-up of them.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Do not cross the new Duchess, the former Professor the Baroness Lacy.

* [[Literature/TheBible The Bible]]: Quotations dropping like leaves in Vallombrosa, and not only from the clergy.

* BilingualBonus: Latin, inevitably; and Greek, and French, and Anglo-Saxon, and Scots Gaelic, and Welsh, and Urdu....
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Of course. Parishes tend to births, baptisms, weddings, deaths, and the Burial Service.
* TheBlacksmith: In [[RealPersonCameo cameo]], Hector Cole MBE and [[Website/YouTube Alec Steele]], recreating a lost [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Tijou / Jean Tijou]] gate at the Rectory.

* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Averted, hard; and the ducal loathing of the place is only growing.
* BritishHumour: Passim, and extra dry.

* ButNotTooBi: What Sher, when he [[RageBreakingPoint finally loses it]], thinks is unfairly demanded of him due to his position, on pain of being regarded as [[DepravedBisexual a bad influence,]] and shunned.
* ByTheBookCop: Wilts Police, all ’round; [[ObstructiveBureaucrat less usefully]], West Midlands Police.

* CallToAgriculture: Farming is a ''vocation,'' and [[spoiler: the planned new school in the Downlands intends to teach it]].
* CareerEndingInjury: Since Literature/YeLittleHillsLikeLambs, Premier Leaguer Kevin Bagnall. The Duke Has Plans For Him.

* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: Still going strong. Even if Rupe and Jamie are aging out towards [[{{Hunk}}]]-dom, Hetty’s boyfriend Mark Grampound is joining the ranks; and then there are the younger guests at the ducal wedding....

* ChekhovsGun: A whole armory of them.
* ChekhovsGunman: Explicitly lampshaded in Mr Justice Collingridge.
* TheChessmaster (InUniverse): The Duke regards He Grace, and the Nawab, as being this; they reciprocate the compliment. Edmond is suspicious of all of them. [[StateSec The ISI]]’s Wg Cdr Iqbal believes himself to be one.

* CloseKnitCommunity: Several. For both good and bad values of the trope.
* TheComicallySerious: Connie, of course.
* [[WritersBlock Composer’s Block]]: Sher suffers from this in his attempts to write his own [[Music/EdwardElgar Enigma Variations]]: the block being his adored Canon Paddick. It’s a factor in his later brief breakdown.
* ConvictedByPublicOpinion: The accused in the West Midlands murder.

* CrisisOfFaith: Dr Jettou has one.
* CrypticBackgroundReference: Abound. For one thing, the Dig is really just now getting underway.
* CutesyNameTown: Averted. See the Brick Joke entry above for one example.

* DefrostingIceQueen: Connie … glacially slowly.

* DespairSpeech: Sher, when he finally cracks under the strain.
* Doorstopper: In print, it had to be broken into two volumes due to physical constraints; the e-book is the Ominibus Edition. The same occurred earlier in the series with ''[[Literature/{{Evensong}} Evensong]]''.

* EarlyPersonalitySigns: Andrew Westgate.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The Duke’s father in [[{{Flashback}} flashback]]; see the dragon-bullying entry above.

* ExperimentalArcheology: The ducal canal-restoration plans; the Tijou gate; and more.

* FriendshipAsCourtship: Their Graces.

* GossipyHens: Lady Agatha, Flora the dowager Countess of Freuchie, Lady Apwyn, the Hon. Miss Alys Meredith, Lady Landrake, Lady Avenwater, Lady Snodland, and for that matter Sir Gregory Athelney and the nice-but-dim the Hon. Giles Geers-Gamage. [[KindlyHousekeeper Mrs Viney]], at Wolfdown, agrees with Her Grace that the ducal couple naturally take up all the local gossip, with little left for the rest of the Great and Good unless it involves romance; and it’s pointed out that the middle classes, who’d normally retail most of the gossip, are nowadays either too busy for it, or don’t hear it because they haven’t the servants a [[Literature/MissMarple Jane Marple]] had.\\
Still, it exists, there ''are'' hens, and Wolfdown and the Rectory must (and do) monitor it before someone gets hurt.
* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Subverted: as much of the novel involves the past and scholars thereof, it’s not gratuitous. But there’s a right smart of it.
* GuileHero: That Most High, Potent, and Noble Prince, His Grace the Duke of Taunton KG GCB GCVO KBE =MiD= TD PC JP DL, Marquess of Templecombe, Earl Fitzwarren, Earl of Dilton, Viscount and Baron Malet, Baron Daubeny, Baron Chard, Baron Beechbourne, Baron Marden and Widham, Commander of Clan Stewart of Camserney, ''Teàrlach Diùc, Mac mhic Raibeart Prionnsa Stiubhaird na Chamserney,'' late Major the Intelligence Corps, Fellow of All Souls, [[spoiler: now gazetted by Belated Entry as a Staff Colonel, Army Reserve, seconded to the Ministry of Defence]].

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Stuffing with them.

* {{Hunk}}: Shelves of eye-candy. Get it wholesale.

* InspectorJavert: The Crown Prosecution Service’s Ms Cashmore; DCI Beebee, West Midlands Police.
* InspectorLestrade: DCI Beebee, in his way. He’s just wrong and stubborn.
* InsufferableGenius (InUniverse): The Duke, and regularly called out on it.

* KindlyVet: Sir Giles is now joined by Emma Seaton MRCVS.

* ManipulativeBastard (InUniverse): The Duke is designated and admired as such by the Nawab, and so designated but not admired by Edmond. His Grace’ll take it: it’s tactically useful.

* MistakenForRomance: Sher and Noel, yet again.

* MultipleReferencePun: Storms of them.

* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Oodles. DCI Beebee; Diane Cashmore; Foljambe of the Revenue....

* OldSoldier: Behind every hedgerow: including [[spoiler: Jack Proffitt]] in the West Midlands.
* OutdoorsyGal: Joining the cast, Gerry Douty’s new fiancee, and new vet Emma Seaton. They’ll fit right in.

* PassionateSportsGirl: Unexpectedly, [[spoiler: Gemma Douty.]] And Gerry Douty’s new fiancee.

* PoliceAreUseless: Certainly when they get stubborn and have tunnel-vision.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The junior scholars keep looking for it. Reality keeps punching back.
* PragmaticHero: Well, the Duke’s certainly ''pragmatic,'' at least.
* PreppyName: Sloaney ones, at least, abound.

* RageBreakingPoint: Sher, over the Village Concert solos.

* RealPersonCameo: As seen above, passim.
* RetiredBadass: We did mention all the [[OldSoldier old soldiers,]] did we not?
* RightBehindMe: One reason not to cross the Duke. He shall be, sure as sure.

* SettingAsACharacter: If there’s an actual lead in the cast it’s the land and its history.

* ShoutOut: Whole clamors of ’em. Including to some ongoing archaeological and historiographic debates, and to the views of, especially, [[Series/TimeTeam Francis Pryor]] and Susan Oosthuizen.
* ShownTheirWork: Pathology, historiography, and archaeological techniques, check.

* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: They’ll not make it as archaeologists or pre-modern historians if they don’t: as is demonstrated.
* SoapBoxSadie: That post-graduate, Social-Justice-Warrior-variety Sadie, the [[Main/{{Eagleland}} American]] Rhodes Scholar and Rhodes Must Fall activist Ms Anderson-Harris, is joined by Tony Bellhouse-Crimes, the go-ahead former (disclaimed) viscount Corbishley of Monneley, mocked by other characters as “Lord Corbynite of Momentum,” and trendy Dr. Zoe Sproat-Sabri of the US Episcopal Church, an Assistant Bishop somewhere in California (though not to the Duke, or the AEO clergy: the Duke, naturally, calls her “a deaconess in togs above her station”).
* TheStrategist: His Grace … rivaled only by Her Grace.
* TheSpymaster: His Grace, and of course [[RealPersonCameo Eliza, Lady Manningham-Buller]].
* StateSec: [[UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}} ISI]] just will not learn, will they.
* StealthPun: Many of them.

* TakeThat: Even those on her side hand these out to Dr. Sproat-Sabri.

* TimeAbyss: The land as a character in its own right: which is a major theme of the book.
* TooCleverByHalf: [[UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}} ISI]] as per usual. Far less dangerously, a number of fledgling junior scholars on the Dig.
* ToWinWithoutFighting: The Duke’s usual [[Theatre/TheMikado object all sublime]].
* WeatherReportOpening: And closing, too.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Mildly, some of the “woker” young scholars.
* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: The Lelands did.

* XanatosSpeedChess: The usual ducal variety.

--> “… I reflect on the possibility – the utility, shall we say – of organisational records reflectin’, inter alia, the porno-watchin’ and -purchasin’ habits of, oh, closeted, lad-fancyin’ Labour MPs, Hamas members of the Palestinians’ “wee pretendy parliament”, US Congressmen, GU / GRU colonels, Daesh commanders, radical imams, ayatollahs on the Guardian Council in Tehran, Tory backbenchers, Turkish ministers of state, a senior aide to a member of the PRC’s Foreign Affairs Leadin’ Group, a Very Senior Russian Official, and some three or four Qatari princelin’s. [snip]

* BullyingADragon: In {{Flashback}}, the previous duke – the current Duke’s father, that Old [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]] – seemed to be doing so in [[TheSixties the ’60s]] when, on leave, after learning that a young officer, as well as [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo SAS’]] [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships David Stirling]], had been fleeced at some [[TheCasino gambling hells]], he demanded – and got – a meeting with the [[LondonGangster Mob]] behind them, including ''the Krays''. Turns out the then duke was the bigger dragon, and [[TooDumbToLive they’d]] been [[MuggingTheMonster mugging the wrong monsters]]. He got an agreement that certain people were off limits; got restitution made; gave them targeted, detailed, highly personal [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech analyses of just why and how they were scum]], and dared them to resent it; and walked away, tossing them as a luck-penny a golden guinea from the reign of his ancestor [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart James II]], [[GentlemanSnarker remarking]] that if one ''has'' [[BlueBlood ancestors]] one may as well honor them.\\

* [[ShakespearianActors ShakespearianActor]]: Averted: That old [[UsefulNotes/BroadwayAndTheWestEnd West End]] stager Dame Edith Rice expressly dislikes Serious Theat-ah and “all that wordy Shaw” and was happiest doing panto and rep. (It didn’t stop her being the most famous [[Theatre/TheRivals Mrs Malaprop]] and [[Theatre/TheSchoolForScandal Lady Teazle]] of her generation.)

* [[AsianStoreOwner Asian Shopkeeper]]: Discussed mockingly by Sher’s father, when the Duke enlists him in a spot of intelligence work:

The ''semper reformanda,'' ever-evolving character sheet for the series is [[Characters/VillageTales here]]. New significant characters introduced in this volume or made so since a previous reference in the series include [[KindlyVet Emma Seaton MRCVS]] ([[NamesTheSame “not the novelist”]]); [[OldRetainer Jack Fothergill]], great-grandnephew of Hugo Mallerstang’s old WWII batman, valet at Hellgill Hall (and [[TheJeeves Mr Yeates]] is now there in wintry Westmorland on extended loan to Lord Mallerstang, buttling away); the [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion Black British]] officers [[ColonelBadass Colonel]] Robbie Gant [[note]] whose insistence that there’s no “r” in “Gant” as “he’s not a bloody Scotsman” dowered him with Army bye-name of “No-Arse Gant” [[/note]] and [[MajorlyAwesome Major]] Gar “Lefty” Lewis; [[OldSoldier Jack Proffitt]]; [[ChekhovsGunman Mr Justice Collingridge]]; Sher Mirza’s sisters Noor and Ameena, Ameena’s fiance Tariq Ali Khan Alvi Baig, his parents Sohail and Gulrukh, and Dr Amla their imam OopNorth; [[IronLady Lady]] [[TheSpymaster Manningham-Buller]], in a RealPersonCameo; [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Kevin Bagnall]]; Gerry Douty and [[SouthernBelle Anne Custis]]; Gemma Douty; [[ScatterbrainedSenior old Mrs Lacy]], Millicent Lacy’s mother; and [[OldSoldier Mr and Mrs Westgate]] and their small son [[UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome Andrew]].

* NamesTheSame (InUniverse): Emma Seaton. She notes she even did her courses at non-Scottish institutions so she wasn’t having to explain every five minutes that she was no relation to the (fictional) Scots novelist of that name.

[[RealPersonCameo Appearing]] also, at [[UsefulNotes/{{Fete}} fete]] and [[Series/TheGoodLife Penelope]] [[Series/ToTheManorBorn Keith]]; and, for a bit of smithing, [[Website/YouTube Alec Steele]]. And there are Royals at a few weddings, as [[RealLife Strictly Private Occasions]].

* TheLostWoods: With the discovery of Wodewough Man, Wodewough as well as Senwood suggest that the ancestral ''coed mawr,'' the Great Wood, Coytmoor, had its moments.

* BenevolentBoss: His Grace. Of course. Yet more obviously, the clergy. Turned [[UpToEleven Up to Eleven]] – [[Music/McFly ''... loud as you can make it go / Play until your speakers blow'']] – with Professor the Baroness Lacy and Professor Farnaby, for the archaeology dig.

* RantInducingSlight: The duke’s innocent suggestions regarding the Village Concert solos.

* PunnyName: Subverted and lampshaded, as to toponyms and the ducal reflection that some families in the peerage really ought to know better in christening children who may get [[UnfortunateNames such a name]] if a peerage falls in.

* UnfortunateNames: A partial explanation, though no excuse, for Aubrey Leland.

* GuileHero: That Most High, Potent, and Noble Prince, His Grace the Duke of Taunton KG GCB GCVO KBE MiD TD PC JP DL, Marquess of Templecombe, Earl Fitzwarren, Earl of Dilton, Viscount and Baron Malet, Baron Daubeny, Baron Chard, Baron Beechbourne, Baron Marden and Widham, Commander of Clan Stewart of Camserney, ''Teàrlach Diùc, Mac mhic Raibeart Prionnsa Stiubhaird na Chamserney,'' late Major the Intelligence Corps, Fellow of All Souls, [[spoiler: now gazetted by Belated Entry as a Staff Colonel, Army Reserve, seconded to the Ministry of Defence]].

* Hunk: Shelves of eye-candy. Get it wholesale.

* ParentalBonus: Throughout the [[ ShowWithinAShow Julian-and-Tullia]] snippets; The Breener’s abortive attempt at telling bedtime stories to the twins; Pip’s confronting Teddy about the dads’ getting amorous in the kitchen; and Pip’s and AJ’s resentment of fruits at breakfast, and Teddy’s explanation of how he gets Edmond to go along: [[BlatantLies “sports nutrition.”]]

* TitleDrop: A phrase from the ecclesiastical Kalendar, so the book itself not quite a [[LiteraryAllusionTitle ''literary'' allusion title]] this time.

‘... stylish, witty, original, and beautifully written, speaking splendidly of Old England. In short, bloody marvellous’: Peter Maughan, author of ''Under the Apple Boughs'' and of the “Batch Magna Chronicle” (''The Cuckoos of Batch Magna; Sir Humphrey of Batch Hall; The Batch Magna Caper; Clouds in a Summer Sky;'' and ''The Ghost of Artemus Strange'').

British novel published, at last, in 2020 by [[Creator/GMWWemyss GMW Wemyss]]: the fifth in the [[Literature/VillageTales Village Tales]] series, narrating the events of most of 2017 in the Woolfonts, the Downlands, and the Vale. And beyond.

* BadassIsraeli: [[MajorlyAwesome Rasan]] Levy of IDF military intelligence, whose =NOC= is as a demi-monde, celebrity purveyor of studio gay porno. As the Duke notes,

* BenevolentBoss: His Grace. Of course. Yet more obviously, the clergy. Turned [[UpToEleven Up to Eleven]] – [[Music/McFly “''... loud as you can make it go / Play until your speakers blow''”]] – with Professor the Baroness Lacy and Professor Farnaby, for the archaeology dig.

* Doorstopper: In print, it had to be broken into two volumes due to physical constraints; the e-book is the Ominibus Edition. The same occurred earlier in the series with [[Literature/{{Evensong}} ''Evensong'']].
* {{Eagleland}}: As expected, [[TakeAThirdOption mixed and nuanced]] examples, as Dr. Sproat-Sabri is balanced by [[spoiler: Gerry Douty’s new fiancee, Anne Custis]], the =FFV= daughter of an American general officer in joining the ranks alongside Ms Anderson-Harris and Lt. Travis Bolling Martinez-Henderson III.

* EnsembleCast: Scores of them. If there’s a hero, well, Canon Paddick’ll tell you who it is, and he’s not really an on-page character; and don’t be misled into thinking anyone is ''the'' [[TheProtagonist protagonist], least of all [[DecoyProtagonist the Duke]]. If there is one, it’s the land as a whole.
* EpistolaryNovel: In parts. Not least in the run-up to the ducal wedding, when the [[GossipyHens older ladies of the Family]] write back and forth about it in a [[ShoutOut homage]] to the opening of [[Literature/LordPeterWimsey ''Busman’s Honeymoon''.]]

* BigFancyHouse: Yet another new entry in an already long list: Caisteal an Acarsaid, “Anchorage House,” on Avard; also, The {{McCammond}} town house in Oban and (mentioned) his seat at An Caisteal, on the Isle of Hinba; and, unasked, the Duke spends time before his wedding making certain all his other properties are up to scratch and moving tapestries and Old Masters about to make the future Duchess more comfortable.

* BullyingADragon: In {{Flashback}}, the previous duke – the current Duke’s father, that Old [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]] – seemed to be doing so in [[TheSixties the ’60s]] when, on leave, after learning that a young officer, as well as [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo SAS’]] [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships David Stirling]], had been fleeced at some [[TheCasino gambling hells]], he demanded – and got – a meeting with the [[LondonGangster Mob]] behind them, including ''the Krays''. Turns out the then duke was the bigger dragon, and [[TooDumbToLive they’d]] been [[MuggingTheMonster mugging the wrong monsters]]. He got an agreement that certain people were off limits; got restitution made; gave them targeted, detailed, highly personal [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech analyses of just why and how they were scum]], and dared them to resent it; and walked away, tossing them as a luck-penny a golden guinea from the reign of his ancestor [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart James II]], [[GentlemanSnarker remarking]] that if one ''has'' [[BlueBlood ancestors]] one may as well honor them.
-> Attempting to take on the current Duke also counts, though few people survive to profit by the lesson. The Nawab attributes this to the Duke’s having had the father he had.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Worn lightly but irritably by the Duke, who resents being shackled to a desk. Canon Paddick, naturally, finds [[Literature/TheBible his yoke easy and his burdens, light].

* TheChessmaster (InUniverse): The Duke regards He Grace, and the Nawab, as being this; they reciprocate the compliment. Edmond is suspicious of all of them. [[StateSec The =ISI=]]’s Wg Cdr Iqbal believes himself to be one.
* ChildrensLiterature: Not the book, but the impromptu tea-time stories (of “Small Julian and his sister Tullia, Who Was Smaller Yet, and Accordingly Much The More Fierce,” adopted corporately by a fictional {{Oxbridge}} college) which the Duke gets into the habit of telling once a month to all the sprogs in the District, at Wolfdown.

* GossipyHens: Lady Agatha, Flora the dowager Countess of Freuchie, Lady Apwyn, the Hon. Miss Alys Meredith, Lady Landrake, Lady Avenwater, Lady Snodland, and for that matter Sir Gregory Athelney and the nice-but-dim the Hon. Giles Geers-Gamage. [[KindlyHousekeeper Mrs Viney]], at Wolfdown, agrees with Her Grace that the ducal couple naturally take up all the local gossip, with little left for the rest of the Great and Good unless it involves romance; and it’s pointed out that the middle classes, who’d normally retail most of the gossip, are nowadays either too busy for it, or don’t hear it because they haven’t the servants a [[Literature/MissMarple Jane Marple]] had.
-> Still, it exists, there ''are'' hens, and Wolfdown and the Rectory must (and do) monitor it before someone gets hurt.

* GuileHero: That Most High, Potent, and Noble Prince, His Grace the Duke of Taunton KG GCB GCVO KBE MiD TD PC JP DL FRHistS, Marquess of Templecombe, Earl Fitzwarren, Earl of Dilton, Viscount and Baron Malet, Baron Daubeny, Baron Chard, Baron Beechbourne, Baron Marden and Widham, Commander of Clan Stewart of Camserney, ''Teàrlach Diùc, Mac mhic Raibeart Prionnsa Stiubhaird na Chamserney,'' late Major the Intelligence Corps, Fellow of All Souls, [[spoiler: now gazetted by Belated Entry as a Staff Colonel, Army Reserve, seconded to the =MoD=]].

* RetiredBadass: We did mention all the [[ OldSoldier old soldiers,]] did we not?

* SoapBoxSadie: That post-graduate, =SJW= variety Sadie, the [[Main/{{Eagleland}} American]] Rhodes Scholar and Rhodes Must Fall activist Ms Anderson-Harris, is joined by Tony Bellhouse-Crimes, the go-ahead former (disclaimed) viscount Corbishley of Monneley, mocked by other characters as “Lord Corbynite of Momentum,” and trendy Dr. Zoe Sproat-Sabri of the US Episcopal Church, an Assistant Bishop somewhere in California (though not to the Duke, or the =AEO= clergy: the Duke, naturally, calls her “a deaconess in togs above her station”).

* StateSec: [[UsefulNotes/Pakistan =ISI=]] just will not learn, will they.

* TooCleverByHalf: =ISI= as per usual. Far less dangerously, a number of fledgling junior scholars on the Dig.

* ActuallyIAmHim: It’s unwise to complain of the Duke’s presence – he having Done [[MajorlyAwesome Majorly Awesome]] Things in Afghanistan and becoming known as The Red Wolf, from a Pastho proverb – at a British Asian wedding when the ground of the complaint is that The Red Wolf did Majorly Awesome Things in Afghanistan to one’s co-religionists. He’ll inevitably be, in the [[Theatre/Pantomime panto]] sense, [[RightBehindMe right behind one]]. ''With'' the bride’s father; her uncle the Nawab; and the groom’s father standing grimly beside him.

* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: Played with. The pub in Woolfont Magna is of course the Blue Boar (from one of the supporters in the ducal arms); other [[MyLocal locals]] may (the Red Cow) or may not (the Old Bridge; the Woolpack) fit the bill; but the Duke is determined that the new canal-side pubs "shan’t" be, and that that the revived pub for the Downlands’ center of settlement "shall" be the "[[IncrediblyLamePun Chalk Horse]]" .

* AllGirlsLikePonies: The Duke’s niece is aging into a newer sense of the trope: with the Hon. Gwen (and Lady Agatha), she’s becoming a fixture of [[UsefulNotes/HorseRacing the Turf]]. As an owner-to-be. Which is reflected in her birthday gifts....
-> Never applied, to Sir Giles’ relief, to Emma Seaton MRCVS, his new junior: she’s an ovine specialist, leaving him free to continue as an equine specialist, which is what he got his K for.

* AuthorAvatar: The Duke and the Duchess, looking idly over another character’s library and mostly approving his taste, see that the authors represented include even that “[[SelfDeprecation odd little chap]], Wemyss;” and the “Advance Praise” section for the book begins with a highly commendatory blurb from the very real British novelist Peter Maughan and then proceeds to [[FictionalDocument reactions]] from InUniverse figures, including, “We must all pray for Mr Wemyss. – [[AC: The Revd Canon Noel Paddick]] =SSC=.”

* BadassPreacher: There’s hardly a single religious figure in the series who isn’t (not even the C of E’s Bishop Chubb and the =RC=s’ Bishop of Clifton). This book adds a new one: Dr Amla, the South-African-born Maliki imam in Leeds, equally ready to lecture [[MeetTheInLaws the Nawab and Mr Ali Khan Alvi Baig both]].

* BigFancyHouse: Yet another new entry in an already long list: Caisteal an Acarsaid, “Anchorage House,” on Avard; also, The McCammond’s town house in Oban and (mentioned) his seat at An Caisteal, on the Isle of Hinba; and, unasked, the Duke spends time before his wedding making certain all his other properties are up to scratch and moving tapestries and Old Masters about to make the future Duchess more comfortable.

[[folder:Tropes G to Z]]

* XanatosSpeedChess: The usual ducal variety.