History Characters / VillageTales

A list of characters in the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series of novels. (With its EnsembleCast and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, there is no such thing as a major or a minor character.) There will be unmarked and uncovered '''spoilers'''. Characters are listed by narrative importance where applicable, otherwise by logical progression, failing which, alphabetically: all without regard to the book in which each débuts. '''Necessarily a work in progress''' (''see'' EnsembleCast and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, above). For the same reason, it is now subdivided.

A list of characters in the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series of novels. (With its EnsembleCast and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, there is no such thing as a major or a minor character.) There will be unmarked and uncovered '''spoilers'''. Characters are listed by narrative importance where applicable, otherwise by logical progression, failing which, alphabetically: all without regard to the book in which each débuts. '''Necessarily a work in progress''' (''see'' EnsembleCast and LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, above).

* The Family: The immediate family of the Duke of Taunton[[note]]Listings for near members of the ducal family[[/note]]
* The Servants and Employees: The ducal servants[[note]]By property[[/note]] and various employees
* The Lads: The Breener (and the Hon. Gwen), Teddy, Edmond, Sher, Noel, and their families[[note]]That happy few, that band of – well, you know[[/note]]
* The Clergy: From the Bishop to the newest curate[[note]]Not the C of E only; and including sextons and sidesmen and such[[/note]]
* The Local Folk and The Rest: Baronet, greengrocer, farmer, railway signaller, GP, and all[[note]]Putting the ensemble in cast since 2013[[/note]]
* The Wider Family: More distant relations of the Family[[note]]On all sides and in all eras, if mentioned[[/note]]

----



!!The Family

[[folder:Charles, Duke of Taunton]]

!!Charles, 11th Duke of Taunton ("Tempers" at school, for his courtesy title of Lord Templecombe in his father's lifetime; there's a reason it stuck). Local landed proprietor and source of much of the action in the series; [[ThePatriarch patriarch]] of TheClan:

-> That Most High, Noble, and Potent Prince, the Right Honourable His Grace Charles Arthur Donald Ivor Waldemar Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet [=KG GCB GCVO KBE MiD TD PC JP DL=], Duke of Taunton, Marquess of Templecombe, Earl Fitzwarren, Earl of Dilton, Viscount Malet, Baron Daubeny, Baron Chard, Baron Beechbourne, Baron Marden and Widham; Hereditary Keeper & Constable of S Aldhelm's Castle; Hereditary Ranger of Yarncombe Forest.
--> '''Education:''' Hawtreys (prep.); Eton; Christ Church (Oxon) (Blue, [[{{Cricket}} cricket]]) [=MA=] (Oxon). [=FRHistS=]; Fellow of All Souls. Late [[MajorlyAwesome Major]], the Intelligence Corps. '''Publications:''' ''Archbishop Laud and Honour'' (Duff Cooper Prize); ''Rose and Laurel; Sir John, God Save You: a life of Betjeman; Beating the Bounds: the Wiltshire and Dorset Clubmen in 1645'' (Wolfson Prize); ''Steam in Sacrifice: Operation'' [[AC:Text Herrick]]; forthcoming: ''Heart of Wessex: a cardiology patient's personal memoir;'' &c.\\
– [[FictionalDocument ''Black's'']]

Described – by [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh]] – as possessing a "refreshing lack of diplomacy."

Descended of William Malet, Companion of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfNormandy William the Conqueror]] at Hastings, and of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart James II]]'s [[BastardBastard bastard]], the 1st Earl of Fitzwarren of the current creation, afterward 1st Duke of Taunton. And knows it.

->"''Extraordinary, the number of people who know I've won the Wolfson Prize ''and'' the Duff Cooper, and are taken in for all that by [[ObfuscatingStupidity the light comedy pose I affect]]. A reputation for eccentricity – you're aware, naturally, that that is the term reserved to the rich, the eminent, and the titled: poor people are simply mad, or sectionable – has its uses. [[BrutalHonesty You can, for one thing, say what you feel]]."''
----
* {{Badass}} / RetiredBadass: The Duke was an Int Corps officer in Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan, who "preferred doing close [[AC:opint]] support to faffing about with maps at Brigade": and was decorated for it. He's not particularly retired, either, as when in ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' he takes on Whitehall and [[SavingTheOrphanage wins]].
* BadassBaritone: When speaking in a high head voice. Shakes the foundations as the BassoProfundo at the Village Concert.
* BadassMustache / BigOlEyebrows: He's a bristly character, and his face betrays him. His eyebrows are described as entering a room before the rest of him charges in.
* BenevolentBoss: To a considerable staff of {{OldRetainer}}s.
* BerserkButton: "Wet" Tories, bullies, the EU, trendy churchmanship … he has a panel of 'em.
* BlueBlood: Well, obviously; and one of many in the series.
* BrutalHonesty: A ducal trademark, to equals and superiors. (He's always NiceToTheWaiter.)
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: In spades. [[InHarmsWay Because it makes him happy]]. And staves off RichBoredom.
* CoolUncle: To Rupert, James, and Hetty.
* DeadpanSnarker: The duke is unabashedly an {{Oxbridge}}, GentlemanSnarker. Of ''course'' he's the SnarkKnight.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: He gets bored easily, and accomplishes too much too quickly. His nephew James thinks it a pity there's no Empire these days, as (and Sher Mirza has to agree, reluctantly) being Viceroy of India ''might'' have kept the Duke almost fully occupied. This is why he [[JumpedAtTheCall doesn't wait on the call, but rings adventure up. Regularly.]]
* {{Determinator}}: Has Strong Principles and an inability to give up. As he points out, he's been threatened by actual foreign governments and international terrorists, he's not about to yield on a planning application in an election year, no matter what pressures are put on him.
* DispenseWithThePleasantries: There is some question InUniverse whether His Grace is ''aware'' that there ''are'' pleasantries.
* TheDreaded / HorrifyingTheHorror: Various InUniverse politicians, governments, foreign intelligence agencies, and terrorists go in dread of him. As do rival village cricket [=XI=]s.
* FamedInStory: To a select audience, and, to a lesser extent, to Fleet Street (he's good copy). But all the really good stories circulate only in Whitehall and the Special Forces Club.
* Fiction500: Averted. He's not yet quite as rich as the Grosvenors (dukes of Westminster). Not. Yet. He's working on it, though: for the sake of his heir.
* GoodIsNotDumb: In his own insufferable fashion, he's a good man. He is also one of the few intellectuals in the peerage – as, InUniverse, noted and lampshaded by UsefulNotes/TonyBlair back when that PM was booting the hereditary peers out of the House of Lords.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Those not playing with a straight bat can expect the Duke, almost certainly joined by his [[HeterosexualLifePartner old mucker]] the Nawab, to beat them silly with a cricket bat, a stump, and a copy of the Spirit and Laws of Cricket. And twenty bound volumes of ''Wisden.'' Usually metaphorically. ''Usually.''
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Of the DistinguishedGentlemansPipe variety. Until his heart attack and triple bypass, whereupon his doctors impressed upon him that ''all'' smoking is Eeeeevil. (So he switched to 18th Century-style nasal snuff. He's a little pig-headed.)
* GuileHero: He'll stick at very little to accomplish good ends … by indirection and politicking. The Rector is concerned he's getting all a bit MagnificentBastard. The Duke demurs:
--> '''The Duke to the Rector, noting that he is sworn of the Privy Council ''and'' holds Her Majesty's Commission:''' "In keeping with that oath, providing close OPINT support to HM Forces' Combat Arms in the dangerous places of the world, I have done and lawfully done things you should disapprove and can scarce imagine. And I'd do every one of them again. […] Because I ''have'' my sworn duty. And […] I'll stick at nothing not explicitly illegal to do my duty."
* HeterosexualLifePartners: [[BattleButler Viney]] and the Duke. The Duke and Sir Thomas Douty. And – having been at Eton together, and up at Oxford together, and captain and vice-captain, respectively, of the Eton, OUCC Authentics, and OUCC Blues 1st [=XI=]s in their day – the Duke and the Nawab. The Duke being the Duke, and everyone he knows being fairly witty and often deadpan s(n)arky, these relationships are also instances of VitriolicBestBuds. LikeAnOldMarriedCouple, in the case of the Duke and the Nawab.
* HiddenDepths: One might expect a duke to be a GentlemanAndAScholar, although not perhaps an intellectual. And a BlueBlood is commonly an OfficerAndAGentleman. Finding one with odd enthusiasms for [[RailEnthusiast steam railways]], the distinctly working-class Northern {{Soul}} and [[{{Vaudeville}} music hall]], and some other ducal enthusiasms, is, however, startling.
* IcyBlueEyes: "Chips of blue agate" has been mentioned. [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry Best not to anger him.]]
* IHaveManyNames: Well, the titles themselves are well into TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard territory, though that's TruthInTelevision for the [[KnightFever Honours System]]. But, as he remarks to Teddy Gates, people do acquire various [[InUniverseNickname bye-names]] over the years, some specific to one or another circle or group: at school, in sport, and so on. He has a good few, many of them actually printable.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Until his father inherited the dukedom and a hell of a lot of dosh.
* InsufferableGenius: Partly subverted in that the Duke honestly doesn't realize why everyone else is acting so thick and pretending they can't keep up.
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: Has a heart attack in ''Literature/{{Evensong}}''; by ''Literature/TheDayThouGavest'' is writing [[FictionalDocument a cardiology patient's personal memoir]]. Never let a crisis go to waste.
* LoveHurts: He grew up an ImpoverishedPatrician ignored by debs. And is very cynical now about the interest they suddenly took in him once he had a courtesy title, a large current account at Coutts, and a dukedom to inherit. Has had CommitmentIssues, and has worn JadeColoredGlasses, ever since.
* TheNapoleon: The Duke is vertically challenged, being described as precisely the height of Old Father Time on the weathervane at Lord's. Then again, he's not so much ''small,'' as he's ''concentrated.'' And his InUniverseNickname ''is'' "Tempers." You might say … [[{{Pun}} he's short with everyone]].
* Nephewism: Subverted. Rupert, James, and Hetty are at the Dower House with their mother, and the Duke is careful that none of them, himself included, oversteps the boundaries.
* NoBadassToHisValet / NoHeroToHisValet: Averted: the Duke and Viney respect one another completely.
* NonIdleRich: And a good thing, too. His demonic energy is exasperating, but the villages fear all the more his getting ''bored'' and ''finding'' something to meddle with.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: Subverted. Technically, he's both; but he's a duke, and consequently insufferable at times: being a ''kindly'' gentleman is for the upper-middle classes, damn it all. There's a reason why the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Duke of Edinburgh]] described him as having "a refreshing lack of diplomacy."
* OlderThanHeLooks: It's a family trait, and, on a TruthInTelevision basis, what tends to happen to rich people.
* {{Omniglot}}: The Duke (never mind his being educated to be – whether or it not it ''took'' – a GentlemanAndAScholar; there's a reason he was in Int Corps, and that reason is his being a CunningLinguist to {{Omniglot}} levels).
* ParentalSubstitute: To his brother's children.
* RailEnthusiast: Recreated the Victorian-era Woolfonts & Chickmarsh Railway (all steam – SteamNeverDies – and [[CoolTrain Cool Trains]]); and the Duke, at Wolfdown House, has added a scale model of it alongside his long-standing scale model of Brunel's Great Western. His Grace ''is'' a happy anorak, ta ever so.
* SecretKeeper: As a Privy Counsellor; and as of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' as having inherited his brother's [[CompromisingMemoirs unexpurgated memoirs]], which are full of scandal.
* ShoutOut: Ducally lampshaded. His Grace is forever [[VerbalTic complaining]] that "nobody ''reads'' [Classic Author X] nowadays, what in buggery is the country coming to?"….
* SimpleYetOpulent: The Duke – having started (the title was in abeyance and the land and cash in trust until his father, TheBrigadier, was middle-aged) as an ImpoverishedPatrician who could only ''dream'' of being LandPoor – is this in his personal style. When it comes to handing out dosh to others, though, he's very much the EccentricMillionaire.
** Although he dislikes headed writing-paper and thinks having his crest and coronet (very small) on the doors of his {{CoolCar}}s is pushing it, he ''is'' a duke, and not only his {{BigFancyHouse}}s, but the whole countryside, still bear the old-fashioned SigilSpam of the days when the local proprietor's heraldry was on every milestone, bridge, signpost, and pub sign within his demesne.
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: And in the Duke's case, tend to drop it into casual conversation, not infrequently making bi- and trilingual puns with it. (And then wondering why no one ''gets'' them.)
* StealthPun: The Duke is a master. For one, knowing that Sher has a cat named [[spoiler: [[Creator/MorecambeAndWise Eric]], he manages to give him a Clumber puppy named Ernestine]]….
* TooCleverByHalf: Subverted … so far. He's always managed to pull it off. Just.
** Although.... He managed to get the Woolfonts preserved in amber by playing schedules and designations and Ancient Monuments cards, and it now gets in his way; he got the Rector he wanted … who's not afraid to treat him like any other erring parishioner; he's made Rupert the perfect heir to him and Lord Mallerstang both, and recovered Mallerstang for him … and Rupert's heart is in Mallerstang, not the Woolfonts.... But he hasn't yet actually ''lost.''
* XanatosSpeedChess: His personal method of getting his way, particularly when his object is to do good for the villages, the country, or the Family estates. The Nawab calls him on it. Rather admiringly than otherwise.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lady Crispin]]
!!Lady Crispin Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet ("Connie;" "Consternation;" "The Mums"):

-> Lady Crispin Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet, ''née'' the Hon. Constance Ivy Diana de Clifforde. Daughter & only child of Baron Mallerstang and Swarthfell (Rodger Alban Percival Thomas de Clifforde) & his baroness Pamela Mary Penelope (née Portingale-Vypont), daughter of the Earl of Wigan. Married [[spoiler: Widow of, as of halfway through ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'']] Lord Crispin Leonard George Valentine Gilbert Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet, second son of the 10th Duke ofTaunton and brother to Charles, 11th Duke of Taunton. Mother of Rupert Charles Edward Donald; James Denzil Valentine Gilbert; Henrietta Maria Flora Anne. \\
– [[FictionalDocument ''Black's'']]

[[FieryRedhead Redheaded]], temperamental, much-tried, and [[NoSenseOfHumor Utterly Humorless]].

-->"''I don't at all object to anyone's doing their hobby professionally so long as they do it ''because it is their hobby.'' I object strenuously to anything which might tend to require that they do it because they want the money. I've ''been'' poor; so for that matter has Charles, in his way. But Charles had only to wait for the abeyance to be resolved in his father's favour, and all the accumulated treasures in trust to be dispensed; I had to ''marry'' his brother. Oh, yes, he was dazzling, and my head was turned – the little fool that I was – but the fact remains that I should have had in any case to marry someone ''like'' Crispin to escape imminent actual, not merely aristocratic, poverty. Someone of our sort who, professionally or not, with or without remuneration, follows his hobby, is one thing. If he follows it to the neglect of his proper duties to his family, so that the next generation must follow their hobbies solely for pay, or, worse, work in uncongenial surroundings out of economic necessity, he wants to be ''shot.''''"
----
* AwfulWeddedLife: Her marriage to Lord Crispin has not been a barrel of laughs. To put it mildly.
* BerserkButton: Her husband, mostly.
* BritishStuffiness: Her brother-in-law the Duke is too aristocratically ''grand'' for this; she is not.
* DeathGlare: Mistress of the "look of operatic betrayal which had not been out of place at La Scala."
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: She's now a widow. Two of her three children are up at uni and the third is not that far behind. She's bored stiff being substitute chatelaine at Wolfdown and living in the Dower House. She's very much looking, and is dreading a life of RichBoredom.
* DeterminedWidow: As of the midpoint of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' – and she makes no bones about its being a relief.
* DispenseWithThePleasantries: She's always happy to do so. She married into a [[BrutalHonesty Frightfully Plain-Speaking Family]] and fits right in.
* FieryRedhead: Beneath miles of glacial ice. The Duke has compared her to an Icelandic volcano. An active one, coming out of dormancy.
* GrandeDame: Is finally, to her satisfaction, old enough to be one.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Grew up as one, as per her quote above.
* IronLady: Case-hardened, in reaction to old slights. (LoveHurts.)
* MamaBear: One reason she has never forgiven Crispin for having done a bunk.
* MyBelovedSmother: Averted. Forcibly. By her children, who will not play that game.
* NoBadassToHisValet / NoHeroToHisValet: She is on terms of transparent honesty with her lady's-maid, who is a Great Comfort to Her and before whom she can let the [[TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask not-quite-queenly mask]] slip.
* NonIdleRich: Diligent in doing good works and playing Lady Bountiful. Sometimes overbearingly. Also breeds and raises dogs, quite successfully.
* NoSenseOfHumor: And proud of it. On the other hand, she's been through a lot: a rotter of a husband, a wit and InsufferableGenius for a brother-in-law, and three children who take after their uncle in too many ways.
* ProperLady: Aging into GrandeDame.
* ShipperOnDeck: Has Decided Views on her children's marital prospects. And is so tired of acting as substitute chatelaine at Wolfdown that she is practically begging Professor the Baroness Lacy to marry the Duke.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: When absolutely necessary and if there is no other alternative, she will work with her brother-in-law on matters of Family and community interest.
* UnwantedSpouse: To Crispin, and very much vice versa.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lord Crispin, the Duke's brother]]
!! Lord Crispin Leonard George Valentine Gilbert Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet ("Spin"), Master of Dilton:

-> '''Education:''' Hawtreys (prep.); Eton; Christ Church (Oxon) (Blue, cricket) [=MA=] (Oxon). '''Recreations:''' Cricket. '''Address:''' Generally abroad. \\
– [[FictionalDocument ''Black's'']]

BlackSheep younger brother of and heir presumptive to Charles, Duke of Taunton. Estranged from his wife and children and something of a RemittanceMan until [[spoiler: he returns at the midpoint of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' to die at home]].

-->"''I left my wife and children. I sponged off the family estates. I did more women than I can count, a few rent-boys when I chose, and – not coincidentally – more drugs and alk than I can actually credit. Better an absent father – and it was the children I most cared about, not Connie – [[ParentalSubstitute with Charles supplying my deficiencies]], than me, as a father, hanging about and splashing them with my muck. … I was a scholar, once.''"
----
* AwfulWeddedLife: His and Lady Crispin's marriage.
* BiTheWay: Or possibly AnythingThatMoves.
* BrilliantButLazy: Crispin could have done great things. If he'd had discipline and energy to spare from being TheCasanova and a HandsomeLech.
* BritishStuffiness: Delights in dancing on its corpse.
* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Or so Crispin alleges. The Rector and the Duke disagree, and Crispin's children call him on it.
* DeadManWriting: He leaves his [[CompromisingMemoirs unpublished and unexpurgated]] – ''very'' unexpurgated – [[FictionalDocument memoirs]] to his brother the Duke, to [[{{MacGuffin}} use as he sees fit]].[[note]]The memoirs are a {{MacGuffin}} for most of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' because no one who knows of them is quite sure whether they are factual, and thus useful. By the end of the book, they may well be a PlotDevice instead, though their use is not ([[BrickJoke yet]]) detailed[[/note]].
* DeathEqualsRedemption: He returns home knowing his sands are running out. Though he ''did'' think he had [[TheLastDance a bit more time]].
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Never found one, and fell prey to RichBoredom and all which that entails.
* DisappearedDad: To Rupert, James, and Henrietta Maria.
* DrivenByEnvy / TheResenter: Inverted. What drove Crispin wild – in both senses – wasn't that he was the second son or TheUnfavourite: he wasn't the latter at all. What got his nose out of joint was that he was better at some things than his brother, and his brother [[SuccessfulSiblingSyndrome refused to envy ''him'']]. He admits this on his deathbed, and the Rector outright compares this to [[Literature/BookOfEsther Haman in the story of Esther]].
* FamedInStory: For certain values of "fame." Or infamy. Not always justly.
* FamilyThemeNaming: Zigzagged. The Taunton dukedom was founded in a Stuart bastardy, and so you have lots of Jameses and Charleses and Ruperts and Henrys. But Frances Malet was no lower-class royal mistress. Crispin's name harks back (as do various ancestral Gilberts and Williams and so on) to the Norman side: the first founder of what is now the [[BlueBlood House of de Clare]] was Gilbert "Crispin" de Brionne, and the family surname ''is'' after all Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet. (The "Holles" explains various "Denzils," too.)
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: The Duke is the [[TheDutifulSon responsible one]]. Crispin took the vacant role.
* GiveHimANormalLife: Crispin's justification for being a DisappearedDad to his kids. They do not accept it.
* IdleRich: And damned happy to be. Until RichBoredom took its toll.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Grew up as one, briefly (being the younger son, it didn't last as long for him); went to his head, rather, when he had money to burn. And burnt it.
* JerkJock: Was a talented cricketer at Eton and up at Oxford … and too undisciplined to keep it up once it failed to serve his entitlements and to spark delicious envy.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Never really ceased to look up to his brother after all: or to have utter faith in him, whether in raising his kids for him or in inheriting his [[{{MacGuffin}} unexpurgated memoirs]] to use as he thought best.
* RebelliousSpirit: Somewhere between ChaoticGood and ChaoticNeutral. Won't stoop to the FreudianExcuse of having had TheBrigadier, quite literally, for a father.
** Curiously, it seems to run in the family. His very upright brother the Duke is more than something of a PragmaticHero and CombatPragmatist, though not quite TheUnfettered, in that he has a strict code of personal ethics … which sometimes even matches other people's and the teachings of the C of E and the dictates of the Common Law of England. And previous dukes and Lords Malet were quite likely to be this way without compunction.
* TheSlacker: What really ruined him for all his talent and potential.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: After he dies, Hetty notes that Crispin looks different. The Duke agrees: he looks much more like ''his'' father now, and quite like Rupert.
* UnwantedSpouse: To Lady Crispin, and very much vice versa.
* UpperClassTwit: For most of his life. Dying, though, he says, and says wistfully, something the Rector remembers as the saddest thing he has ever heard: "I was a scholar once."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Rupert, [[spoiler: Master of Dilton since Crispin's death]]]]
!!Rupert Charles Edward Donald Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet ("Rupe"), [[spoiler: Master of Dilton]]:

Rupert Charles Edward Donald Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet, [[spoiler: as of halfway through ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', heir presumptive to the dukedom of Taunton (and thus, in the Scots peerage, Master of Dilton); and, through his mother Lady Crispin, heir presumptive to the barony of Mallerstang and Swarthfell]]; educated Eton; reading Maths and Philosophy (and playing cricket) as a pupil of Christ Church, Oxon.

Cool, handsome, intelligent, idealistic, humble, and [[AllLovingHero A Friend to All]] … unless he's at the crease. ''Looks'' like a rower; ''is'' a cricketer.

-->"''Philosophy answers the question, Is it right and just to destroy so deliberately ugly a building [[note]]one of the Modernist buildings of his own Oxford college[[/note]]; Maths, with a bit of help from Engineering and Chemistry, quite usefully tells one how to do so."''
----
* BigBrotherInstinct: In spades, and particularly as to his sister. He commonly feels Jamie to be competent to stand on his own as an equal.
* BigBrotherMentor: To James, a trifle, in telling him what to expect as a fresher; and to Hetty as a matter of course.
* CallingTheOldManOut: In support of Jamie, who takes the lead, in having a frank deathbed discussion with Lord Crispin, and solo in calling out Lady Crispin for obtrusive sulks at Crispin's funeral.
--> '''Rupert, icily:''' "You have every right and every reason to have had, and to have now, your evident – your ''painfully'' evident – opinion of your late husband. He was, however, my father, and Jamie's, and Hetty's; and, of course, brother to Uncle Charles. You shall ''not'' traduce that with this self-indulgence any longer, or any longer and further shame your children and embarrass Uncle or the Family by your evident disdain and your evident sulks. Is that understood?"\\
'''Lady Crispin, outraged:''' "''I'' am your ''mother'' –"\\
'''Rupert:''' "Then act it – and act your age."
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: A substantial part of one, though maturing into the {{Hunk}} now.
** Has an InUniverse fandom. To his {{Fangirl}} sister Hetty's dismay. To her ''particular'' dismay when it veers into [[BrotherSisterIncest shipping him with his brother James]].
* DeadpanSnarker: It's a [[SharedFamilyQuirks family trait]].
* TheDutifulSon: There are no undutiful siblings; but he's this in contrast to his DisappearedDad.
* HeteronormativeCrusader / MoralGuardian: Averted, although for about ninety seconds, Sher Mirza mistakenly ''thinks'' he might be. Rupert consciously refuses to pass judgement on orientations. What he expects, after living with the fallout from Crispin, is that people who undertake obligations fulfill them. ''See'' MySisterIsOffLimits.
* MathematiciansAnswer: Tends to be the way Rupert approaches life, along with being ThePhilosopher.
* MySisterIsOffLimits: A mild case. Puppy-love with Mark Grampound is one thing; but Jamie's contemporary, the AmbiguouslyBi Carruthers Minor, is "to stay away from Hetty, then, we don't want another situation such as Father's."
* PromotionToParent: In lieu of Crispin, Lady Crispin notwithstanding, and especially on estate and Family matters, as he is the next heir after Crispin to the dukedom.
* TheReliableOne: Averted only insofar as all three of the siblings are pretty well-adjusted. ''Is'' reliable and dutiful, all the same, and it shows in stark contrast to his father Lord Crispin.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: They were raised by the only intellectual duke in the [=UK=]. It shows, and is lampshaded (they can code-switch readily, but among themselves speak like young dons; they have a gift for being elsewhere when something stupid is starting; Rupert has strategy but no real sense of how rotten people can be, while James has the cynicism of an elderly historian; and so on).
* SiblingTeam: With Jamie, particularly at Eton and then up at Oxford. Formidable when [[SharedFamilyQuirks sharing family tendencies]]:
--> Rupert had strategy but no real comprehension of how people interacted upon lower planes, whilst James understood human motives all too well and all too cynically, yet had (for all his cynicism) no gift for grand strategy. (Rupert played excellent chess. James played positively murderous poker.) […] Were anyone so foolish as to conclude, in consequence, that neither Rupe nor Jamie wanted to be watched warily by anyone ill-disposed towards their uncle and his aims, they were on a hiding to nothing, all the same: for any such fool had clean forgot the most important consideration, which was that the brothers Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet were hunting in couple, and, they between them supplying one another's deficiencies, comprised a deadly formidable force.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: To his father and grandfather, but only after Crispin's face settles into the lines of death. And he does have a certain Stuart air to him. Justified in that the family keep intermarrying with a subset of other peers and gentry families.
* TheUnfavourite: He and James both are, in that Lady Crispin is dubious of all three of her children (as too like their father's family and ''especially'' too like the Duke), but Hetty is at least a [[ParentalFavoritism ''girl'' – and the youngest]]. It doesn't appear to faze Rupert or James.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:James Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet]]
!! James Denzil Valentine Gilbert Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet ("Jamie"):

Second son of Lord and Lady Crispin. Another Old Etonian; now up at Oriel reading History. [[Creator/RudyardKipling Fair and flaxen but no "flannelled fool at the wicket"]]; the one who ''looks'' like a cricketer, but ''is'' a rower. Inherited his uncle's historian's cynicism. He and his brother have been described, by the head of Jamie's own college, as the perfect Oxford undergraduates … of 1913.

->"''The thing is, we – the Family, I mean, currently headed by poor old Uncle – don't own all this; it damned well owns us."''

----
* BigBrotherInstinct: Mildly so, to Hetty.
* BigBrotherMentor: Equally mildly, to Hetty.
* CallingTheOldManOut: On that father's deathbed, for the ParentalAbandonment. And mostly because it was unfair to Uncle Charles.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: Also part of one, though the athletic sort.
** Has an InUniverse fandom, to his {{Fangirl}} sister Hetty's dismay; like James, regards the {{Fangirls}} as harmlessly mad, though rather, ah, [[{{Squick}} perverse of mind]], poor things.
* TheCynic: Has [[JadeColoredGlasses jade-colored ''contacts'']] in. He was after all raised with a DisappearedDad's being [[ParentalSubstitute replaced]] by an uncle … and that particular uncle, the Duke, himself as much a [[TheCynic cynic]] as any historian since [[UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire Gibbon]].
* DeadpanSnarker: It's a [[SharedFamilyQuirks family trait]], and he has it, even more than Rupert has.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: At least Carruthers Minor made a drunken approach. Unavailingly.
* FamilyThemeNaming: "James" for James II, "Denzil" for Lord Holles, "Gilbert" for the Malets, "Valentine" for numerous Anglo-Irish Maynooths and bishops of Omagh (Church of Ireland)....
* MiddleChildSyndrome: Averted. He's extremely well-adjusted, and his being a DeadpanSnarker has nothing to do with birth order.
* SiblingTeam: With Rupe.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Zigzagged. They're not bearers of an UncannyFamilyResemblance, but it ''is'' noted – by InUniverse professional artists – that, if dressed appropriately, James, Rupert, and Hetty (and for that matter Charles and Crispin) could pass for Stuarts painted by Lely.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: He and Rupert both, which is hardly surprising given their home life.
--> "And yet, somehow, the two were always a pace apart and aside from their fellows and contemporaries – or several miles, if something adolescently stupid were being planned or begun. Both possessed humour and wit; but their sense of fun was different to that of the common run, their gods were not the gods of others."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hetty Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet]]
!! Henrietta Maria Flora Anne Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet ("Hetty"):

Daughter and youngest child of Lord and Lady Crispin, and Only Niece (cue indulgence) of Charles, Duke of Taunton. Still at school (Cheltenham Ladies'). ''Superficially,'' appears interested only in boys, {{BoyBand}}s, and horses. Including [[spoiler: towards the end of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', Epona, and horse-cults, and archaeology]].

->"''Of course [Professor Farnaby the archaeologist] doesn't [mind answering my questions]: he's a scholar, he lives to impart knowledge."''

----
* AllGirlsLikePonies: Well, ''she'' does. Being the Duke's niece, she doesn't get [[MyLittlePhony toys]] related to horseflesh as gifts. She gets shares in National Hunt runners, and free range at the local racing stud.
** Which is crafty of the Duke, and still more of Professor the Baroness Lacy, who, dangling horse-cults and Epona and chalk horses before her, are making an archaeologist of her.
* TheBabyOfTheBunch: Very much the youngest … and knows it, and to an extent trades on it.
* EveryonesBabySister: And remarkably unspoiled all the same.
* {{Fangirl}} / OneOfUs: InUniverse. She keeps a weather eye on the InUniverse Woolfonts fandom, is a rabid (and Ziam-shipping) [[Music/OneDirection Directioner]], sees the local Village Concert party (Fr Paddick, Sher Mirza, The Breener, Edmond, and Teddy, with a ducal basso added) as avatars of her said favorite BoyBand with a decade or so added, and (to her mother's horror) writes {{Fanfic}}. (The duke, like Hetty's English mistress at school, is simply happy she reads and writes, full stop.)
* HiddenDepths: Likes to be seen as interested only in boys, {{BoyBand}}s, and [[AllGirlsLikePonies horses]]. In fact, is mildly interested in literature and increasingly drawn to archaeology. (Mere history bores her: lampshaded by [[Literature/{{Evensong}} her uncle's reflection]] that growing up among heritage and treasures makes them commonplace. "Sometimes, a [[Creator/JohannesVermeer Vermeer]] [...] may spark the nascent artist or art historian. When they are effectively one's nursery wallpaper, however, they haven't that bolt from the blue effect very often.")
* IHaveBrothers: She may like {{BoyBand}}s and ponies, but she's not averse to mucking-out and yomping the countryside; and in fact finds her some of the intellectual interests held by her ''brothers'' a bit … etiolated. It's also a Big Event when she agrees to go into the kitchens with Cook to learn something domestic.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: It's doubtful she's been called "Henrietta Maria" rather than "Hetty" more than half a dozen times since she was carried away from the font.
* PreppyName: Subverted and lampshaded. It's (obviously) a [[FamilyThemeNaming nod to the Stuart descent]], and, as mentioned of all three siblings by [[ThoseTwoGuys Poppy van Meteren and India Charlton]], Sloaney names are the province of their own upper-middle and lower-upper classes: "the real, old crusted tawny aristos don't hand out 'Poppy' or 'India' at the font, it's all 'Emma' or 'Viola' or 'Violet' or 'Margaret' even now."
* PuppyLove: With Mark, Lord Grampound, heir to Lord Treskilling.
* ShipperOnDeck: She doesn't merely ship, she supports and lobbies for, a marriage between her ducal uncle and Lady Lacy; as a {{Fangirl}}, she has her InUniverse ships; and, accepting that Sher Mirza and Noel Paddick are an AnchoredShip, she writes InUniverse, RomanAClef {{Fanfic}} in which their [[CaptainErsatz Captains Ersatz]] are free to weigh anchor and sail into the sunset and have a bang. (Her uncle, when this is called to his attention, suggests it's a bit discourteous, and, if she must do it, to get the historical setting right.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Tenth Duke]]
!!The late Brigadier the 10th Duke of Taunton, James Rupert Gilbert Henry Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet:

Father to Charles and Lord Crispin.

->"Lord Crispin's father, a much-travelled brigadier regularly called upon to liaise with or serve as military attaché to the UK's NATO allies, was not a lenient man, although he was not intolerant of minor follies....''\\
– [[FictionalDocument From a really nasty obit for Crispin]]

----
* TheBrigadier: Every last bit of one.
* CulturedWarrior: By all accounts; and he married a [[GentlemanAndAScholar bluestocking]].
* GrowOldWithMe: He and his Duchess were clearly a case, sometimes to the near exclusion of their sons. Although, if Her Grace ''was'' determined to go abroad to all of His Grace's foreign postings, and with money tight, leaving the boys with relations when home from school did make sense. Especially if the posting involved nearby shooting wars.
** Sadly, or perhaps mercifully, she predeceased him; and he never knew, owing to Alzheimer's.
* ImpoverishedPatrician: Nothing but his Army pay and a small allowance from the Family trusts until the abeyance was called out in his favor.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: Charles inherited a good deal of his character from his father.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: Inevitably. Though he had no patience for lead-swinging sorts, even if they had served in HM Forces (e.g., Snook the sexton).
* ThePatriarch: Particularly after succeeding to the dukedom, which put him at the head of TheClan.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: In war and peace, for his men, his tenants, and his sons.
* RetiredBadass: After leaving the Army and before waxing senile. His meteoric [[RankUp promotions]] in Korea clearly say, {{Badass}}.
* ScatterbrainedSenior: Suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his last years. As Charles was serving in the field, Crispin was dragged back to manage things. Untying the resulting cock-ups is a well-lampshaded plot point throughout the series, driving plenty of plots.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Tenth Duke's Duchess, Frances]]
!!The late Duchess of Taunton, Frances Margaret Anne Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet, ''née'' Daubeny:

Mother to Charles and Lord Crispin. Part of a [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry West of England]] and Cotswolds branch of the Daubenys, primarily ecclesiastical and academic, her near relations included a Bishop of Omagh (Church of Ireland) and the Dean of Clent.

->"... a woman of taste who had taken one look at the 1960s and '70s and recoiled in horror. (That her elder son's godfather had been Sir John Betjeman, and one of her own friends, Alec Clifton-Taylor, had been no accident at all.) [She'd] regarded ... the books in a room, and a few canvases, as the only important furnishings, and was willing to put up with anything so long as there were tea trays, biscuit tins, and plenty to read....''

----
* ApronMatron: Of the upper-class variety, as Crispin and Charles will attest.
* BrainyBrunette: A cultivated and formidably intelligent lady, and remembered as damned attractive.
* CoolOldLady: In her later years, if the Wolfdown House servants can be trusted.
* EnglishRose: A dewy one, by all accounts, and remembered with special admiration and affection by the [[OldRetainer staff]] at Wolfdown.
* ProperLady: Also fondly recalled as such by the Staff, particularly [[KindlyHousekeeper Mrs V]].
* SilkHidingSteel: She always went to foreign postings with her husband, regardless of danger; and at home, her DeathGlare remains well-remembered by both her sons (although Crispin refuses to believe Charles was ever on the receiving end of one).
[[/folder]]

----



!!The Servants

--> "The Servants' Hall," said Sir P[[note]] Sir Pemberton Molyneaux [=QC=][[/note]], genially, to Mr Hales-Owen[[note]]one of His Grace's solicitors[[/note]], "at any one of Charles' old piles, is less a [[HiddenDepths Servants' Hall than an SCR]], or at any rate an MCR or GCR. Everyone's an expert in something, has taken a degree in this or is taking another in that, or is a recognised and published expert in the other thing."

[[folder:Mr. Viney, Wolfdown House]]

!![[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs ''Mr'']] Paul Viney BA (Exon) MBA (Bath), butler to HG the Duke of Taunton:

-> "Not for nothing did Paul Viney rank in pay and port with a civil servant of a comparable grade, and not for nothing was he to everyone save the duke and the adults of the ducal family always Mr Viney."

The Duke's ostensible and technical [[BattleButler butler]] at [[BigFancyHouse Wolfdown]]. In fact, his executive officer: and, outside working hours, vice-captain to the Duke's captaincy of the District 1st [=XI=]; fellow churchwarden for the Joint PCC of the Combined Benefice and the PCC specific to Abbas church; and ducal intelligencer, His Grace' eyes and ears in the community. Dignified, wise, kindly, omniscient, omnicompetent, capable of snarking back, and possessed of several degrees and a fistful of certifications, mostly City & Guilds.

Warden, Joint PCC (Combined Benefice); Warden, SS Leonard and Mary Woolfont Abbas PCC; Vice-Captain, the Woolfonts Combined {{Cricket}} Club.

->"The problem of the moment, reflected Mr Viney, was that the old equilibrium had been upset and the new not yet settled; and this was not owing to the incomers, but was, rather, generational. […] [T]he danger was that His Grace's efforts to – if one put the matter quite frankly – save Cllr Gates' arse, should lead to an irruption of the politics of personality which should spare no one, and bespatter even the Rector.\\
"Which was, thought Mr Viney, quite grimly and bloody-mindedly, [[PrecisionFStrike not fucking on]]."
----
* BattleButler: When His Grace gets stuck in to deal with minor local villainy, ''Mister'' Viney is right beside him.
* BestFriend: To Mr. Simon Kellow of the Blue Boar, and contrariwise. Which does help keep the Duke informed....
* Butlerspace: Knows it like the back of his hand. Justified and lampshaded by references to the (TruthInTelevision) architecture of Wolfdown, backstairs, alcoves, and all.
* DoNotCallMePaul: The Duke ''may'' call him, literally, "Paul": but does so only when they are talking on churchwarden-to-churchwarden terms, or Skipper (of the local [=XI=]) to Vice-Captain.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With the Duke.
* HypercompetentSidekick: Averted only because the Duke is so damned competent himself. He does augment ducal insufficiencies all the same, sometimes by [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight discreet disobedience]].
* LastNameBasis: He's a butler. He gets the surname – and a "Mister" in front of it, unless one is the Duke. Christian names are for ''footmen.'' And in the Servants' Hall and elsewhere, he is damned well "Mr. Viney" to all.
* LegacyOfService: Is part of one: Vineys have worked for the House of Fitzjames for generations. One was a footman in the eighth Duke's day (the Victorian era). Their loyalty is to the Family, of whom the Duke of the day is a mere steward for the next, and to the Estate.
* TheJeeves: Well, yes. Less a servant than an XO and 2i/c, as the Duke approvingly notes.
* ServileSnarker: Averted – but only because there's nothing servile about Viney.
--> '''Viney:''' Without asking Mr Mirza, Your Grace? Do you think that wise?\\
'''The Duke:''' I am not [[Series/DadsArmy Captain Mainwaring]], Viney.
* TheSocialExpert: Very much so: and one of the ways he balances the Duke, who has NoSocialSkills.
* TheSpymaster: He keeps the Duke abreast of sentiment and events in the District.
* TallDarkAndSnarky: Tick, check, and bingo.
* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: Unless one is the Duke or a senior member of the Family, he's ''Mister'' Viney to you, ''not'' "Viney."
* VitriolicBestBuds: In a [[WithDueRespect subtle]] fashion, with the Duke.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. Viney, Wolfdown House]]

!!Mrs. Viney,[[note]]She is not Mr. Viney's wife: he's divorced. She is his aunt by marriage.[[/note]] housekeeper to HG the Duke of Taunton:

Aunt by marriage to the Duke's butler, and not very much older than him (she had married Mr. Viney's father's youngest brother). [[KindlyHousekeeper Kindly]] but [[OldRetainer fierce]], and very much no-nonsense.

->""Even – sometimes, perhaps, especially –, when in service to persons of extraordinary rank and quality and office, the best service one can render, Mrs James,[[note]]Rose James, the Rector's housekeeper[[/note]] is to serve rather their best interests than their usual wishes. It's not an indiscretion, then, nor yet a violation of trust."''

----
* BenevolentBoss: When she sees something hasn't been dusted adequately, she assumes the servant responsible must have been taken ill. Anything else is inconceivable.
* BestFriend: To the Cook – although on a LastNameBasis ''with'' honorifics – and to Rose James, the ducally-trained housekeeper at the Rectory, who does get the occasional indulgence of having her forename used.
* KindlyHousekeeper: But not lenient. This is a subversion only in American terms: British housekeepers in grand country houses are different to the usual trope. (Perhaps a case of "Our Servants Are Different?")
* LastNameBasis: Housekeepers are always "Mrs." And particularly in the Servants' Hall. As are cooks: and Mrs. Viney and Mrs. Woolley remain on just those terms.
* LegacyOfService: Married into the job. There have long been Vineys on staff at Wolfdown, which they see (and the Duke agrees) is quite as much ''theirs'' as it is the Family's.
* OldRetainer: There are certain standards. They ''shall'' be kept up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. Woolley, Wolfdown House]]

!!Mrs. Woolley, Cook, Wolfdown House:

Forthright and occasionally skeptical [[OldRetainer mistress of the kitchens]] (plural) at the Duke's primary seat. Somewhat singleminded.

->""If he's not off his feed and is having his liver.... Then it's stress, is what it is. With all the gossip and interest and plaguing curiosity – no matter that it's approving and well-meant – ''and'' the minority view's back-biting in these three parishes, it's not to be wondered at."''

----
* BestFriend: To Mrs. Viney the Housekeeper – although on a LastNameBasis ''with'' honorifics – and to Rose James, the ducally-trained housekeeper at the Rectory.
* BrutalHonesty: Not a garnish, a main ingredient.
* LastNameBasis: Cooks and Housekeepers are always "Mrs." Particularly in the Servants' Hall.
* NonindicativeName: She's quite sharp and not in the least woolly. And a bit dubious of wooliness (as when one of the servants from one of the Duke's Scottish holdings, down for Crispin's funeral, was retailing Highland superstition about deaths in families and Second Sight).
* SupremeChef: Can give local gastro-hotelier Teddy Gates points. And he admits it, envyingly.
* TheClan: There are, ahem, [=LoadsAndLoadsOfWoolleys=] in the District (insert usual sheep joke), by birth and marriage alike, from Wolfdown to the Village School, and from servants and farm laborers to the white-collar classes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Thomas Yeates, Wolfdown House]]

!!Thomas Yeates (BA (Hons) Plymouth), Footman, then First Footman, now Valet and trainee Under-Butler, Wolfdown House:

Dead sexy young man who took the job because of an interest in early porcelain; wise enough to know that the Duke was not amenable to "fashion-forward" suggestions so long as Savile Row[[note]]specifically, Anderson & Sheppard[[/note]] yet stood; fiercely protective of the Family.

->""I may say, also, that I, as one possessing a degree and some expertise in Art History – Plymouth, Madam –, am not dismissive of expert testimony to the safeguarding of the amenities and the aesthetics of the plan."''

----
* BattleButler: Quite capable of joining a ducal expedition to catch petty crooks in the act of pillaging local Roman antiquities.
* DepravedHomosexual: Averted with bells on, and lampshaded as being averted. He's [[AllGaysArePromiscuous not promiscuous]]; he's certainly [[AllGaysArePedophiles not a p(a)edo]]; and the Duke trusts him wholly with valeting his nephews (well, so long as he doesn't suggest ''fashion'' to them, damn it all, what?).
* TheFashionista: Manqué. And duly frustrated. The Duke is not about to dress or ''be'' dressed in anything not approved by Anderson & Sheppard.
* HasAType: Not quite to RaceFetish standards, but he does find British Pakistanis specially attractive. Particularly in cricket whites. (Although he cannot imagine being attracted to Sher Mirza, even though everyone InUniverse notoriously is, or for that matter to the Rector (ditto): too much awe gets in the way.)
* HiddenDepths: Took the job – as is not uncommon in ducal employ – for the perks, including educational bursaries. He's an art historian with a specialism in early Western porcelain, and the ducal collections have, InUniverse, "most of the John Dwight porcellaneous pieces known to have been made," per Mr. Viney.
* LastNameBasis: Was "Thomas" as a footman; became "Yeates" when he [[RankUp was promoted]].
* PursueTheDreamJob: He signed on for the porcelain.
* StraightGay: So much so he has trouble pulling on days away, having first to assure the other bloke that he's not just curious and won't have [[GayPanic a Big Gay Freakout]] afterwards.
* TallDarkAndHandsome: Well, footmen ''are'' hired for their looks....
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Lucy Stevens, the Dower House]]

!!Lucy Stevens (Mrs. Robert Larence), Lady Crispin's Lady's-Maid, The Dower House, Wolfdown: [[note]]("Lucy" to Lady Crispin and senior Members of the Family; "Mrs. Larence" as parish secretary; "Miss Stevens," professionally, to everyone else)[[/note]]

Loyal and long-suffering lady's-maid and confidante to Lady Crispin, with Strong Views on the late and by many unlamented Lord Crispin. Daughter-in-law to the ducal riding-master and retired Chief Whip, George Larence.

->"She would not have been Lady Crispin's lady's-maid in the first place were she not more than equal to the task.''

----
* BattleButler: Of the "protector" sort, and, obviously, the DistaffCounterpart. She runs a great deal of interference for her lady, who is, in her view, not wantonly to be bothered.
* TheConfidant: Part of the job description, but undertaken seriously. She's one of the few people before and with whom Lady Crispin can drop the mask.
* KnowWhenToFoldEm / SensingYouAreOutmatched: There are of course times when she cannot shield Lady Crispin from absolutely everything and everyone, regardless of whether or not Her Ladyship is in the right. Or the wrong, as when she was stroppy about Crispin's funeral:
--> Stevens, Her Ladyship's maid at the Dower House, opened the door to find a formidable delegation who could not possibly be sent away and whom her mistress ''must and'' should see, will, or would, she, or nil she. Even His Grace might have been resisted; even Lady Veryan might have been sent away with the plea that the widow was unable just then to receive her. But Lucy Stevens […] was no fool. And Stevens knew, as Lady Crispin was to be made to know, that it was simply not possible to turn away Canon Potecary, Dean Blanchard, and Young Fr Campion.
* LastNameBasis: To everyone save the most senior and nearly related of the Peerage. As a lady's-maid, she takes "Miss" regardless of marital status.
* LegacyOfService: Married ''on'' the job: her father-in-law runs the ducal stables. And identifies herself very much with her lady's interests.
* {{Maid}}: Specifically, a lady's-maid. To Her Ladyship. And thus quite high in the Staff hierarchy.
* MaidCorps: Averted. There are plenty of Staff, but not an absurd amount, whether at Wolfdown or at the other ducal holdings. So far as there is something approaching one, though, Miss Stevens is well up in the ranks and can command a fair few when wanted to come over from Wolfdown House and aid her at the Dower House.
* NoHeroToHisValet: Or no heroine to her lady's-maid: averted. Miss Stevens is well aware of Lady Crispin's faults and sides with her all the same. Largely because Lord Crispin was most assuredly not a hero to Miss Stevens.
* TheReliableOne: In some ways the only such in Lady Crispin's life. (She doesn't count her children: they are far too independent for her taste.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Bernard Street, Wolfdown House]]

!!Bernard Street [=BSc=] (Hons) Plymouth [=MSc=] Kent, Head Gardener, Wolfdown House:

[[CrustyCaretaker Uncompromising]] horticultural expert of vast knowledge and Decided Views; has an [=MSc=] in Ethobotany (and still prefers to get his hands dirty).

->"Mr Street surveyed the Wolfdown gardens, his domain; and took in as well the computer screen, the drawings, and his undergardeners, all with a wintry eye. "Right," snapped he, a sort of RHS RSM; "here's what we're going on with today, and mind you listen well, I'll not repeat myself. Jim: kitchen garden...."''

----
* BattleButler: Always happy to lend a hand, and possibly a mattock, to any bit of ducal putting-stick-about.
* CallToAgriculture: Has an advanced degree and scads of qualifications. Sticks to gardening (admittedly for one of the great country houses of England, but, all the same...).
* CrustyCaretaker: As the Duke says, there are two dread consequences to mucking the Wolfdown gardens about: Street's wrath, and the being haunted by the ghost of Gertrude Jekyll; and he's not certain which should be worse.
* ItsPersonal: He and Snook the sexton are mortal enemies.
* LastNameBasis: As is appropriate to his place in the Staff hierarchy.
* NatureLover: Averted. He knows too much about "nature" to be romantic about it.
* OldRetainer: Nature may strive for untidiness … but not on ''his'' watch. Everything at Wolfdown is going to be ''perfect.'' Or he'll know the reason why, and there'll be hell to pay and no pitch hot.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Will Sanger, Wolfdown House]]

!!Will Sanger [=BSc=], Head Gamekeeper, Wolfdown House:

Highly trained [[GreatWhiteHunter keeper]] (if [[TheCynic pessimistic]]), [[InSeriesNickname nicknamed]] by the Duke as [[RedBaron "Sanglier," the Wild Boar]], and acknowledged to have been capable of scouting for Lovat or guiding for Lumsden. A ferocious conservationist with a [=BSc=] in Conservation and Wildlife Management, and locked in an [[FriendlyEnemy unending struggle]] with the [[ItsPersonal local poacher]], George Mould. Mrs Sanger is endlessly amused by him: from the touchline (sidelines).

->"Sanger was not a man who could be content when away for any extended periods from his coverts: and was by temperament a man assured that all things should go to rack, and likewise to ruin, in his absence and under any locum tenens whatever.''

----
* BattleButler: The servant you must want with you when tracking local villains robbing local archaeological sites.
* TheCynic / ThePessimist: Has so dour a view of humanity he's suspected of being part Scots.
* {{Determinator}}: Will ''not'' allow Nature-red-in-tooth-and-claw to get the upper hand; and damned well shan't let Mould the Poacher get by with any depredations. If it means his not sleeping for days on end.
* FrontlineGeneral: Regards himself as such in his never-ending war against poachers and predators: he has a staff, he just refuses to delegate.
* GreatWhiteHunter: Of the wildlife management and conservation sort.
* ItsPersonal: His ongoing war with the District's semi-official poacher-by-appointment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Cyril Ponton, Wolfdown House]]

!!Cyril Ponton, chief [[TheDriver driver]] [chauffeur] to the Duke, Wolfdown House:

[[BadassDriver Careful, conscientious, cunning]], and well deserving of the nickname given him by Rupert and James: [[Series/TopGear "the Stig."]] [[ObfuscatingStupidity Capable of playing the yokel]] when necessary – especially around the Press.

->"Cyril Ponton, however, was too many for them. He immediately took recourse in adopting the persona so well and so profitably exampled for so many years by Mr Kellow down the Boar. "Now, it ain't no manner of use, a-questionin' of Oi."''

----
* BadassDriver: Can get from Point A to Point B, through anything and any weather, in record time … and without ever a summons from the jolly constabulary.
* FriendToAllChildren: Rupert, James, and Hetty, naturally; but he and his junior colleagues are also always to hand to drive farm children who can't catch the train and are too far away to walk, to the Village School and (for the older ones) the Free School in Beechbourne. And they all love him.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: As the InUniverse press has finally learned, it's pointless to try to wheedle information out of him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miss Jenny Beed, Wolfdown House]]

!!Jenny Beed, Fourth Housemaid, Wolfdown House:

Diligent and dutiful [[{{Maid}} worker]], who is [[PetTheDog occasionally exasperated]] by [[BigFriendlyDog muddy paw-prints]] but is very much thankful that the Octagon Room, with all its mirrors, is no longer used, as in centuries past, for fencing exercises and the teaching of gavottes.

->"Only the march of technology had saved its being used nowadays for a similar purpose. [The Duke] had instead created a modern equivalent, with cameras and a monitor, in the nets, where, even as the actions were recorded for later review, the screens showed in real time what the CCTV saw, as bowlers and batsmen perfected their craft for the Woolfonts Combined XI. This was all the better for the Wolfdown servants, who should otherwise have been forever sweeping up shards of shattered looking-glasses, broken by cricket balls; and Jenny Beed, the fourth housemaid, was duly and unfeignedly thankful for that mercy.''

----
* FirstNameBasis: ''Ex officio,'' as a housemaid.
* {{Maid}}: Fourth housemaid, to be precise, and [[PursueTheDreamJob working her way up]].
* PetTheDog: Puts up with a good deal, and all with a smile, from the [[BigFriendlyDog ducal Clumbers and Her Ladyship's Bassets and Old English Sheepdogs]] at the Dower House.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miss Amanda Westlake, Wolfdown House]]

!!Mandy (Amanda) Westlake, Scullery Maid, Wolfdown House:

[[PerpetualSmiler Cheerful]] country girl getting [[PursueTheDreamJob invaluable work experience]]. The only threat to her equanimity is the intrusion of the often muddy and always drooling free-range [[BigFriendlyDog ducal Clumber spaniels]].

->"The House of Fitzjames did not ''have'' servants: it had an affinity, of the sort any great magnate from the Yorkist Age to the succession of the first Charles should have recognised and felt at home with; and its rhythms were mediaeval.''

----
* FirstNameBasis: She's a SculleryMaid. That is the convention.
* PursueTheDreamJob: Training at Wolfdown, and taking all the ducally-granted opportunities for Higher Certs and so on, is a well-traveled path to bigger and better things; and she knows it.
* SculleryMaid: For now. It's a rung on the ladder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr Henry (Hal) Fanner, Wolfdown House]]

!!Hal Fanner, Houseboy, Wolfdown House:

Keen young man on the lowest rung of the ladder. He'll surely rise. [[TheClan Kinsman of the postman, Peter "Postman Pete" Fanner]].

->"Hal was merely the newest in a long line of lads who'd taken their GCSEs and chosen what amounted to an apprenticeship which, starting with the blacking of boots, led inexorably to [=BTECs and NVQ=]s and diplomas in Hospitality and Catering and Jeevesian buttling and the like. It was likewise useful experience in this, that there was a tradition at Wolfdown of young servants taking what they'd learnt and spending time in HM Forces before returning to Wolfdown if they liked: and riflemen, sappers, and fusiliers, and their equivalent Jollies[[note]]Royal Marines[[/note]] and their counterparts in the Andrew[[note]]the Royal Navy[[/note]] and the RAF, tended to be thankful for having learnt beforehand to make a bed and to bull[[note]]i.e., shine[[/note]] boots.''

----
* TheClan: There are a ''lot'' of Fanners in the District.
* FirstNameBasis: Houseboys take forenames.
* PursueTheDreamJob: As in the quote above.
* SculleryMaid: [[DistaffCounterpart Spear Counterpart]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. George Ford]]

!!George Ford [=BSc (Hons) MSc=] (Hons), Rural Estate Management, the Royal Agricultural University Circencester:

His Grace's Agent and Factor, point of contact (in theory) with the farmers, and agricultural conscience, MoralityChain, and Devil's Advocate.

->"George Ford was a jolly, tweedy, red-faced sort of man (he didn't disdain a pint, but his complexion was rather the result of wind and weather than Woolfont Brewery's work): a jovial sort who looked much more like a West Country farmer than did most of the actual farmers. What he certainly didn't resemble in any way was an agent. Some of the Malets had, in their days, had stewards – indeed, Ned o' the Ford had been one – who had amply justified the mediaeval commination upon grasping seneschals and Unjust Stewards destined for 'Hell, top and tail'. Ned's distant descendant was of a different kidney altogether. He was not in the least lax; nor would he abate a jot of what was owed the ducal estate. But he understood patience, and when to grant it (and, what was more important yet, when not to); and how the unforeseen, in agriculture, always happened, and the inevitable – at least as to the turning up of trumps – never occurred.''

----
* BigFriendlyDog: Noted possessor of a much-admired Flat Coat Retriever bitch.
* CallToAgriculture: There are plenty of other jobs he could do and do well. And wouldn't do at gunpoint. He Serves The Land, and the Duke a distant second.
* TheClan: He's "cousin to half the folk of the three parishes."
* LastNameBasis: As His Grace's agent, he is very much "Mister" Ford.
* LegacyOfService: In generations past, the Malets and then the Fitzjames dukes tried to guard against corruption by swapping out seneschals, stewards, and agents from one distant estate to another, before they gave up and started educating them to principles. Mr. Ford is descended from most of these, including stewards and agents brought down from ducal holdings in Worcestershire, Cheshire, and Shropshire. The Ford side, though, is pure Woolfonts-and-Beechbourne since before the Conquest, and have always had ''somebody'' working for the Family.
* MoralityChain: Unlikely to be wanted with the current duke (or Rupert), but stands ready to oppose any decision which is not in the best interest of the Family as a whole and, still more, of the Land. And has made this quite clear – which is ''why'' he's the Duke's agent and factor.
--> Mr Ford was an agent, not a flunkey. Had the ducal initiative threatened the land and the interests of the land, or had it imposed hardship on the tenants, he'd have said so to the duke's very face, and fought His Grace on it, hammer and tongs. But that wasn't the way of it, here – as indeed, reflected Mr Ford, one'd expect, His Grace being His Grace, and knowing these things quite as well as did Mr Ford. So long as the land didn't suffer by it and His Grace were seeing that none of the farmers suffered by it, Mr Ford was happy to fight the duke's corner.
* TheSpymaster: Like Mr. Viney, he makes certain the Duke, Lady Crispin, and the clergy are aware of any anti-social behavior requiring … intervention.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:At Templecombe House, Bath]]

!!Templecombe House ("Number One, Bath")

The Staff thus far mentioned:

----
* TheJeeves: Mr. Dancey.
* KindlyHousekeeper: Mrs. Glisson.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:At Malet House, the Cathedral Close, Salisbury]]

!!Malet House, South Canonry. Sarum

The Staff thus far mentioned:

----
* TheJeeves: Mr. Casby.
* KindlyHousekeeper: Mrs. Freemantle.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Coppock, Tidnock Hall, Cheshire]]

!!Mr. Coppock, butler to HG the Duke of Taunton at Tidnock:

->"Mr Coppock, when not buttling, was a reading man."

----
* BigEater: Evidently: "a man who perforce took exercise so as not to develop, owing to an abiding interest in food and drink, a bay window of his own."
* HiddenDepths: "Yeates [the First Footman at Wolfdown] might be absorbed by early porcelain[;] Mr Coppock [was] fascinated by early clocks." Also, has Serious Opinions of the economics of the whole Country House set-up.
--> '''To the Rector's gran, on why keeping Tidnock staffed is not wasteful:''' "Excluding outdoor servants, madam, retaining even a skeleton staff for such a house as Tidnock Hall gives gainful employment – on very liberal terms, if I may say so – to a score or more of persons; and the economic activity of the Hall simply by existing, without considering the Family's personal purchases or the contributions made by the disposable income of Staff, is a significant factor in local prosperity."
* TheJeeves: Goes with the job, although subverted as to being cleverer than his employer, naturally.
* OldRetainer: The Duke mayn't be often at Tidnock, but if he shows up unannounced, it will be in apple-pie order for him. And ready, as Coppock points out, for any of the Family at need, or when the ducal nephews marry.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: A reading man and something of an autodidact, he is prone to this, with great port and gravity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. Stanway, Tidnock Hall, Cheshire]]

!!Mrs. Stanway, housekeeper to HG the Duke of Taunton at Tidnock:

-> "… had already Taken Steps against any eventuality.... […] [I]t behoved them, felt they one and all, that they be ready to vindicate their stewardship and reflect credit upon His Grace."

----
* KindlyHousekeeper: Or she wouldn't ''be'' the housekeeper. Not under the Duke.
* LastNameBasis: Such is the custom for housekeepers.
* LegacyOfService: Stanways have been at Tidnock for ages; one was exchanged to Wolfdown as an agent and factor a few short centuries ago.
* OldRetainer: On ''her'' watch, Tidnock bloody well ''shall'' "vindicate [her] stewardship and reflect credit upon His Grace."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Adley and Harkin, Tidnock Hall, Cheshire]]

!!Adley and Harkin, footmen to HG the Duke of Taunton at Tidnock:

-> '''The Rector:''' "… capital sandwiches, these: thank you for bringing them."

----
* FirstNameBasis: Presumably, in the Servants' Hall and on the job. Fr. Paddick does not play that game, and addresses them as [[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs ''Mr.'' Adley and ''Mr.'' Harkin]]. Old Lord Mallerstang doesn't "blink at hearing the footmen given the honorific, perhaps regarding this as in the nature of a priestly indult."
* ThoseTwoGuys: Tend to appear and work in tandem.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. Blough, Tidnock Hall, Cheshire]]

!!Mrs. Blough, Cook, Tidnock

-> "[A] spare, keen woman who looked much more like a duchess than any conventional idea of a cook...."

----
* LastNameBasis: She ''is'' the Cook. It's [[TheyCallMeMisterTibbs ''Mrs.'']] Blough. Full stop.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Of the sterner sort. When she clears her throat meaningfully, the kitchen-maids "stand to."
* SupremeChef: Why she has the job, after all. Mrs. B is also, in accordance with her own and the Duke's preferences, a serious advocate of [[FromMyOwnPersonalGarden local provender, sound British (often rare) breeds, and heritage veg.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Davenport]]

!!Mr. Alan Davenport:

Agent and Factor to His Grace at Tidnock Hall and dependant holdings

-> "He was now reporting to His Grace, with the Tidnock Hall agent, Mr Alan Davenport, sitting in and taking minutes of the meeting."

----
* HypercompetentSidekick / ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As Mr. Coppock notes, Tidnock runs at a profit, never needs to open to tourists, can open the gardens for charity without asking money for admittance, and runs to a National Hunt Stud and an experimental agricultural station. Even as the Duke remains a popular landlord and employer. Mr. Davenport is clearly doing something very right.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Gittins, Melverley Court, Salop]]

!!Mr. Gittins, butler to His Grace at Melverley:

The ducal butler in the Welsh Marches, in Shropshire, at the confluence of Vyrnwy and Severn.

-> "[James'] joy was communicable, even to those who, like Sher, were no enthusiasts for the water; and the staff, it was clear, from Mr Gittins in his pantry and Mrs Thorne the housekeeper, to Hoof the first footman and valet, to Mrs Pugh the cook, smiled upon it and him with affectionate indulgence...."

----
* HonoraryUncle: To James, particularly, who, as might be expected of a rower, loves Melverley best, and whose tendency to track mud about and drip river-water on things is smilingly indulged. (He doesn't ''mean'' to, after all, he's just that excited by being on the river.)
* TheJeeves: ''Ex officio.''
* LastNameBasis: Well: ''butler.'' So....
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Thorne, Melverley Court, Salop]]

!!Mrs. Thorne, housekeeper to His Grace at Melverley:

The woman who runs Melverley, and sister-in-law to the duke's Shropshire agent.

-> "… the treasures of the house."

----
* KindlyHousekeeper: And surprisingly indulgent. "Mrs Thorne the housekeeper ... smiled upon [James] with affectionate indulgence – even as [she] knew he'd drip, somewhere, or tramp mud despite his most conscientious efforts...."
* LastNameBasis: She is after all the housekeeper.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Pugh, Melverley Court, Salop]]

!!Mrs. Pugh, Cook, Melverley:

The kitchen angel of Melverley, and Welsh of the Welsh.

-> "… affectionate indulgence – even as [she] knew he'd forget the luncheon hamper Mrs Pugh prepared for him...."\\
"… the excellent Mrs Pugh...."

----
* HiddenDepths / TheClan: Seriously Welsh, and has (and follows with interest the doings of) a niece who's a harpist.
* LastNameBasis: Cooks in great houses take surnames, with a "Mrs."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hoof, Melverley Court, Salop]]

!!Hoof, First Footman and Valet to His Grace at Melverley:

A testament to the joys of [[RankUp promotion]].

-> "… affectionate indulgence – even as [he] knew [James should] leave Hoof, quite without meaning to, with a hell of a task in brushing his clothes."

----
* FirstNameBasis / LastNameBasis: Footmen get the former … First Footman – Valets graduate to the latter. [[EmbarrassingLastName Whether they like it or not – and it's not stated whether he does or doesn't.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dr Speake, Melverley Court, Salop]]

!!Dr Speake ([=BA BLitt DPhil=] Oxon), librarian-residentiary to His Grace at Melverley:

Pompous, elderly, garrulous, old-fashioned, but wise and lovable all the same: and very insistently an Oriel man (which is now James' college).

-> "[[NotThatKindOfDoctor Dr]] Speake was an indefatigable guide to Melverley Court, the Estate, the Church,[[note]]In RealLife, the parish church at Melverley, St Peter's, is historic (15th Century) and architecturally celebrated[[/note]] and, with elephantine subtlety, the duke's mind, drawing innocent parallels here and pointing morals in passing there."

----
* {{Bookworm}}: Prefers to experience life on the page.
* GoodOldWays: He lives as much of an Edwardian existence as the times allow.
* LastNameBasis: He's a formal and old-fashioned academic, so....
* MeaningfulName: He ''is'' a talker. At length.
* NotThatKindOfDoctor: He's an Oxford [=DPhil=]. Not a medico.
* OldRetainer: Of a superior sort. Devoted to the Family.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: By the yard. Even in internal monologue. Hey, he's old-fashioned, and lives mentally in times long past.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Hollington, Clentwood House, Worcs]]

!!Mr. Hollington, butler to His Grace at Clentwood:

The ducal butler in the Clent Hills, looking down (in several senses) on Brum and the West Midlands.

-> "Mr Hollington, the butler, seemed to run on silent hover-technology...."

----
* {{Butlerspace}}: As in the preceding quote. Clentwood in its present incarnation being Georgian, there is sure to be a RealLife, TruthInTelevision reason, architecturally, for this ability to pop up from nowhere. Even without the priest holes present at Melverley.
* GoodSamaritan: In themselves and as the Duke's agents in his absence, his servants are always engaged in local affairs. At Clentwood, Mr. Hollington and the rest of the Staff "constituted themselves the ducal lieutenants in Wildest Worcs, and invariably turned up on committees, the parish council and the PCC, and organisations, ranging from the governors of the parochial primary school (surging ahead at last after much anguish and reorganisation), to the ringers, to the gardening club." To almost, locally speaking, BenevolentConspiracy levels.
* TheJeeves: ''Ex officio.''
* LastNameBasis: He ''is'' the butler. Comes with the territory.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Raybould, Clentwood House, Worcs]]

!!Mrs. Raybould, housekeeper to His Grace at Clentwood:

The (inevitably kindly) housekeeper at Clentwood, and a power in the land.

-> "Mrs Raybould, the Clentwood housekeeper, quietly, privily, and for quite ten minutes together, in her room that evening by herself, laughed herself very nearly sick. She quite liked Dr Lee, [[DoctorsOrders but shrewder heads than that of the good doctor]] had failed, always, to get the better of His Grace."

----
* GoodSamaritan: Part of a gang of them.
--> From Parish Design Statement to Neighbourhood Watch to the Mothers' Union and the Cricket Club and the NFU, bus shelters and wildflower meadows and road surface issues, Clentwood played its part without throwing its weight about....
* KindlyHousekeeper: At home and in the community.
* LastNameBasis: Naturally.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Woodside, Clentwood House, Worcs]]

!!Mrs. Woodside, Cook, Clentwood:

The dancing cook. Well, at Servants' and Tenants' Dances.

-> "'Uncle Charles,' grinned Rupe, 'always dances with Mrs Woodside at these dos, at least once, and you don't want telling to which tune.'"

----
* LastNameBasis / TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: All cooks are Mrs. Wotsit.
* MeaningfulName / PunnyName: A perfectly respectable Worcestershire name, common in Clent and Hagley. On the other hand, she always dances with the Duke at Servants' and Tenants' Dances … to [[{{Jazz}} Count Basie]].[[note]]Yes, of ''course'' to "Jumpin' at the Woodside."[[/note]]
** And, yes, the Duke asserts that there is also a housemaid named "Stella." By, presumably, starlight.
* SupremeChef: It's a job qualification.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other servants, mentioned, Clentwood House, Worcs]]

!!Clentwood servants not yet given more than a mention:

The First Footman is Boughton. The Head Gardener is Shuck.
----
* LastNameBasis: As given.
* MeaningfulName: Shuck the gardener.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Elwell]]

!!Mr. Elwell:

Agent and Factor to His Grace in Worcs and the West Midlands.

-> "… in a purely personal capacity and disdaining to invoke the duke's name and influence, Mr Elwell, who was [=RC=], had had a few things to say to the dean in Dudley – and indeed to the Archbishop of Birmingham face to face – about the effective merger of S Wulstan & S Oswald into Our Lady & All Saints Stourbridge...."

----
* LastNameBasis: Rank requires it.
* RaisedCatholic: And remains so, as per the above quote.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Malloch, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!Mr. Malloch, butler to His Grace at Camserney:

Butler to the duke – who is, up there, the ''laird'' – at Camserney, in Highland Perthshire, between Weem and … Dull.

-> "Mr Malloch and Mrs Dewar, Mrs Peddie tearful amidst her pots and pans, Mr Alexander Keir as factor, and Dand Roberston, the auld heid ghillie, informed the Castle staff, and Jock Garvie surveyed the policies and his plantings for the flo'ers o' the forest for the funeral. Tam Ferguson, chief piper to His Grace, had been pipe sergeant in 4 SCOTS in his service, and held strong views upon the proprieties."

----
* TheJeeves: ''Ex officio.''
* LastNameBasis: He ''is'' the butler. Comes with the territory.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: One is not called a "disposer of destiny" for no reason.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Dewar, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!Mrs. Dewar, housekeeper to His Grace at Camserney:

Housekeeper at Camserney.

-> "… the same three disposers of destiny at Camserney, Mr Malloch, Mrs Dewar, and Mr Keir...."

----
* KindlyHousekeeper: Och, aye. But a wee bittock stern, ye ken.
* LastNameBasis: Naturally.
* MeaningfulName: Dewar ''is'' pronounced "dour...."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Peddie, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!Mrs. Peddie, Cook, Camserney:

The sentimental, Highland-superstitious, shortbread-making cook at the Castle.

-> "There are, in every walk of life and without distinction of class, two sorts of Scots grannie: the dour; and the sentimental. \\
"Mrs Peddie, the cook at Camserney, was of the latter breed, and, newly arrived in Hall, was doling out lashings of stem-ginger shortbread as she dabbed her tearful eyes, and accompanying these tidbits, to Mrs Viney's amused exasperation and the astonishment of the Wolfdown House cook, Mrs Woolley, with tales of omens and signs and Gaelic portents upon the foretold death of heirs."

----
* LastNameBasis: Cook is always either Cook or Mrs. Thingummy.
* SupremeChef: Especially with pastry, apparently.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. John Garvie, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!Jock Garvie, Head Gardener, Camserney:

[[CrustyCaretaker Stern]] Scots gardener, concairnit wi' a' his policies[[note]]grounds and gardens[[/note]] and "the flowers of the forest."

-->"... Jock Garvie surveyed the policies and his plantings for the flo'ers o' the forest for the funeral.''

----
* CrustyCaretaker: He's Scots.
* RealMenWearPink: Or at least are dead serious about flowers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Andrew Robertson, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!"Auld" Dand Robertson, Head Ghillie, Camserney:

[[GreatWhiteHunter Ghillie and gamekeeper]] to His Grace.

->"Dand Roberston, the auld heid ghillie, informed the Castle staff....''

----
* GreatWhiteHunter: Of the wildlife management and conservation sort. With a specialism in grouse and stags.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Thomas Ferguson, Castle Camserney, Perthshire (Perth & Kinross)]]

!!Tam Ferguson, Piper to His Grace, Camserney:

The Duke's personal piper at Camserney.

->"Tam Ferguson, chief piper to His Grace, had been pipe sergeant in 4 SCOTS in his service, and held strong views upon the proprieties.''

----
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: And he'll make sure of it.
* OldRetainer: With Decided Views.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Alexander Keir]]

!!Mr. Alexander (Eck) Keir:

Agent and Factor to His Grace in Perthshire.

-> "Mr Keir was a man who looked a good deal more like a dominie, or a grave and auld-fashioned minister o' the Kirk, than – as he was – the chief operating officer of a major, and ducal, Perthshire estate. His training and education were at the intersection, and indeed the cutting edge, of rural economics, rural finance, agricultural and countryside management, and agriculture; he was an open agnostic with no interest in deciding the question, and a grandson of the Scots Enlightenment who spurned Calvin and Knox and who worshipped rather at the shrine of Hume than of Marx; and with it all, he remained a dour man of the most Calvinistically desponding temperament, simply as a matter of nature, who could easily be mistaken for the less jovial sort of Wee Free. On the Sabbath. On South Uist. In a midwinter gale."

----
* ItsPersonal: He ''hates'' the [=SNP=]. He disagrees with most of its program(me), but what makes him hate them is [[SingleIssueWonk one issue]]: their land reform proposals.
* LastNameBasis: Unless one is the Duke.
* ThePessimist: Even by Scots standards.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. [=MacBean=], Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Mr. [=MacBean=], butler to His Grace at Luineag:

Butler to the duke at Luineage Lodge, in the forest by the loch and wrapped in Highland mist and [[Creator/WalterScott Romantic]] stereotypes.

-> "Mr [=MacBean=] and Mrs Cruickshank, Mrs Grant the cook and Donald Cameron the head ghillie, Jock Meldrum of the gardens and Mr Gilles the laird's factor, spoke solemnly to their staffs...."

----
* TheJeeves: ''Ex officio.''
* LastNameBasis: Being the butler and all.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Cruickshank, Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Mistress[[note]]She is after all Scots; it's the same as "Mrs."[[/note]] Cruickshank, housekeeper to His Grace at Luineag:

Housekeeper at Luineag.

-> "… chose who should take the train to the far country away South for the funeral service, and who, keep the Lodge."

----
* KindlyHousekeeper: Naturally.
* LastNameBasis: Inevitably.
* NamesTheSame: Neither a [[PoliticalCartoons Georgian-era cartoonist]] nor a [[Franchise/HarryPotter magical cat]].
* OldRetainer: Come what may, the Lodge shall be kept running.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Grant, Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Mrs. Grant, Cook, Luineag:

A dab hand with venison collops.

-> "The admirable Mistress Grant...."

----
* LastNameBasis: Rank has its privileges.
* SupremeChef: With a tartan flair. She will force you to concur that [[HaggisIsHorrible haggis is not in fact horrible]]. Now eat your neeps and tatties.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. John Meldrum, Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Jock Meldrum, Head Gardener, Luineag:

Making deserts bloom is one thing. Making a garden in the middle of the Highland forests....

-->"... Jock Meldrum of the gardens....''

----
* OldRetainer / OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: You're devoted to your job when you're known as "Jock o' the gardens."
* RealMenWearPink: Well, they ''grow'' pinks. And lupins. And a', and a'.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Donald Cameron, Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Donald Cameron, Head Ghillie, Luineag:

[[GreatWhiteHunter Heid (i.e., Head) Ghillie and Keeper]] to His Grace.

->"Donald Cameron … spoke solemnly....''

----
* GreatWhiteHunter: Of the wildlife management and conservation sort. At a ducal holding specifically named as and functioning as a lodge (shooting, for the indulgence of).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Iain Mackenzie, Luineag Lodge, Highland (Badenoch & Strathspey) (Inverness-shire)]]

!!Iain "Garbh" Mackenzie, Piper to His Grace, Luineag:

The Duke's personal piper at Luineag.

->"Piper Mackenzie now took the tune,'' 'Cumha na Cloinne','' 'The Lament for the Children', which Padruig Mòr [=MacCrimmon=] composed, and he the father of eight of whom seven died of the great sickness which was in it when the smallpox came to Skye.''

----
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: And more solemn.
* InSeriesNickname / OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Gaelic being the Gaelic, he's as like as not to be addressed as "Iain Garbh" nine times in ten. (The adjective means "rough").
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Gilles]]

!!Mr. Gilles:

Agent and Factor to His Grace in the Highlands.

-> "Mr Gilles the laird's factor...."

----
* LastNameBasis: It's a matter of respect, to him and the ducal laird he represents.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Stillwell, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Mr. Stillwell, butler to His Grace at Taunton House:

Butler to the duke at his London town house. Which, being in London, sees very little of His Grace, who detests London.

-> "Mr Stillwell, butler, steward, and majordomo to HG the duke of Taunton at Taunton House in London...."

----
* BenevolentBoss: Very kind to the new footman, and volunteers himself and the rest of Staff to answer his questions ''and'' to instruct him in any [[PursueTheDreamJob intellectual hobbies he's interested in pursuing through his employment]].
* HiddenDepths: Knows the history and art history of the whole Family and its collections, particularly in London, in detail and with considerable expertise. Then again, his longtime partner ''is'' the curator....
* TheJeeves: ''Ex officio'' and with a few twists.
* LastNameBasis: Butlers, man....
* StraightGay: If you weren't told, you'd not know.
* TotallyRadical: Bless. He does try: "I believe tapestry and textiles are by way of being Your Thing?"
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Austin, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Mrs. Austin, housekeeper to His Grace at Taunton House:

The formidable housekeeper at the Dukes' London seat.

-> "… Mrs Austin [is] always available for any questions or instruction in anything which interests you...."

----
* KindlyHousekeeper: Fortunately for the rest of Staff.
* LastNameBasis: Naturally.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mrs. Bacon, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Mrs. Bacon, Cook, Taunton House:

London's answer to the great country house cooks.

-> "Mrs Bacon shall tell you: and what better name for a Cook?"

----
* LastNameBasis: She's the cook.
* MeaningfulName: And duly lampshaded by Mr. Stillwell, above.[[note]]Cooks regardless of marital status are always ""Mrs." It is not yet known if "Bacon" is her married, or her maiden, surname.[[/note]]
* SupremeChef: Of necessity.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miss Stone, Taunton House W1 (London)]]
!!Miss Stone, Deputy Housekeeper and First Housemaid, Taunton House:

A very busy woman indeed.

-->"Miss Stone'll put you in the picture as to linens, livery, and laundry, or – should she be busy just now – Miss Priest can tell you all you want to know.''

----
* LastNameBasis: As the Housekeeper's deputy.
* {{Maid}}: And a very senior one.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miss Priest, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Miss Priest, Lady's-maid to Lady Crispin, Taunton House:

Very much on top of things, and, in her lady's absence, willing to muck in as deputy to Miss Stone.

->"Miss Priest can tell you all you want to know.''

----
* {{Maid}}: Of considerable seniority and distinction.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mr. Ware, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Mr. Ware, First Footman, Valet, and Under-Butler, Taunton House:

And right-hander to the Librarian when wanted.

->"Ware, acting for Dr Pearman – librarian to His Grace here –, has your passwords and the like for the Internet and Wi-fi and all that foolery.''

----
* HiddenDepths: Capable of assisting the ducal librarian and is the Staff [=IT=] guy.
* LastNameBasis: Happens when one gets a RankUp.
* TheSmartGuy: At least as to [=IT=], which discipline seems not to be highly regarded by the rest of Staff. Least of all by Mr. Stillwell, as in the quote above.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Miss Holland, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Miss Holland, Seamstress and Laundry Maid, Taunton House:

And damned good at it.

->"Miss Holland as a practical seamstress and weaver, then....''

----
* HiddenDepths: Does her own artisanal weaving.
* {{Maid}}: Well, yeah.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jonathan Forge, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Jonathan Forge, newest Footman, Taunton House:

The new hire.

--> "... Jonathan Forge had not come to the ducal ménage had he not already been superlatively well-trained....''

----
* HiddenDepths: Interested in tapestries. Knows his London history.
* FirstNameBasis: He gets his full name in narration, but once he's signed on....
* NaiveNewcomer: To ''ducal'' service. Allowing Mr. Stillwell to l'arn him a few things in passing.
--> Mr Stillwell, butler, steward, and majordomo to HG the duke of Taunton at Taunton House in London, was instructing the newest member of staff, less in his duties – Jonathan Forge had not come to the ducal ménage had he not already been superlatively well-trained –, but, rather, in the special quirks and quiddities of Taunton House....\\
"I really must impress upon you, Jonathan, that His Grace, although affable enough – if peppery – and conversable, and wholly without "side" or snobbery, ''is'' in many, many respects almost Royal, although he should be the first to deny it – and with some indignation. In consequence, service here or at any of the Family's residences partakes somewhat of Royal Household service, however hard His Grace may try to play it down and walk humbly (for a duke). In fact, it has been said by those with cause to know it – have you met Timothy yet? Ah. Timothy was on the strength at Clarence House in the days of [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the then Queen Mother]]."
* PursueTheDreamJob: A man interested in tapestries has plenty of scope at Taunton House.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Timothy Goodspeed, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Mr. Timothy Goodspeed, Taunton House:

Curator of certain of the Taunton House collections.

-> "Mr Timothy Goodspeed, nowadays acting as curator of certain of the Taunton House collections, was Mr Stillwell's civil partner – and indeed partner of many years' standing, from well before changes in the law."

----
* {{Gayborhood}}: Clarence House in the Queen Mum's day, which was one, self-contained. She famously once rang downstairs when the scheduled drink was late and said, "I don't know what you old queens down there are doing, but the Old Queen up here wants her gin."
* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted, as to Mr. Goodspeed and Mr. Stillwell.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dr Pearman, Taunton House W1 (London)]]

!!Dr Pearman, librarian-residentiary to His Grace at Taunton House:

The ducal librarian in London.

-> "Do be aware that Dr Pearman and I, and Mrs Austin, are always available for any questions or instruction in anything which interests you...."
----
* {{Bookworm}}: By profession.
* GoodOldWays: Not, evidently, the sort of scholar enthused by the Internet.
* LastNameBasis: Dr. Pearman is Doctor By-God Pearman.
* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Damn it, Jim, he's an academic, not a physician.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Taunton Estates Office]]

-> As their friendly rivals and counterparts of the Bedford, Cadogan, Grosvenor, and Portman Estates were wont to remark, the Taunton Estates and their servants were commonly content to move but little, seldom, and cautiously – but when they ''did'' move, it was simply a ''blitz''.

Offices, Templecombe Crescent [=SW1=]; Solicitors, Watkins Dod Gorton. Enquire for details.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Paul Atherton Wells, the Taunton Estate Office, London]]

!!Paul Wells, the Taunton Estate Office:

Former high-flier in the City, whose [[{{Jerkass}} character was being warped and family life ruined by it]]. He was a wanker to a young Sikh he knocked down on the pavement … within a few yards of the Duke, who, ah, intervened. His Grace had him sacked, then hired him to see if he could be [[JerkassRealization retrained into a human being]]. Wells PA is now making more money and living much more happily, and is much the better for it; and does excellent work for the Duke's property portfolio, handling sums much larger than those he'd dealt in in the City.

-> "Happier and healthier than he had been in many years, he slept quietly beside his wife, as their daughters slept happily in their airy rooms, safe in a happy harbour."

----
* BenevolentBoss: Well, ''nowadays''.
* BreakTheHaughty: Broke him. And he's grateful for it.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: Well, UndyingLoyalty, as to the Duke; but Wells is very much now on good terms with the young Sikh he'd been a shit to.
* HeelFaceTurn: After getting TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from an angry Duke of Taunton playing GoodSamaritan, and accompanying HeelRealization.[[note]]Father Paddick approved the Duke's ends, but gave him hell over the means.[[/note]]
* MorallyBankruptBanker: Headed that way until the HeelFaceTurn.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Ravinder Singh Bedi MA, the Taunton Estate]]

!!"Ravi" Singh Bedi, the Taunton Estate:

Courtauld-trained art historian, now curating and advising for the Taunton collections as he finished his degrees. The young Sikh Paul Atherton Wells was a {{Jerk}} to. Dignified and prepared to suffer no disrespect, but unwilling to see disproportionate vengeance, as a matter of [[UsefulNotes/{{Sikhism}} ''Dan'' and ''Charhdi Kala'']].

-> "Ravi Singh Bedi, that Frightfully Nice young man who'd been tapped on the shoulder by the Taunton Estate as a prospective curator and conservation expert, had leapt with alacrity at the chance to spend a term – he was doing his postgraduate degree at the Courtauld – in the Woolfonts, combining experience with education...."

----
* AllLovingHero: Forgives quite as readily as, say, does Fr. Paddick, and for [[UsefulNotes/{{Sikhism}} similar reasons]].
* TheCutie: Averted. He's relentlessly cheerful, not an ''idiot''.
* TheHeart: As evidenced by his forgiving nature.
* UndyingLoyalty: Subject to principles and religion, to the Duke, for the opportunities given.
* WideEyedIdealist: Averted. He's a realist who carries on anyway.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Hari Singh Dhillon FCA FCMA, late WO1 (Management Accountant), Staff and Personnel Support, the Adjutant General's Corps, Managing Director, the Chickmarsh Quarries, the Taunton Estate]]

!!Hari Dhillon "Haz" Singh, Chickmarsh Quarries, the Taunton Estate:

[[UsefulNotes/{{Sikhism}} Sikh]] old soldier[[note]]The British term for what American English calls a "veteran": meaning he's ''not'' an OldSoldier in trope terms[[/note]] and Chartered Accountant now running the ducal quarries; and a man highly [[RespectedByTheRespected respected]] in the [[CloseKnitCommunity community]] and by the Duke.

-> "Hari Dhillon Singh, who was much in the duke's confidence. […] [A] man who has leveraged an Army career into the management of the ducal quarries in Chickmarsh."

----
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Averted. Yes, he's an accountant, but.... An ex-''Army'' accountant. (And, obviously, a [[RetiredBadass ''Sikh'' former Warrant Officer]].
* GoodWithNumbers: Sort of a requirement here....
* RespectedByTheRespected: To the point of having got a typical Army AffectionateNickname of "Haz" for "Harry" for "Hari" … and being well-regarded by the Duke by the local retired ''Gurkhas'', as "as an old soldier approved by other old soldiers."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Duke's Men of Business[[note]]''Lawyers'' … solicitors and barristers alike.[[/note]]]]

-> "More notable, perhaps, was the positive ''bolt'' of silk present."

Mentioned in passing are the Taunton Estate Solicitors, Watkins Dod Gorton, and [[ArmyOfLawyers various barristers the Duke will have briefed at need (and for political purposes)]]:
--> "Even the juniors – Mr Philip Brabazon-Fane (a distant cousin to the duke); Miss Margaret Standle – were high-flyers; but it was the [=QCs=] rather unprecedentedly on hand who were the subject of various emotions in those present, from glee to apprehension. The duke's solicitors had, of course, instructed the best of the best: Sir Henry D'Souza QC MP; Sir Gerald Druce QC MP; Sir Martin Chittick QC MP; Priscilla Stanhope-Vesey QC; Benjamin Montefiore QC; Fiona Hardie QC; Shireen Anwar Khan QC: and that alone might, perhaps, have been the explanation for their presence. Or, of course, one might put it down to, say, Gerry Druce's being a member of Vincent's, who had played in the middle order for the OUCC 1st XI when the duke had captained, and to Pip Brabazon-Fane's being a ducal connexion. It was lost on no one, however, that Sir Henry was the Hon. and Learned Member for Quantock and Goathurst in the Liberal Democrat interest; that Sir Gerry was the Tory Hon. and Learned Member for Tidnock and Dane Valley; and that Sir Martin was Labour's Hon. and Learned Member for Brixton West."

And then there are the real heavy hitters in the series:
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Anthony Macey, Beechbourne solicitor]]

!!Tony Macey, solicitor:

A contentedly provincial solicitor in Beechbourne, and nephew to old Judge Cundick, the Chancellor to the Diocese.

-> "Tony Macey was, in the main, the very model of a modern solicitor, on duty and off: he rode, he hiked, he played squash, he unobtrusively wore the tie of a minor public school, he managed quite well the tricky business of being dashing and up-to-date and even acceptably breezy without giving any qualms to clients, his fellows, the Bar, and the Bench. Today, so great was the atavistic pressure of ceremony and tradition, he was, unconsciously, transformed into the driest, dustiest, and most Dickensian of provincial solicitors."

----
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Averted. He's very good lawyer and a LawfulGood lawyer.
* TheClan: His uncle is a Circuit Judge; he's distantly related to the Headmaster and the vet; and there are Maceys and Hart-Maceys on every Parochial Church Council for miles around.
* TheDreaded: Professionally. A letter from Mr. Macey makes persons in breach of contract come immediately to terms. "[A] stiff letter from Mr Macey should no doubt do more to shift Mr Penny's supplier than a thousand angry ringings-up."
* RespectedByTheRespected: He and the Duke are commonly on 'Tony-and-Charles' terms.
* SmallTownBoredom: Of a professional kind.
--> The one disadvantage, to a provincial solicitor with a taste for conveyancing matters, in living in the District, was that so much of the land was firmly in ducal hands, and, consequently, only rarely re-tenanted, and never alienated. It left one pining for a busier market in land and estates, it truly did do.... Of course, one could always subsist on Wills.
* UndyingLoyalty: To the Law and his clients; and to his friends. He refuses to act for anyone trying to trouble the Duke, the Family, or the parishes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Simon Hales-Owen, Fetter Lane (London) solicitor]]

!!Simon Hales-Owen, solicitor:

Old school-fellow of the Duke and the Nawab (prefects about to leave school for Oxford when he was a new boy), whose opinion of him has not much changed.

-> "… Hales-Owen S had been characterised by the young Charles in terms which that nobleman had never had occasion to change, and which he had seen vindicated as prophetic: the weedy young Simon had indeed been, as Charles had said, 'a swotty, sinuous little slack bob: bound to come to no good, almost certain to end a Kingsman –' Charles detested [[{{Oxbridge}} Tabs]] – 'and a lawyer or some damned thing'; and when precisely that had been the Hales-Owen course over the ensuing years, it had been no surprise at all that the duke had seen to it that certain matters of business – ''not'', of course, those of the Taunton Estate – had been steered to the said Hales-Owen and his firm as some of His Grace's men of business, when the qualities rather of the serpent than of the dove had been apt to the struggle."

----
* AcceptableProfessionalTargets: Zigzagged. He's a (technically) honest and effective lawyer, and useful to the duke, but he ''is'' [[RulesLawyer sinuous]] and [[LoopholeAbuse serpentine]].
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Fortunately, the two instances he's encountered to date are the Duke, who retains him, and the barrister Sir Pemberton Molyneaux, whom he briefs for the Duke.
* AmoralAttorney: Not quite (the prospect of continued ducal employment is an effective MoralityChain), but he does [[LoopholeAbuse push the envelope at times]]. Although always in the client's interest.
* BrilliantButLazy: At school, the future Duke had said of young Hales-Owen that "a boy too lazy for ''beaglin' ''was simply too lazy to live," and his "slack-bob" nature has carried on into his maturity: which is why he finds the clever and easy (if somewhat unpalatable) way around any legal problem, with great success.
* MagnificentBastard: Or so [[ShootTheMessenger HM Revenue and Customs, Treasury solicitors, and other opponents]] have declared him. Sometimes without the adjective.
* PunnyName: Blink and miss, but Halesowen is a Worcestershire (nowadays, Dudley) town … within the general influence-area of the ducal Clentwood.
* TooCleverByHalf: So far, generally successfully.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Sir Pemberton Molyneaux QC, barrister]]

!!Sir Pemberton Molyneaux QC:

Smooth-as-silk [[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts silk]] briefed for the Duke ... rather often.

-> "Damn it, man, blame the whole cock-up on draughtsmen dead these fifty years, you're a silk as much as I am, we've spent half our lives shuffling blame off onto solicitors.\\
"[snip] Never play your trump until you mean to take the last trick."

----
* TheChessmaster: The Duke in whose interest he'd briefed plays XanatosSpeedChess; as a barrister, Sir Pemberton is more limited, but, within those limitations, he's Capablanca: even with the Duke's bright ideas and Mr. Hales-Owen's cleverness, there aren't so many barristers who can force the National Trust to give back a donated property to avoid a worse precedent yet.
* MagnificentBastard: Opposing counsel think him one. And say so.
* PunnyName: (Noel) Pemberton Billing was a famous(ly unhinged) litigant and conspiracy-theorist in the early 20th Century, who starred in and fomented some famous and scandalous trials.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Home Farm, Wolfdown[[note]]The Manor Farm.[[/note]]]]

-> "The Towers at the Home Farm had a special responsibility: not least to Give A Lead, and to make the Home Farm a Model and Example, a Light Unto the Gentiles and Them That Walk in Darkness. And the Towers knew it."

The Towers have farmed the Home Farm for the Dukes of Taunton and under their eye for generations.

--> "… the Towers of Home Farm necessarily, even in the midst of Champion Country for sheep, had a full range of operations to manage for the duke's estate: a dairy herd and a beef herd; poultry of all kinds; arable; and not only the wool flocks of breeds proper to the district, but also the prize ducal Wiltshire Horns, for meat. (The Towers and Trulock the Vet were the only folk in the district to whom lambing season was all but unending, with flocks of all possible breeds to hand in their varying seasons and the Dorset Horns lambing twice a year, in Autumn and in Spring.) The Home Farm of Wolfdown was required to be a Model Farm, and to show what might be done with British Rare Breeds suited to the West Country; and ducal estates are meant to be self-sustaining."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mr. Will Tower, the Home Farm]]

!!Will Tower of the Home Farm:

[[ThePatriarch Paterfamilias]] of the Tower family.

-> "Mr Tower was up at his usual 5.0; and listened to the Shipping Forecast as he broke his fast. By 5.45, he was in his office, reviewing more detailed, and more localised, weather forecasts; answering emails (which, whatever the time-stamp, could, always, very easily be the duke's own emails, coming in with positively ducal celerity and peremptoriness); reviewing reports and data and spreadsheets."

----
* CallToAgriculture: He doesn't farm because he's unqualified for cushier jobs; he farms because he loves it.
* TheClan: The Towers of the Home Farm are merely one branch of the Tower clan, which includes innumerable cousins, including the branch who are the local [[{{Undertaker}} undertakers]] and monumental masons (that is, the ones who carve and chisel the tombstones / headstones).
* EnemiesList / {{Hatedom}} (InUniverse): He despises politicians of all stripes and parties, and all townees, all of whom, in his view, know nothing of what keeps the country fed and clothed, and he tends to collect and congregate with like-minded haters of politics, so as to discuss what prats the politicians are. (These gatherings are called Farmers' Dinners).
--> "Politicians … urban fools, the lot of them. [snip] Leaving lawmaking in the soft hands of urban politicians … he looked at his own hands, a farmer's hands, and bearing the stigmata of years in the job. Daft lot, and ignorant as babes, the House of Commons, thought he.... [snip] He stopped and chuckled as he realised he'd been humming. And just what he'd been humming. And it wasn't from reflecting on slurry for the fields, either, it all came of thinking about [=MPs=]. For what he'd been unthinkingly humming was an old Wurzels tune: 'Champion Dung Spreader'."
* LegacyOfService: The Towers and the ducal Family go waaaay back.
* ThePatriarch: Unquestionably: to all the Towers, as farming the Duke's manorial farms, and to all the farming interest in the District by being TheAce of farming.
* RespectedByTheRespected: He has the full confidence of Duke, Rector, and all the District farmers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Rob Tower, the Home Farm]]

!!Rob Tower of the Home Farm:

[[FarmBoy Son and heir]] to Will. Doing his work-experience / gap year at home before going up to the Royal Agricultural University Cirencester.

-> "… he'd grown up on the Home Farm, had Rob Tower: through the grinning, mop-haired childhood days, and the pangs of youth as a slightly bacony ginger with a certain gormless charm, to what he was now, an amiable young giant, fiddle-fit, who, bar his colouring, rather resembled the Rector (and, thus, transitively, the duke's niece' joint-favourite member of the duke's niece' favourite boyband). Clever as a jinking fox with it, too, beneath the rugger-bugger superficies and the outward show of country stolidity and slowness; and all Rob wished to do was farm."

----
* BiTheWay: Yep.
--> "Poor bugger (thought the duke, with empathy) [… Rob was] a common object […] of quite blatant suggestions for a tumble, and not infrequently from […] yummy-mummies playing at Mrs Robinson, and their spear-side counterparts: a fact which was wryly accepted with mingled exasperation and fondness by Rob's boyfriend, a youth of his own age who was doing ''his'' work-experience year at the Stud under the Maguires' watchful and horsey eye. A fact which had very much ''not'' been acceptable, and had occasioned unmixed wrath and exasperation, in Rob's prior girlfriend, which is why she was no longer Rob's girlfriend...."
* CallToAgriculture: No, seriously, all he wants to do is farm (farm, farm). See quote above.
* TheClan: He's a Tower; ergo, he's part of one.
* GenerationXerox: Averted. He's very much his own man. Well, his own youth.
* GentleGiant / TheBigGuy: Cares deeply for farm animals, is something of an AllLovingHero, and can do surprisingly delicate work (''see'' HiddenDepths, below).
* FarmBoy: Subverted. He is literally a farm boy, but the threat to his {{Arcadia}} and family ''is'' leaving it and them, and his destiny and quest and goal is in fact ''staying'' DownOnTheFarm.
* FarmersDaughter: Spear-side version.
* HiddenDepths: He's clever under the outward FarmBoy persona. And "roll[s] a tighter, tidier fleece at shearing time than anyone in the County."
* {{Hunk}}: And much lusted after InUniverse.
* LegacyOfService: The Towers and the ducal Family go waaaay back.
* MrFanservice: Inadvertently, InUniverse. And with some {{Squick}} as to his InUniverse {{Fandom}}.
--> "The Towers, at the Home Farm, had, with ducal encouragement, done several seasons' worth already of videos of Farming Life and the Farm Family, to no small advantage. [snip] […] a few (but one was too many) of those who nowadays propositioned, uselessly, young Rob Tower, had been avidly watching him grow up online, and had not always waited until he should be of age to indulge lubricious thoughts of him."
* ThreeSuccessfulGenerations: He's the Youth.
[[/folder]]

!!The Lads

The Rector, the schoolmaster, the retired cricketer and his wife, the chef, and the ex-footballer … who don't quite realize they are among the Great and the Good of the District. Began as TrueCompanions; have by now been through enough (even unto a BarBrawl) to be a BandOfBrothers (united in part in impatience with the Duke's forever quoting from Theatre/HenryV).[[note]]The Duke ''being'' in many ways Fluellen, this is probably inevitable.[[/note]]

[[folder:Father Noel Paddick [=BA (Oxon) MA (Oxon) BTh (Oxon) MA (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff) SSC=], Rector]]

!!The Rev'd [[spoiler: by the end of ''Literature/{{Evensong}},'' ''Canon'']] Noel John Paddick [=SSC=], Rector:

[[GoodShepherd Saintly]], sporty, doggedly [[HumbleHero humble]] Anglo-Catholic rector of the Combined Benefice.

-> Paddick, Canon Noel John [=SSC=], Woolfont Magna Rectory, Woolfont Magna, Wilts. – Keble Coll. Oxon [=BA MA=]; College of the Resurrection (Mirfield) [=MA=] (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff); S Stephen's Ho. Oxon [=BTh=]. Deac. and Pr. by Bp of Lichfield. R. of Combined Woolfonts Benef. (S Margaret Woolfont Magna, S Aldhelm Woolfont Crucis, & [=SS=] Mary & Leonard Woolfont Abbas), Dio. Sarum (Patron, [=HG=] the D. of Taunton), & The Somerfords (Somerford Mally with Somerford Canons alias Canonicorum, Somerford Tout Saints with Lamsford, Cliff Ambries with Shifford Ombres and Combe Woddley als Waddlycombe) and Harstbournes (Chalford Mallet with Hawksbourne, Harstbourne Fitzwarren with Harstbourne Sallis and Harstbourne Fratrum als Friars), Dio. Sarum (Co-Patrons, [=HG=] the D. of Taunton, the Ordinary, & the Master of Dilton). ''Ex officio'' Vice-Chairman, Board of Governors, the Agincourt Housing Association Trust. Chaplain, Tisbury Station, Wilts Fire & Rescue Service; Chaplain, Beechbourne Free School; Chaplain, Woolfonts Combined [=CC=]. Served title S Martin Rough Hill. Formerly C. of S Martin Rough Hill & S Stephen Wolverhampton & of S James the Great Lower Gornall, Dudley. Author, ''The Depth of Love Divine: John Wesley, the Caroline Divines, and the Oxford Movement'' (var. title, ''The Depth of Love Divine: John Wesley & the Anglo-Catholic Tradition''); ''The Beauty of Holiness and the Poetry of Grace: Andrewes, Donne, Ken, and Ferrar;'' and ''All Evil and Mischief: essays in theodicy, free will, & the problem of evil.''\\
– ''[[FictionalDocument The Clerical Directory]]''

[[AllLovingHero A gentle man]], but [[GoodIsNotSoft tough when he needs to be]]; [[TheLostLenore widower of the late Pauline, ''née'' Stamford]]; nowadays [[CelibateHero celibate]], he and Sher Mirza [[BiTheWay being to his surprise chastely in love]] and [[ChastityCouple too conscientious to act on it]]; a [[IllGirl sickly child]] turned handsome and athletic, and unashamed of his Black Country origins beneath the sharp brains and Oxford education.

->'''The Duke:''' "Noel's perfectly capable of drowning himself tomorrow trying to save, not even a parishioner, but a parishioner's kitten; or [dying] from some contagion acquired in visiting the ill with no thought for himself."
----
* TheAce: He would deny it. It's not about an ace, it's a matter of Grace.
* AgainstMyReligion: Sacrifices sometimes are required of one. Which is why he and Sher are a ChastityCouple.
--> "The sacrifice – like all sacrifice – often seems unbearable; and unjust. But God has his reasons, and those reasons, being his, must be good."
* AllLovingHero: And not merely as a [[AllAPartOfTheJob job requirement]]. Even the worst of people can repent, he's certain, and that means it's a WhiteAndGreyMorality world. And in that sort of world.... [[Music/TheBeatles All you need is love.]] Well, that and a good right hook, clear principles, and the aid of the Holy Ghost.
* BadassBookworm: Zigzagged. In mufti and not knowing who and what he is, no one would dream of giving him guff; in a cassock, though, they think him soft despite the thews and muscles, and if they know he's a scholar as well.... They think they can get by with bullying or evildoing in his presence, poor dears. Such people [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade Have Chosen Poorly]].
* BadassPreacher: With a strong dose of PapaWolf. Threaten him and he will pray for you. Threaten his flock, and he will administer the Last Rites to you or take your burial service after he's dealt with you. He punched out a professional footballer who was misbehaving, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin for God's sake]]. One punch.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: He will of course turn the other cheek. ''His.'' He will defend everyone else. As. Necessary. By GoodOldFisticuffs or otherwise.
* BiTheWay: He was never revolted by the bare possibility he might love a man; he just never expected it to happen. Of course, as Sher Mirza is [[EvenTheGuysWantHim Sher Mirza]], this may be a case of IfItsYouItsOkay bordering on (now that Noel's wife is dead) SingleTargetSexuality.
* BlasphemousPraise: The Rector regards anyone's ascribing any special qualities or virtues to ''him'' (rather than to God's Grace working through him ''ex officio'') as being this, and as approaching UnwantedFalseFaith. And [[ImNotAHeroIm gently reproves it]].
--> '''On recording services for those in hospital or care home, to which he reluctantly accedes:''' "Just don't you, I beg, make it all about me, or promote me as a telly star or the focus of the Mass. The Mass has a focus, and I am not he."
* ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt: He knows just what he and Sher could be if things were otherwise, if certain things were allowed.
--> "You're the only person – never mind my general orientation – the only one I can imagine would be what Pauline was to me. I'd be as happy to wake to you as to take you to bed, and we'd not bore each other, in love or life, for fifty years. If we were allowed. Because you ''are'' beautiful, and I mean your mind and heart, not just the body that ages. But your soul… That's even more precious and beautiful. I'll not do that to you; you'd not ask that of me. We are not allowed. I would, like a shot, if we could."\\
and,\\
"From a purely secular and pagan perspective, I don't think, truly, anyone can look at the two of us and not realise we'd have a preposterous amount of fun in bed. And we'd be, in secular terms, very compatible out of it as well."
* TheCape: Averted. (Unless you meant The ''Cope,'' or some other vestment....) For that matter, he's not a NonPoweredCostumedHero, unless you count a cassock. He ''earned'' that HeroicBuild ("ware and waking, up betimes, combining his matutinal physical exercises with his spiritual, before Mattins and a very full day": he prays while doing press-ups, or vice versa), and he really doesn't have superpowers, not even EmotionControl, not being BornLucky, and assuredly not {{HeartBeatDown}}s. And hesychasm[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesychasm]] is not a superpower: the power of prayer is the opposite of "magic." ([[RightMakesMight It only ''looks'' like it sometimes]].) Fr. Paddick however will insist that it's all simply the fruits of the Spirit and the Grace of God, [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat and available to all who answer the calling]]. (The Rural Dean who covers his parishes looks forward to not being Noel's confessor if Fr. Bohun will take it on: he's not sure even Fr. Bohun's good enough to be, but is sure ''he'' isn't.)
* CarpetOfVirility: According to Edmond, who has seen the whole male population of the District in changing rooms and cannot help taking notes and keeping score.
* ChastityCouple: He and Sher are who and what they are. Conscience demands – specifically, InUniverse, ''their'' consciences demand – they remain an AnchoredShip. (To plenty of InUniverse pushback.)
* {{Determinator}}: Not personally. As an agent for [[{{God}} his boss]]. And [[ItsWhatIDo under orders]].
* TheFettered: And personally considers he needs the fettering. Although he doesn't regard it as a fetter. Something about easy yokes, light burdens, and service to God being perfect freedom, you know.
* TheFourLoves: He runs his life on them. Explicitly.
--> "If love means anything, it is to wish the best for any whom one loves, in the wholeness of their selves. I am a priest of God in the Church of England. He is an observant and, as I believe, truly a devout Muslim. Each of us knows what is required of us, and of one another, by our faiths. Even were I willing to be false to my undertakings, he'd not, I think, allow it, at the end of the day; as I'd not allow him, even for my own advantage, to be false to himself and his conscience. To that extent, in ''[[FamilyOfChoice storge]]'', in ''philia'', and in ''agape'', we love each other, fiercely and increasingly devotedly; and for that reason, we'll never love in ''eros'', God's Grace preventing and guarding us."
* GentlemanSnarker: If pressed: some wolves which threaten his sheep require one approach, some, another, and a few of his own flock can be reached in no other way (… Your Grace). But the snark is ''gentlemanly.''
* GoodIsNotDumb: He's a bookish [[{{Badass}} badass]] who was sent to Oxford on full bursary because he was just that bright.
* GoodIsNotSoft: Good shepherds of their flocks are hell on predators. Noel will literally charge (''has'' literally charged) a burning cottage with nothing to aid him but holy water, to save a life; drop a harassing groper turned violent with one punch (he ''was'' a schools boxing champion, after all); and call out anyone who needs calling out, dustman or – assuredly – Duke.
* GoodIsOldFashioned: He won't disagree. He'll merely tell you that "old-fashioned" is a weak term for something objective, eternal, and unchanging. (Drives Edmond ''mad,'' that....)
* GoodShepherd: A … well, [[IncrediblyLamePun canonical]] example.
* HasAType: Sher looks a good deal like Noel's late wife … pursuant to RuleSixtyThree. As Noel's late wife's ''brother'' points out ("he looks more like Pauline's brother than ''I'' do").
* TheHero: No matter how many of the others InUniverse [[SupportingProtagonist think him so]], he [[HumbleHero rejects]] the idea he's [[ImNotAHeroIm anything of the sort]].
* HiddenDepths: [[Literature/KublaKhan Measureless to man]], actually. Boxer, rower, scholar, author, theologian, master of pulpit rhetoric (not that he thinks himself so), singer, gardener, saint.... And he can bench-press you, and beat-box as he does it.
* HotForPreacher: A nigh-universal InUniverse object of this.
* HumbleHero: He's merely [[AllAPartOfTheJob doing]] what the [[AC:Lord]] commands, and not by his own worth or strength....
--> '''From one of his sermons:''' "We say – so often we no longer mean it or attend to what we are saying – we can 'do all things through Christ which strengtheneth' us. God forgive us, we say it ''smugly.'' We're barking mad to be smug about it. Because the corollary is that we cannot do much of anything ''except'' through Christ's giving us strength."
** Also, when the Duke determines that both Noel's parents (as is TruthInTelevision quite often in the [=UK=]: ''vide'' the Middletons) have BlueBlood as well as working-class antecedents, and that Steve Paddick ought therefore to apply for a grant of arms, Noel is unmoved. The Duke thinks he has to argue him into it ("in any case it'll be a nephew of yours or his heir ultimately inherits the arms, it seems, and it's not as if you'd be required to use 'em if you don't like, although there's a tradition of ecclesiastical heraldry in the C of E, and it'll give you something for the stall-plate in the cathedral" as a shoo-in for canon), and doesn't let Noel get a word in. Afterwards, Noel wryly and privately tells Sher that if he ''had'' got a word in, he'd have told the Duke it was to him "a thing indifferent, an [[GratuitousGreek adiaphoron]]."
* {{Hunk}}: In his character, he's [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Captain Carrot in a cassock]]; in his looks, he's been called InUniverse, several times, "Becks in a biretta." And, yes, EvenTheGuysWantHim.
* IdealHero: Yes. (Ignore his protests that he's not a or the hero at all, and none of this is ''his'' worthiness....)
* ImNotAHeroIm: He is insistent that he is a mere servant of God and the people of God, and not a particularly important or impressive one. And he means it.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Apparently. But, as he will lampshade by the bushel, not in or through his ''own'' strength.
* KirkSummation / LastSecondChance: He'll always beseech you to repent before … intervening. Be you stranger or sexton.
* ManlyGay: Subverted, in that it's a stretch to call him gay or bisexual. Manly, though, certainly.
* MrFanservice: InUniverse. In accordance with canon law in the C of E, [[SexyPriest Noel]] is almost always in clerical clothing. But there are recognized [[FanService exceptions]]: gardening, for one, in a [[SleevesAreForWimps tank-top (vest)]] and shorts; and at the [[BeachEpisode seashore]], accompanying the local children on a holiday. The first instance caused a visiting American lady tourist to [[HotMenAtWork mistake him for the (work-shy) sexton]], whose job he was doing (lampshaded afterwards by Fr. Campion with a reference to Mary Magdalene and the risen Christ: [[Literature/TheBible "she, supposing him to be the gardener..."]]). The second...
--> "Noel, for once free of the canons he so assiduously followed (notably C 26 and C 27), was out of his cassock, and, sun-kissed, into the water or onto a body-board or aboard a sailboard in nothing save a Speedo or a wetsuit as occasion dictated. Sher had become so soon weary of averting his eyes and suppressing his whimpers [snip] that he had actually thrown himself into … trotting along Poet's Walk with the duke and the more swottish contingent of young people, lecturing improvingly on [[Creator/WilliamWordsworth Wordsworth]] and [[Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge Coleridge]]."
* MoralityChain: Has one. ''One'' … in three persons, "neither confounding the persons; nor dividing the essence...."
* PatrickStewartSpeech: The Anglican position is that all are "far gone from original righteousness," not that mankind is hopelessly corrupt and totally depraved.[[note]]The latter being the [[UsefulNotes/ReligiousLeaders Calvinist]] position.]] Father Pads is prone to point out that God thinks us all worth saving – via his own HeroicSacrifice – because of what we can be when saved.
* PatronSaint: As a High Church, indeed Anglo-Catholic, rector, Noel takes seriously the patronal festivals in his combined benefice: Margaret of Antioch, Aldhelm,[[note]]the first bishop of what became the Diocese of Salisbury[[/note]] Leonard, and [[UsefulNotes/PatronSaints the BVM]]. And when the service requires a sermon or homily, he will bring the saint whose feast day it is into focus – and knows them backwards and forwards, and trusts to their intercessory assistance.
* PuppyDogEyes: Specifically, [[BrownEyes brown ones.]] Yet another reason why everyone wants to take him home and feed him soup.
* TheQuietOne: He's sometimes on another plane. Well, much of the time, really.
--> '''The Breener, to Edmond:''' "'Noel's not ever lost in his own head,' scoffed The Breener, whose specialities were omniscience and interrupting people. 'He's lost in God's.'"
** Although he himself deprecates the idea, on the grounds that a parish priest cannot be a monastic solitary lost in personal mysticism, but must work in the world around him.
* RealMenLoveJesus: Well, ''he'' does. And prays that all shall. But Grace and the individual conscience must do the conversions; he can only state the position of the Church and call them to the feast.
* RespectedByTheRespected: The Bishop, who is not of his views on many things, plans to make him a suffragan as soon as he's served enough time, and have him canonized when he dies. The Cathedral Chapter, whose Dean is on the other side of every controversy in the C of E to him, lobbied to make him a canon. The Duke presented him to the livings, and actually submits to his spiritual authority. The Nonconformists beg him to lecture on [[UsefulNotes/ReligiousLeaders the Wesleys]]. The [=RC=] Bishop of Clifton has to be restrained by Mgr Folan from begging him to come over through the Ordinariate. Mgr Folan respects him too much even to make that attempt. Dr Jettou the imam regards him with reverence and affection – as does the Nawab of Hubli. The Salmons dote on him. His parishioners love him and fear him. Sir Thomas Douty started going to church again because Noel is his Rector. And Canon Potecary and he disagree on everything … and most especially on her belief that, although he's ''wrong'' about everything, he is the man the Church needs most.
* RousingSpeech: Keeps giving these from the pulpit without meaning to or thinking he ''has'' done.
--> "For all that, and despite a surprising one-off prior, the famous and comforting and thus beloved 'Northern {{Soul}} Sermon', and despite his defiant rallying-call of the month prior to that, parishioners in the Woolfonts no more expected a devastating sermon of Dear Fr Paddick than they expected HM Government to surrender Gib and the Falklands at once, or England to win a World Cup."
* SexyPriest: ''Very.'' When Edmond first met him, Noel being incognito and in mufti, Edmond flirted blatantly and Teddy drooled a little; Hetty sighs over him; and...
--> '''Sher, [[HotForPreacher 'fessing up]] to Dr. Campion the organist:''' "… when he's out for his run…. I don't like early mornings, but that'd be enough to get me out of bed and to a window to creep him, if I didn't feel filthy over it."
* ShamingTheMob: When he reproves sin from the pulpit, sin cowers, whimpering.
* TenorBoy: ''Heldentenor'' boy. His voice got him into the choir, the Church, and a Church college, which got him into Oxford and the priesthood; and as Rector, he tends to choral services. (The Duke, with his weakness for the IncrediblyLamePun, likes to note that Noel "sings for his living.")[[note]]"Living" being an appointment to a parish post in the Church of England.[[/note]]
** Which, coupled with his [[UsefulNotes/TheWestMidlands Wolvo and Black Country]] working-class antecedents, led to the formation of the InUniverse charity-appeal and village-concert group, singing Northern {{Soul}} / {{Motown}}, with a ducal BassoProfundo thrown in: "The Fonts," consisting of Noel, Sher, The Breener, Teddy, Edmond, and His Grace as basso. There's a lot of swooning InUniverse when Noel does a Jackie Wilson cover at village concerts (especially on Sher's part. And Hetty's).
* ThrowingOutTheScript: The really powerful [[RousingSpeech sermons and homilies]] are largely extemporaneous, from a mere outline.
* TitleDrop: Sorry, [[AC:Title Drop]]. One of the chapters in ''Literature/{{Evensong}},'' being like all the rest a LiteraryAllusionTitle from [[Literature/TheBible the Scriptures]] or the ''Book of Common Prayer,'' includes the phrase "All Evil and Mischief": the title of one of Noel's publications.
* TurbulentPriest: Sin is to be reproved. Wrong is to be condemned. And he will do so, up to and including invoking canon law to bar persistent offenders (including his friends and allies if they are in the wrong, Duke or dustman) from communion, quite publicly, while the Bishop rules on the gravity of their offenses.
* UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking: Father P honestly doesn't think much of his skills as a preacher (and being High Church, considers preaching to be, er, not the most important of his important duties). Every other character InUniverse explicitly disagrees with his self-assessment. Especially Edmond, whose skin he inadvertently gets under with every sermon.
* VerbalBusinessCard: Tends not to hand it out himself, but will remind actual parishioners and passing Anglicans by what authority he speaks; and has had it handed out ''for'' him on occasion.
--> '''The Duke to the defeated aggressors after a BarBrawl:''' "I am the duke of Taunton. ''That'' is Mr Gates, the proprietor of this establishment. There is Miss Targett, whom you abused, and this is the Hon. Miss Evans, whom you assaulted. Lachlan is the Police and Crime Commissioner; Tommy is the Chief Constable. Mr Mirza is the man who could easily – and justly – have killed you. And your friend has had the honour of being put on the ground by the incoming Rector of this parish."
* TheVicar: As will be obvious by now, a subversion and heroic deconstruction of every known stereotype of C of E clergy. (Including, in the Duke's InUniverse view, by being an orthodox Anglican rather than a trendy.)
* WorkingClassHero: Subverted. He's not ashamed at all of his class origins; but he knows the value of education, and an Oxford education at that (and conquered his [[UsefulNotes/{{Dyslexia}} dyslexia]] to get one), and as for BookDumb … forget it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sher Ali Mirza [=CBE MA (Ebor) MMus (Leeds) ARCO Dip CHD=], Deputy Headmaster]]

!!Sher Ali Mirza [=CBE=], English and Music Master, and, by the end of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', Deputy Headmaster, at the Beechbourne Free School:

-> Sher Ali Mirza [=CBE MA (Ebor) MMus (Leeds) ARCO Dip CHD=]; b Adel, Leeds, West Yorks. Deputy Chairman, Board of Governors, the Agincourt Housing Association Trust. Deputy Headmaster, English master & co-Master (Music), the Beechbourne Free School. Heir apparent to the heir designate to the Nawab of Hubli ([=HH=] Abdul Ali Aftab Mirza Khan), his uncle & cousin. Composer & keyboardist; composer-in-residence, the Beechbourne Free School; conductor, the Woolfont Consort. [[RealAwardFictionalCharacter Bach Prize, the Royal Academy of Music. The Queen's Medal for Music]]. Composer, ''[[ThemeAndVariations Bach in Euanthia: Twelve Canons and Fugues upon the Seikilos Epitaph.]]'' Unmarried. Bramble Cottage, Woolfont Parva, Wilts. \\
– ''[[FictionalDocument The Directory]]''

Yorkshire-born. Looks like a male model. Highly cultivated but not in the least snobbish (his uncle would demur: his uncle ''the Nawab,'' mind you). Musicologist by preference, English Master by primary trade. Is the only practicing Muslim in the UK to be, academically, an expert on the music of the Church of England. Nephew, eventual heir, and distant cousin to [=HH=] the Nawab of Hubli, who married his father's sister. [[HotForPreacher Utterly]] and [[ChastityCouple chastely]] in love with the Rector. Generally beloved of all; not to be trifled with by those who ''aren't'' fans. (Including Edmond, when Edmond's activism outstrips his sense.) [[RecoveredAddict Recovering alcoholic]]; fiercely protective of his family and those he loves (and Dangerous When Roused).

->''"But what I want … what I want I can't have."''
----
* {{Adorkable}}: Dead sexy, but fundamentally shy.
* AgainstMyReligion: He's rediscovered it in his [[RecoveredAddict recovery]], and it is the anchor for his and Noel's AnchoredShip on his side. It still chafes him at times, and his relationship to Islam is complicated, not least when he [[RantInducingSlight thinks people are treating him differently because he's Muslim]]. The Hon. Gwen and The Breener point out that people are indeed doing so: by [[MinnesotaNice cutting him more slack]] than they cut people whose religions they understand and ''know'' they understand, [[UnwantedAssistance because they don't wish to offend him]]; and they note that he'd complain if it were the other way around, too. (The Breener also points out that Muslims have never suffered legal disabilities in the UK … as Roman Catholics ''have'' done, and, "catch yerself on, y' idjit. ''Jaysus''.")
** Of course, [[PrinciplesZealot Edmond]] accuses him – very unwisely – of being a CategoryTraitor who's HidingBehindReligion.
* AnchoredShip: He and Noel, as a [[AgainstMyReligion conscience-based]] ChastityCouple.
* ArousedByTheirVoice: When Sher sings, panties hit the floor. So do boxer shorts. At a village concert, they may be thrown on stage. (And Sher feels that way about Noel's voice, in turn. As he says to Edmond, conversing in Broad Yorkshire, at a rehearsal, he's ''awreet'' … "[i]f tha doesn't count me almost spoonking in me pants.")
* BreakThemByTalking: When fed up with Edmond's refusal to leave his and Noel's [[AnchoredShip ship at anchor]], he "softly, quietly, and in bitter and scornful detail [tells him, and a horrified Teddy], with pornographic explicitness, ''precisely'' what he wanted – daily and hourly – to do to and with Noel and have Noel do to and with him … daily and hourly." Edmond doesn't deal with it at all well, and it leads him to a HeelRealization and HeelFaceTurn.
* BroodingBoyGentleGirl: Same-sex version, unconsummated, with Noel.
* BrownEyes: Yes, and honeyed at that. More interesting perhaps is that they have a very slight epicanthic fold: Mirza Khan Means Khan.
* ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt: Unlike Noel, knows by past male-male experience ''exactly'' how much fun they could have in bed, [[AgainstMyReligion were it allowed]]. And details it, viciously, to Edmond in a confrontation.
* ChickMagnet / EvenTheGuysWantHim: Even though the attention is [[SingleTargetSexuality unwelcome, nowadays]], and often was both unwelcome, [[CluelessChickMagnet unexpected]], and [[IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn unintended]] even in the past, when, Sher being Unambiguously [[BiTheWay Bisexual]], he did occasionally and guiltily indulge it.
* ChildOfTwoWorlds: A British Pakistani; the only devout Muslim who's an academic expert on the music and hymnody of the C of E; an ElegantClassicalMusician from Leeds; [[TeachersOutOfSchool English and Music master on a motorbike]] … there's a long list of ways in which he is.
* CoolTeacher: As his sister Ameena points out, he's fronting it, without meaning to, despite being actually simply {{Adorkable}}-Though-Sexy:
--> "[You] race about on that motorcycle and pretend to be the cool teacher with the tearaway vibe."
* CulturalCringe: Subverted and played with. He and his family do tend to look down on the average British Pakistani and their culture, with a helping of StopBeingStereotypical to the side. This may be more a BlueBlood thing, though, with strong elements of SnobsVersusSlobs in terms of cultural and class preferences.
* TheDutifulSon: Trying to be what he thought this entailed drove him to drink. Needlessly, as it turned out.
* ElegantClassicalMusician: Spear-side version, at any keyboard, though he's at home sexing up a stage singing {{Motown}} at the village concert.
* {{Foil}}: Edmond and Sher run on this trope, when not engaged in TeethClenchedTeamwork and interspersed with LikeAnOldMarriedCouple and VitriolicBestBuds.
* FriendToAllChildren: Averted. He's a fair and well-liked teacher, but he knows schoolchildren as a breed far too well to regard them with an unjaundiced eye.
* GayGuySeeksPopularJock: Sher to Noel, although their ship is forever at anchor. And for certain values of athlete: Noel's athletic, but he's a good deal more than that, even as a grown-up LovableJock and AcademicAthlete.
* {{Gayngst}}: Past master of it, although in fact [[BiTheWay bisexual]]: ''past'' master. He overcame it and its [[RecoveredAddict consequences]]. Being the ChickMagnet and knowing that EvenTheGuysWantHim was no picnic when he [[AgainstMyReligion felt guilty for sleeping with either]]. Being aboard an AnchoredShip as part of a ChastityCouple may be the best place for him and for his sanity, and he suspects it to be so.
* HasAType: And that type is Noel.
--> '''The Breener, to Sher:''' "And you, heart, have been working t'e ''odi et amo'' long as I've been knowing you. You saw ''England'' walkin', incarnate in one fit man, and you're head over heels wit' your most complex love and hate: Chrisht, y' could be Irish almost, but."
* HotTeacher: Unquestionably.
* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Did a serious number on his growing-up, despite a loving and supportive family. His [[ClassicalMusic musical preferences]] [[AtTheOperaTonight didn't help]], least of all as they [[CulturalRebel played into his being]] [[ChildOfTwoWorlds caught between two cultures]].
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: He and Noel alike will renounce anything to keep the ''other'' one's conscience pure. With a dash of LovedINotHonorMore, given their duties and positions.
* LikeASonToMe: To the Nawab, and, frankly, with the rest of The Lads, to the Duke.
* MeaningfulName: A leonine man from a line of princes: Sher (the lion) Mirza (the prince). Gets lampshaded and traduced when [[SketchySuccessor cousins scheming to be the chosen heir]] slang him as a "pussy" and a faaabulous queen. The Nawab promptly cuts the cousins out of the family … as a first installment of what he plans to do to them.
* MrFanservice: InUniverse. Motorcycle means leathers. Singing means spotlights. Mass drooling ensues.
* NerdsAreSexy: Averted. Loner intellectual or not, he was ''always'' memetically sexy.
* NotAMorningPerson: Yet manages morning prayers and morning classes all the same, by mere willpower. That's one if the many reasons he's RespectedByTheRespected.
--> "Sher Mirza slept, deeply and profoundly, looking like nothing less than an Endymion by Praxiteles. Like many of those whose lives centred upon literature, and music, and art, he embraced sleep, and dreams, and dreaming, with the abandoned passion of a lover; and lived his waking days yet gently tethered by the tendrils and filaments of gossamer dreams."
* OopNorth: And proud of it. Though he's of the upper-middle class sort with very grand relations. He's still the thrawn type, all the same.
* PrettyBoy: Agelessly so, to nigh {{Bishonen}} levels; and all lithe whipcord to Noel's HeroicBuild. There's a reason they have so many InUniverse [[ShipperOnDeck shippers]] – to their great annoyance.
* TheQuietOne: Unless lecturing in class, or if provoked. He's shy and cherishes his privacy; and being a [[RecoveredAddict recovering alcoholic]] and member of a religious minority reinforces that. Not to mention his being a [[OopNorth Yorkshireman]] adrift in [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry deepest Wiltshire]].
* RaceFetish: Has been the object of several, to his disgust; but he himself tends very strongly – and his uncle the Nawab explicitly calls it a [[SharedFamilyQuirks family tradition]] – to go for the EnglishRose and her spear-side counterparts. (His mother is after all an EnglishRose who [[ConvertingForLove converted for love]], and a remote female connection did the same the other way and became Amelia, Lady Clare, so....) ''See'' HasAType, above.
* RecoveredAddict: Recovering alcoholic. It was a refuge from his troubles which created even more self-loathing, for [[AgainstMyReligion obvious reasons]].
* RespectedByTheRespected: Not least for sheer grit, and by Duke, Nawab, and Headmaster alike – and, InUniverse, by RealLife famous musicians such a the Academy of St. Martin's in the Fields. Of course, the ultimate in this is his having been awarded the Bach Prize by the Royal Academy of Music and ''the Queen's Medal for Music.''
* ShrinkingViolet: When young, although posing then as what he nowadays can in fact be: TheSnarkKnight.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Nowadays. His own family point it out, his father particularly noting it's pointless to discuss his theoretical orientation, as he is simply Noelsexual. So does his imam's ''wife.''
--> '''The Nawab, his uncle:''' "'I am aware that you are bisexual; however, you could not love any woman, in any way worthy of a good woman whom you have allowed to love and marry you. Not because of your preferences, but because you cannot cease loving Noel. And anyone within five miles of you knows that.'"
* TheSnarkKnight: His armor is ''spiky.''
* SlobsVersusSnobs: His own uncle suggests he's a bit of a cultural snob. He's right. But he's an InnocentBigot in this regard – [[InnocentlyInsensitive positively]] [[IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat naive]], really.
* SternTeacher: Very much so, of the strict-but-fair, ReasonableAuthorityFigure sort.
* StopBeingStereotypical: One of the reasons his family were so proud of his musical preferences ("… and such elevated music, too: the music of gentility").
* TallDarkAndHandsome: Averted. He's not that tall, and as for dark, well, he ''is'' [[BrownEyes brown-eyed]] and dark-haired, but he's AmbiguouslyBrown, in fact, and indeed [[RavenHairIvorySkin ivory]] as to skin tone.[[note]]Justified and lampshaded, InUniverse. His mother's English, and the Mirza Khans, as conquering nobles, have MixedAncestry from all over Southwest Asia; the steppe – "Khan" means "Khan" and Mughal means Mongol, after all, even –; and Byzantium and Georgia and Circassia. And, ''being'' a nawabal family, they tend to value RavenHairIvorySkin and avoiding sun and the suggestion of labor and low caste, as the Nawab notes, lampshading that the very concern is probably a triumph of culture over egalitarian religious teachings.[[/note]] But two out of three ain't bad.
* TheTeetotaler: Well, yeah. Nowadays.
* ThemeAndVariations: Composed some. Including on the On the Seikilos ''skolion''.
* TroubledButCute: Was so [[LonersWillStayAlone when young]]. Insofar as he's a [[RecoveredAddict recovering alcoholic]] with plenty of issues, a ReclusiveArtist InUniverse as to his composing (he needs space and quiet for it), and a bit of a MisunderstoodLonerWithAHeartOfGold even now, still is. These facts don't seem to dissuade InUniverse {{Fangirl}}s. At all.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Brian Francis Michael Maguire CBE ("The Breener"), late England cricketer, now TMS summariser]]

!!Brian Francis Michael Maguire CBE ("The Breener"):

-> Brian Francis Michael Maguire [=CBE: MCC=] Member; was born in Kilgarvan, County Kerry, to [[FarmBoy a farming family]]. … an assisted place at Downside. ...Leaving Downside, The Breener was snapped up as one of the first intake at the newly-established [=ECB=] National Academy (now the National Cricket Performance Centre at Loughborough University). He was thereafter signed for Derbyshire, until moving to Somerset [=CCC=] three years after. It was whilst he was at Somerset that he was first capped for England Lions, and, in short order thereafter, for the England Test side, making his first Test appearance in 2003, against Zimbabwe at Lord's. His international career (Test, [=T20I=], and [=ODI=]) was shaping well when his old knee trouble, the relic of past scrums for the Downside [=XV=], recurred. Plagued by injury, he was not able to reach quite the heights which were confidently predicted for him and clearly within his grasp, although he was twice Cricketer of the Year in his sadly abbreviated career. Upon his retirement, he became and has remained a popular lecturer and a beloved addition to TMS. He married the Hon. Gwen, née Evans, daughter of the racing life-peer The Baron Evans of Pont-y-clun and Aintree.... Teams: England; [=MCC=]; England Lions; Somerset; Derbyshire \\
– ''[[FictionalDocument The Almanack]]''

A laughing, [[GeniusBruiser boisterous]] [[{{Oireland}} broth of a boy]] from a farm family in Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry (to which they fled from Ulster in Cromwell's time); sent to Downside on a fully assisted place to be molded into a Test cricketer. Which he was, until old knee injuries put paid to that, at which point the Duke lured him to the Woolfonts to coach the all-conquering local [=XI=]. As of the end of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', is [[spoiler: married to the Hon. Gwen]] and [[spoiler: father to twins]]. In retirement, a wildly popular lecturer and [=TMS=] fixture, playing the [[{{Oireland}} Stage Oirishman]] with glee. Surreptitiously intelligent and well-read. When he ''stops'' laughing and smiling … ''run.''

->''"Feck! Catch yerself on! Chrisht!"''
----
* BadassBaritone: And you can count on his singing
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's great fun. Until you piss him off.
* BigEater: And burns it all off. His wife is too discreet to [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex say just how]].
* BoisterousBruiser: Sure and what for would he not be?
--> "'In Ireland, at least, it's a sin t' keep a lad from a brawl; come on,' whooped he, as he charged outside and into the fray."
* TheCharmer: And lampshades it and plays with it, and specifically calls it [[{{Oireland}} his "Plastic Paddy" routine]].
* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Irish FarmBoy sent to Downside to become a Test cricketer; the Roman Catholic Church's favorite sports figure, and married to an Anglican (Church in Wales) wife; an Irish national hero in an England cap, and an English hero who's Irish as can be; an Irishman in England and nowadays an Englishman in Ireland when he visits.... Yep. He qualifies.
* TheClan: Irish, Catholic, rural family ring any bells? And one, moreover, which has been trading properties, children, and wives between the County Kerry and County Fermanagh branches (and various Cassidys and Gallaghers): which connection to StrokeCountry, where The Breener's da, Breandán, was born, is how The Breener qualified as an ''England'' cricketer.
* CoattailRidingRelative: Averted. The Breener has been munificent to his family, but they certainly haven't sought it.
* TheConfidant: To the other Lads, when they can't possibly imagine talking to the Duke about it and dare not talk to Father Paddick about it.
* TheDutifulSon: His parents' sacrifices were amply repaid when he made it big.
* FamousAncestor: Not to the extent of the Duke and all those peers, or the Mirza Khans, but Conchobhar Mag Uidhir, second baron Maguire of Enniskillen, and his successor Rory, do count. Then again, that sort of thing is TruthInTelevision for the merest beggar in Ireland, and The Breener thinks nothing of it.
** As the Duke pointed out to Noel's parents Steve and Mary Paddick (descended from Edward III, and from the families of Fairfax, Villiers, Pelham, Hyde, Mander, Cantilupe, Daubeny, Scudamore, and Fenton), everyone in the UK and Ireland who has any local ancestry at all, including HM the Queen, is related to one another, to royalty, and to stable lads and peasants. Which is also TruthInTelevision, and one reason Noel and The Breener both pay it all no mind.
* FarmBoy: Test {{Cricket}} was the quest, and farewell the paternal acres.
* FunetikAksent: Justified and lampshaded: it keeps the lecture circuit fees coming in and his TMS gig going. But he can drop it when he likes: as once when he gave Edmond both barrels in a deliberately offensively lofty public-school tone and diction.
* GeniusBruiser: Possibly the wisest of The Lads in some ways, and lampshaded with his [[ArcWords narration motif]], that a man who once kept wicket for England misses ''nothing''.
* GoodParents: Had them, and is following their example.
* HappilyMarried: To the Hon. Gwen.
* HandicappedBadass: Subverted. His knees are shot, yes, but they don't slow him down when there's a brawl to get stuck into; and they're not ''that'' badly shot.
* InnocentBlueEyes / IcyBlueEyes: If you see the latter in place of the former, you've made a huge mistake. ''See'' YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry, below, and quote therein.
* LetsGetDangerous: Always happy to mix it up when called to do. Including in a BarBrawl in Teddy's three-star restaurant when someone sexually harassed Gwen. With a heavy, silver candlestick.
--> "'Put the candlestick down, Breener,' hissed Edmond, [[HypocriticalHumor stealthily returning a carving knife to a nearby trolley]]. 'This isn't an Irish pub brawl with shillelaghs being brandished.'"
* MulticoloredHair: Briefly had blond tips in his playing days, after the manner of certain other cricketers. It's an InUniverse OldShame to him now.
--> "The Breener muttered, with a guilty smile, something about emulating Warne and KP, for luck, in his youthful hairstyle choices...."
* MultigenerationalHousehold: Has found himself saddled with one:
--> "The Breener was an Irish farm-boy educated at Downside on full bursary expressly to play for England, and had certainly showered Danae's gold upon his family so soon as he had it to shower; but he might have married an Australian girl and settled in Alice Springs in obscure and honest poverty, and Aunt Assumpta should have come over to Help With The Twins even had she had to sell her cottage to afford the journey."
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: No one has called The Breener "Brian" for ''decades.''
* RagsToRiches: Subverted: it wasn't quite rags, and he ''did'' end up at Downside (owing to an UnclePennybags or two finding him an assisted place).
--> "… 'The Breener', as he was known from the cradle, had in the local parish priest of St Patrick's Church a mentor who was not content only to encourage the irrepressible young man in Gaelic games [snip] but who was ecumenical in matters of sport; and fortunately again, the Church of Ireland incumbent in Kenmare was prevailed upon by his Roman Catholic colleague to look over the youngster with a sportsman's eye. This he did, accompanied on the day, as it happened, by the father of the present Earl of Maynooth, an [=MCC=] member of long standing, and that Earl's uncle, the retired (C of I) Bishop of Omagh, both of whom were stopping with the Revd Dr Orpen-Athy-Fitzgarrett on an angling holiday. A lengthy consultation between the three visitors and Fr Healey, who swiftly appealed to Bishop Herlihy in support, resulted in representations which resulted in the finding for the young Breener of an assisted place at Downside, in Somerset, the [=XI=] of which did not know what had hit it."
** Note that the Church of Ireland clergyman, the Earl of Maynooth, and the Anglican Bishop of Omagh were all relatives of the Duke's.
* RaisedCatholic: And stayed Catholic. Even his religiously-mixed marriage was cleared through channels first. Goes in healthy fear of wee Mgr Folan – for the reason that the monsignor is, as The Breener says, "Socrates in a Roman collar." Otherwise, he's ecumenical about most things.
--> '''To James, about the Rector, before the Duke gave the parishes – and Mgr Folan – Rovers:''' "Jaysus, hasn't he an Irish Cat'lic for an unpaid driver?"
* StandardFiftiesFather: Dotingly so, on the twins. Given that he's a BoisterousBruiser given to LetsGetDangerous moments, it would be wise not to give him cause to go all ActionDad / PapaWolf. And not only as regards his biological children.
* TeamDad: To the rest of The Lads when the Rector isn't filling the role, and particularly when any of The Lads are feuding with another (Sher … Edmond...). [[{{Protectorate}} They are ''his'' lads]], sure and they are, and do not you be forgetting it.
* UnclePennybags / WealthyPhilanthropist: He's been paying his good fortune forward since it came to him, to family, friends, and good causes … preferably in ways with some ''fun'' involved.
* YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry: He's a warm, smiling man. Until he's not: when the eyes grow cold, the lips go dangerously thin, and one realizes that chin and that jaw are stubborn and dangerous. At that point, you're screwed.
--> "The Breener's blue eyes were commonly warm and dangerously charming. Commonly. At certain moments of crisis, however, they looked like Bantry Bay beneath a stormy sky – and wise mariners scuttled to shelter when they did."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:The Hon. Gwen (Mrs. Brian) Maguire, Owner and Trainer, the Woolbury Stud]]

!!The Hon. Gwen (Evans before marriage, Maguire since), owner of [[UsefulNotes/HorseRacing the Woolbury Stud]]:

[[UsefulNotes/{{Wales}} Welsh]] and Anglo-Welsh bloodstock breeder, and daughter of a life peer [[SeriousBusiness given a life peerage for Services to the Turf (The Baron Evans of Pont-y-clun and Aintree)]]. Deceptively mild and fluffy; is in fact a bloody cobra. Holds everyone who knows her in the palm of her dainty hand, and you'd best hope she doesn't have cause to clench that hand. Now married to The Breener, and recently the mother of twins, making, in all, ''three'' children for her to boss. [[BrutalHonesty Very candid friend]] to Lady Crispin; thick as thieves with, naturally, Lady Agatha. Everyone in the Woolfonts, without distinction of age, sex, marital status, or orientation, and including the Duke, is half in love with her … which she ruthlessly Uses For Good when necessary.

->''"... you little ''Saes'' wanker."''[[note]]Yes, of ''course'' to Edmond.[[/note]]
----
* ActionGirl: That BarBrawl? So unnecessary: she was perfectly capable of handling it herself, and will tell you so.
--> "It was at that point that Gwen slapped him. Which was followed immediately by her being seized by all three, two of whom immediately went down, clutching their bollocks: no one in the district had ever doubted Gwen's force, or accuracy of aim."
* AllGirlsLikePonies: Her father was made a life peer for services to the Turf; she owns and runs a National Hunt ''and'' Flat stud.
* ApronMatron: Of the upper class sort – not least to The Breener.
* TheBeard: Briefly and willingly acted as one for Sher before he realized his family didn't ''care'' that he was (a) bisexual and (b) hopelessly in love with Noel.
* BrutalHonesty: She doesn't mince words.
* CallingTheOldManOut: Well, the elder lady, when she had a few unvarnished words with Lady Crispin over Lady Crispin's quarrel with Rupert after Crispin died.
* ConvertingForLove: Averted. She's still Anglican, The Breener's still [=RC=].
** The (wholly imaginary) prospect that she ''might'' do this, when she was TheBeard for Sher, was seized on as an [[MalignedMixedMarriage excuse or justification]] for a racially-motivated attack on Sher. Seized on by the attackers, that is.
* DamselOutOfDistress: Not the woman you're well-advised to underestimate.
* DeathGlare: One which works even on ''The Breener''.
* TheDulcineaEffect: As everyone is a little bit in love with her ([[EvenTheGirlsWantHer and not just the men]]), she's not above [[FriendlyScheming using this]] to effect goals for the greater good and making peace in the community.
* EnglishRose: Don't even ''think'' it. She's ''[[BerserkButton Welsh]]''. Otherwise, though....
* MamaBear: To more than her own children. Even before they were born. The full version of her page quote?
--> '''To Edmond, while she's late in term:''' "'You want a world in which the coming generation doesn't know persecution and prejudice? So do I, ''sunshine''. Beginning with Roman Catholics, and with Irishmen, and, for that matter, with my fellow Welshmen and Welshwomen, you little ''Saes'' wanker. \\
"'And don't you ''ever'' again,' said she, struggling to her feet, 'bring my children into your crusade as an excuse for your behaviour, look you. I'm having enough morning sickness as is: don't you make me sick up further by your actions."
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale / SilkHidingSteel: What you face when you ill-advisedly underestimate her.
* NoSympathyForGrudgeholders: None. ''No'' sympathy. None at all … Edmond; Sher; Lady Crispin. And [[QuitYourWhining Stop Whinging]].
* ObfuscatingStupidity: There are people who think all she reads is the studbook and the ''Racing Post,'' and all she knows anything about is how to handle men and horses. Such people get their arses handed to them.
* PrecisionFStrike: Calling Edmond a "little ''Saes'' wanker." "Wanker" may not be the F-strike so much as "''Saes'':" which is the [[RaceNameBasis Welsh for "Englishman,"]] and is often not, as here it is not, a term of endearment.
* QuitYourWhining: Sher, Edmond, and Lady Crispin have all gotten this sweetly-expressed advice. For "advice," read, "command."
* TheReliableOne: Is, and is so regarded InUniverse. Although Lady Crispin, of course, rethought that when Gwen disagreed with her.
* VerbalJudo: Ranking mistress of it. She ''shall'' de-escalate things. By whatever arguments are necessary.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cllr Teddy Gates [=OBE JP=], Master of Wine, County councillor, chef-proprietor of The Woolford House Hotel]]

!!Edward Henry Lewis Gates [=OBE JP=], Master of Wine, County councillor, chef-proprietor of The Woolford House Hotel ("Teddy"):

-> Teddy (Edward Henry Lewis) Gates [=OBE JP=]: born Delamere, Cheshire; [=BA=] (Institut Paul Bocuse / [=IAE=] Lyon (Université Jean Moulin Lyon [=III=])) [=MSc=] (Institut Paul Bocuse / EMLYON). [=MW=] (Institute of Masters of Wine). Proprietor-chef, The Woolford House Hotel, Woolfont Abbas, Wilts. (***) Commandeur, [=l'Order=] du Mérite Agricole (Fr). Cllr, Wiltshire (Unitary Authority) Council (Liberal Democrat). Member, the Board of Governors, the Agincourt Housing Association Trust. Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in the Liberal Democrat interest, Beechbourne constituency. Contributing editor, ''The Woolford House and Woolfonts Cookbook'' (forthcoming). Residence: Chalkhills, Woolfont Crucis. Civil partner: Edmond Huskisson, with whom in process of adopting children. \\
– ''[[FictionalDocument The Guide]]''

[[LongHairedPrettyBoy Charming, wild-maned, sexy]] [[SupremeChef chef]]. Civil partner of [[spoiler: by ''Literature/TheDayThouGavest'', husband of, and planning to adopt sprogs with]] Edmond Huskisson. Born in rural Cheshire; won a [=BBC=] reality-show culinary series[[note]]a pretty clear {{Expy}} of Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff[[/note]] and [[FrenchCuisineIsHaughty went off to France to train]]; by preference a pâtissier. As [[InUniverseNickname The Celebrated Hipsta Chef]], a darling of press and broadcast. His first job back in England was at one of the Duke's clubs; later, the Duke brought him to the Woolfonts to resurrect the local gastropub and hotel. [[TheDitz Spacey]], sweet (outside the kitchen: ''in'' the kitchen ... he once made GordonRamsay cry, in fear, on live TV), [[OlderThanTheyLook eternally boyish]], and of course a Lib Dem. Too naive for politics, really....

->''"[[FundamentallyFunnyFruit Mango]] is an underrated fruit, yah?"''
----
* AgentPeacock: He has thrown footballers out of his restaurant – and had them banned in every licensed establishment in three counties. For that matter, he's thrown out EU Commissioners and [=MEPs=]. And a North American popstar who said something [[UsefulNotes/{{Homophobia}} homophobic]]:
--> "Amazing, really, that Teddy'd been dissuaded from [[ChefOfIron jointing him]] like a ''poulet de Bresse;'' he'd certainly tossed him out on his ear, to the point he ought by rights to have bounced, and refunded his custom by the simple expedient of throwing the notes at him and watching grimly as his bloody ''entourage'' had scrambled to pluck them from the breeze."
* BadassBaritone: [[VocalDissonance Surprisingly]], when he sings at village concerts and as part of "The Fonts" (also at village concerts). With a bit of GutturalGrowler tossed in. ''What'' he sings are [[IntercourseWithYou sexy songs]], mostly Northern {{Soul}} – and largely Junior Walker tracks. [[SerenadeYourLover To Edmond.]] And [[LetsDuet sometimes]] ''with'' Edmond.
* BiTheWay: Averted and lampshaded for and by Teddy. [[InsistentTerminology The term you are looking for is ''pan''.]]
** As he is now permanently partnered with Edmond, this is now (a) irrelevant and (b) irresistible to him as a source of [[IncrediblyLamePun typically Teddy humor]], allowing him to joke that he's now [[SingleTargetSexuality "''Peter''-Pan-sexual."]]
* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: He and Edmond seem to thrive on these. Really, they must do it for the thrills and the make-up sex (to nigh-{{DestructoNookie}} levels), it's the only possible explanation (a conclusion generally held InUniverse).
* TheCharmer: And he knows it. Edmond doesn't mind. At all.
** In fact, the possessive little bugger gets off on knowing ''he's'' the one Teddy will be going home with.
* EthicalSlut: When younger. As a schoolboy with a [[BiTheWay wide range of options]], he [[ReallyGetsAround really got around]].
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Well, yeah. And pre-Edmond, had quite as good a chance as anyone.
* [[{{Fangirl}} Fanboy]] (InUniverse): Was giddy and dazed with happiness when the Duke brought certain hirsute, motorcycle-riding telly chefs down for the Village [[UsefulNotes/{{Fete}} Fête]] and they asked him to join them in a cookery demonstration.
** As he got his start by winning a BBC cookery series, he's something of an AscendedFanboy in this regard.
* FarmBoy: Middle-class version. Left rural Cheshire behind to become a SupremeChef. While growing up in the countryside, though, really was a FarmBoy.
--> '''As regards "the venerable Lady Delamere":''' "Teddy had hidden in shocked recognition when he'd spotted her in a corridor, he having a guilty conscience from decades before involving a bit of juvenile mischief (Lady D was well-known as a breeder of Derbyshire Redcaps, and Teddy had scrumped a few eggs in his Cheshire youth ''in'' Delamere)...."
* FatherToHisMen: He's tough in the kitchen, but his ''brigade'' and all the hotel staff would charge hell with a pail of petrol for him.
* GreenEyes: PrettyBoy? Check. Works with a lot of natural stuff and veg.? Tick. InTouchWithHisFeminineSide? Well, whaddya know....
* {{Hipster}}: Bless. He thinks he is, so very earnestly. What he is, is a painfully middle class BourgeoisBohemian.
* InsatiableNewlyweds: He and Edmond, since they first got together ... and with no plans to stop. Honestly, Teddy's [[HyperCompetentSidekick indispensable]] chief of staff Emily Lane [[TheGruntingOrgasm ought to be getting combat pay]].
* InUniverseNickname: "The Celebrated Hipsta Chef."
* LongHairedPrettyBoy: [[Theatre/AntonyAndCleopatra Age hath not withered]] [[Literature/SherlockHolmes nor custom staled]] this character in him. He's really ''far'' too pretty, and the curly hair is a ''mane''. He gets compared (InUniverse, by others) to a lanky and laughing faun rather often, at that.
* MrFanservice: There are plenty of characters InUniverse who find his [[{{Twink}} twinkish]] (even now), PrettyBoy look delicious.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: He wouldn't know who you were addressing if you called him "Edward." Neither would anyone else.
* RealMenCook: Chef-ing ain't easy; it's pointed out that training in a French kitchen is a pretty good equivalent to SAS selection for rigorousness.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: As the boss, subverted with elements of CluelessBoss. ''Deliberately'' clueless. [[AuthorityInNameOnly Foodie politics requires he be the chef-proprietor-manager]] of The Woolfont. What he ''wants'' to be is the pâtissier. His [[GirlFriday executive chef / sous-chef]] Meg Leaver and his [[HyperCompetentSidekick theoretically ''sub-''manageress]] Emily Lane really run the place for him, as he prefers.
* RecoveredAddict: Had a coke problem at one point back in London. The Duke … intervened.
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Subverted as to Teddy and Edmond as a couple. Teddy's a chef. Edmond's a former Premier Leaguer … and Edmond's ''much'' more CampGay when he chooses to let his hair down and drop his pearls, while Teddy
* SergeantRock: An utter sweetheart … ''outside'' the kitchen. Inside, well.... Remember: he once (InUniverse) reduced GordonRamsay to tears.
* SupremeChef: Naturally talented and bloody well-trained. He actually lives up to his own hype.
--> '''Offering lunch on the house to the then-new Rector, Fr. Paddick:''' "'C'mon, then, yah? Rock oysters, salmon salad, saddle of rabbit with truffles and pea puree, creamed fennel, chard, and a raspberry and lemongrass pavlova –' \\
"'Teddy, really.' \\
"'All right.' Teddy was clearly making an effort not to pout – and failing, charmingly. It made him look all of fifteen. 'What a life for a craftsman. Philistine. Stilton and broccoli soup and bacon chops in cider?'\\
"'Hot as today has been?'\\
"Teddy sighed. 'Cucumber soup and my take on Coronation chicken?'\\
"'Much more like it. I know you're a genius, but I'm a simple country parson, Teddy.' \\
"'Too rich for your blood, am I? 'S all right, Father Pads, we love you anyway.' \\
"Fr Paddick beamed."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Edmond Austin Huskisson [=BA (Hons) (OU) (Social Psychology) OBE JP=], ex-Premier Leaguer, Activist; Chalkhills, Woolfont Crucis]]

!!Edmond Austin Huskisson [=BA (Hons) (OU) (Social Psychology) OBE JP=]:

-> [[AC:Edmond Austin Huskisson]] [=OBE JP=] was born in Illingworth.... Signed as a schoolboy to Halifax Town [=AFC=], he was soon picked up by Leeds United for development.... 'Huzza' rapidly established himself as 'the thinking man's striker' … Hull [=FC=], and then, on the cusp of certain stardom, to Manchester City. Man City, the first Premier League club to be designated 'gay-friendly' by Stonewall [=UK=], soon found occasion to back its new addition, when Huzza was outed on the morning of the city derby. He was sent on in the second half. Sadly, in a scandal which had lasting consequences, 'the thinking man's striker' was carried off shortly thereafter, having been laid out by a blatant foul and, whilst down, showered not only with abuse but with objects from the Man Utd terraces … rendered [[DisabledBadass legally blind]] in one eye … never again able to play football professionally. He moved to rural Wiltshire immediately thereafter, taking a small country house, 'Chalkhills', in the Woolfonts. After a period of internal struggle, [[RecoveredAddict during which he drank heavily]], he turned his life around and in a new direction, with the help of [=AA=], neighbours such as the Duke of Taunton, and the new interest in his life, the celebrity chef Teddy Gates, proprietor of the award-winning The Woolford House Hotel nearby. Huzza could no longer, perhaps, be 'the thinking man's striker', but he was now free to be a thinking man: he earnt his [=BA=] (Hons) through the Open University and threw himself into charitable and advocacy endeavours, which continue to this day with the assistance and support of Teddy Gates, now his civil partner. He now serves on numerous boards and committees dedicated to overcoming discrimination in sport; is a Governor of the Beechbourne Free School, at which he acts as a part-time adjunct games master; and is involved in numerous local charities and community projects, including as a Member of the Board of Governors, the Agincourt Housing Association Trust. He was created [=MBE=] for services to sport and the community, and raised [=OBE=] in the Birthday Honours of the year just past for further such services. \\
''[[FictionalDocument – Hall of Fame]]'' entry

The other refugee from [[OopNorth Yorkshire]]. Former Premier League striker (Man City) fouled in the city derby and half-blinded on the pitch by things thrown from the terraces, having been outed by the tabloids that morning. Has become, not surprisingly, a somewhat fanatical activist in his retirement. Civil partner [[spoiler: and, by ''Literature/TheDayThouGavest'', husband, and planning to adopt with,]] of Teddy Gates. [[InnocentlyInsensitive Thinks "tact" is the past tense of "tack."]] Has a stack of chips on both shoulders, including class, sexuality, and Yorkshire chauvinism. Was best friends with Sher until Noel arrived; his nose is still out of joint over that. Tries very hard to be StraightGay and Yorkshire-tough; tends to become waspish and bitchy instead. Everyone loves him anyway, even when they want to strangle him.

->''"Have you ''quite'' finished?"''
----
* AllGaysLoveTheater: He does, and spent much of his early life trying to be a footballing 'ard man to hide that and good deal else. Nowadays … he and Teddy named their dogs for Diana Dors and Vera Lynn, and West End musicals captivate him.
* ArousedByTheirVoice: He and Teddy to each other. Which makes village concerts … interesting.
* ArmouredClosetGay: Spent most of his life that way. It is felt InUniverse that this still cripples him in many ways, as having created a disconnect between head and heart.
* BashBrothers: With The Breener. Teddy's a NonActionGuy, a LoverNotAFighter, until he reaches a RageBreakingPoint. Sher can hold his own, but he's a FragileSpeedster type and a ''very'' reluctant warrior; Noel is, after all, [[TheVicar the Rector]], and a Martial Pacifist. And the Duke rarely ''has'' to fight (his opponents tending to [[BringMyBrownPants pee themselves]] when they [[OhCrap see him]]), and if he does, he's already so [[DefensiveFeintTrap planned things]] that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard he needn't]]. But The Breener enjoys [[LetsGetDangerous getting dangerous]] and, like Edmond, ''is'' an old athlete; and Edmond has a lot of rage stored, and nowadays doesn't have to worry about red cards and being sent off.
* CampGay: When he feels like it.
* CareerEndingInjury: On the pitch. (A backstory he shares to an extent with The Breener.)
* CryingWolf: Has been considered InUniverse to have done this so often, by attributing every reverse he suffers to one or another form of prejudice, that he gets frequent NotNowKiddo brushings-off by other characters when he's ''right.''
* DisabledBadass: The sight in one eye is [[CareerEndingInjury compromised]]. He has not forgiven this. He refuses to let it slow him down.
* DramaQueen: He's trying to get better about this, but … to be fair, he did suffer a CareerEndingInjury at the hands of bigots, immediately upon being ForcedOutOfTheCloset. And an [[ArmouredClosetGay armored closet at that]]. All of which had and has done his mental health no favors. It still affects him in complex ways.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: He's indiscriminately attractive. When ''silent.''
* {{Foil}}: To the Duke, who is well aware that they are far too much alike in their faults, and lampshades it. As he does the similar fact and foildom between Edmond and Sher.
* ForcedOutOfTheCloset: In the most painful way possible. Outed in the morning by the tabloids, sent on in the afternoon by a defiant Man City (in the city derby, at the [=ManUtd=] ground), blatantly fouled, and subjected to a CareerEndingInjury while down, from things thrown from the terraces. He holds a grudge. And has become a PrinciplesZealot in response.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Comes perilously close to being one; averted because he ''can'' learn, and his friends know his heart's in the right place.
** Then [[RetiredBadass Father Bohun]] took him aside and taught him ''tactics''.
--> "'I hold no position on whether the secular state ought or ought not to bring back National Service; I merely point out that, when we had it, there was a greater understanding in the mass of men of strategy, of tactics, and of the operational art of making the latter serve the former.' [snip] 'Tactically, your approach, just now, consists of shooting your own, really.'"
* HeightAngst: He's taller than the Duke, but who isn't? What digs at him is that he's shorter than the other Lads (and especially Teddy). He refuses to accept this.
* HidingBehindReligion: [[WellIntentionedExtremist Unwisely accused Sher and Noel of this]], and of being {{CategoryTraitor}}s because of it, by reason of their being a ChastityCouple who wouldn't march in his parades. He [[HeelRealization knows better now]], and they have since reconciled .. or [[ForgivenButNotForgotten started to]], in Sher's case.
* ICouldaBeenAContender: Twice over. He was struck down in his GloryDays on the pitch … a career he chose so as to hide his real (and very, ''very'' gay) interest in musical theater, in which he would have excelled.
* IcyBlueEyes: There's a lot of {{HornyViking|s}} in his lineage.
* ImAManICantHelpIt: Subverted. He's utterly faithful to Teddy … but, to his own distress, has an [[EatingTheEyeCandy incurably roving eye]]. (Literally: he just can't ''not'' [[MaleGaze look]].) And feels guilty about it, because he knows he really ''would'' [[ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt enjoy it at the time and regret it later]] if he ever strayed. Justified in that his days in the closet really did a number on him. (He and Teddy got together very soon after he was (a) out and (b) sober. His own explanation is, therefore, that he never sowed any wild oats.)
* InnocentlyInsensitive: He's a Yorkshire Tyke, and loudly working-class in origin. Pleasantries are fripperies for a plain lad from OopNorth, sithee, you soft, toffee-nosed Southerner. Happen it offends someone, that's their lookout.
* InsatiableNewlyweds: He and Teddy, even now.
* IntercourseWithYou / SerenadeYourLover: The inevitable as between him and Teddy at village concerts.
* MrFanservice: He's exasperating, but nummy to many InUniverse. (It's the [[FamedInStory legendary]] [[MaleGaze arse]], which [[EvenTheGuysWantHim even straight guys]] notice.)
* NoSympathyForGrudgeholders: On the receiving end of this from quite a few of his friends.
* OopNorth: Flat-'at and whippet-on-lead. Sommat of a Professional Yorkshireman.
* PrinciplesZealot: He will not rest – or compromise – so long as anyone else may ever suffer from [[UsefulNotes/{{Homophobia}} homophobia]]. Unfortunately, he tends to [[WithUsOrAgainstUs offend possible allies]] rather too often, though he's trying to do better.
* RelationshipRevolvingDoor: His and Teddy's all too regular loud quarrels and [[GruntingOrgasm louder]] reconciliations.
* SmiteMeOMightySmiter: Has a bone to pick with the Almighty, if there is an Almighty. (His attitude is, Who creates gays and Lesbians and then tells them not to be?) He's agnostic on the question of God, but is quite clear that if God exists, he's a prick.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS / MyNaymeIs: He has a Belgian great-gran who came over in 1914 a step ahead of the Germans, and stayed. Wherefore "Edmond."
* StraightGay: When he chooses. Although it seems uncomfortably like his days in the [[ ArmouredClosetGay closet]] to him.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: No matter how he quarrels with the Duke and The Lads, they all close ranks when there's an outside threat.
* TenorBoy: ''Counter''-tenor.
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Sher, before Noel arrived (which, with Sher falling in love with Noel, [[AttentionWhore put Edmond's nose out of joint]]); and since their reconciliation.
[[/folder]]

!!The Clergy

Established and otherwise, as followeth. Here beginneth the Lesson.

!!The Wider Diocese

-> "In the Church as elsewhere, personal ties and shared experiences naturally exert their influence. For the Church, however inspired, however corrected (all too slowly, in the duke's opinion) by Grace and by the Holy Ghost, is, if not a very human institution, certainly an institution very much of humans, with all the failings and qualities alike of man."

[[folder:The Rt Rev'd Stephen Chubb Dip [=CRES MA (Lond.) (KCL)=], Bishop of Sarum]]

!!The Rt Rev'd Stephen Chubb Dip [=CRES MA (Lond.) (KCL)=], Bishop of Sarum:

A mild and much-tried man. [[UsefulNotes/HomeCounties Home Counties]]-bred, with the look of a heron surveying an unpromising pond. Married to Mary. (Noel Paddick, agreeing with [[Creator/GKChesterton Chesterton]] that "coincidences are spiritual puns," is pleased that his Bishop and his Bishop's lady wife have the same Christian names as Noel's own parents.) Lost a young son some years ago. ''Bien-pensant,'' moderately trendy, and a ''Guardian'' reader, but, in fact, more orthodox than some (the Duke, for one) give him credit for – and was, rather unexpectedly, a [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Royal Navy]] chaplain in his youth. Rather weary of trying to balance the contending wings of the C of E; rather relieved that the Woolfonts, being the Duke's livings, are under the Alternative Episcopal Oversight of Ebbsfleet. Noel mediated a longstanding quarrel between Duke and Bishop within a month of arriving; the Bishop intends to make Noel a suffragan bishop as soon as the canons allow, and have him canonized a saint as soon as he dies. Is worrying himself into a decline.

->''"When Mary and I first came here, I was warned – by Dean Blanchard, most notably – that I was to set my watch back by several decades when I went into the Woolfonts...."''
----
* BenevolentBoss: He tries very hard, and mostly succeeds. Despite having an unruly flock. (Of course, enforcement is what ''archdeacons'' are there for....)
* BourgeoisBohemian: He's an honest and sympathetic sort of one, with a Labour progressive's heart and surprisingly orthodox ecclesiastical views.
--> "'This appointment has been my cross, my dear Archdeacon Philips; my crucifixion, if that's not blasphemous as well as overdramatic and whinging. But it is a literally impossible position. [snip] And in the meantime, I am torn, with my Church, by contending factions, as if I were tied to horses driven in opposing directions.'"
* DeathByOriginStory: Very nearly suffered a CrisisOfFaith after the [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth death of his young son]]. He managed, just, to persevere. But it has certainly influenced his approach to being bishop.
* FireForgedFriends: First he and the Duke were {{Foil}}s. Then came TeethClenchedTeamwork. And now.... Cue the Agincourt speech.
* {{Foil}}: To the Duke, and vice-versa. Of course, that was before Father Paddick effected a reconciliation.
* GoodShepherd: With all his flaws and failings (which he readily admits), he remains one, to the diocese and particularly to his clergy. It's the really saintly ones he has the most trouble with: Noel, for instance.
* MentorArchetype: AllAPartOfTheJob. Even if he feels that in a time of Church crisis, he's an ObsoleteMentor.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted and lampshaded. He and Mrs. Chubb have the same Christian names as Father Paddick's parents. Which Fr. Paddick considers a [[Creator/GKChesterton Chestertonian]] "spiritual pun."
* ThePhilosopher: With all the sadness of ineffectuality added. A bishop of the Established Church ''ought'' to be a [[ThePhilosopherKing philosopher-king]] at least in, and as to, his own diocese; Bishop Chubb, ''being'' a philosopher, is all too aware that, nowadays, a bishop isn't and cannot be.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is trying – to the point of undermining his health – to hold the C of E together, at least in his diocese.
--> "… the Bishop, at the height of the savage fight at the General Synod over women in the episcopate, had collapsed with a bleeding peptic ulcer and been given aid by Charles, there to thunder against the measure, and Canon Potecary (one of the main props and stays of the proposal)...."
* RitualsAndCeremonies: He and the Duke both have a weakness for these and an inner showman (okay, an inner [[Creator/CecilBDeMille Cecil B. DeMille]]) apiece; between them, they make Father Paddicks' installation as Rector the next thing to an episcopal enthronement, and, as Lady Crispin bitterly warned, all but turn Crispin's burial service into a State Funeral. Fr. Paddick, in both instances, managed to tone things down to some level of reverent sanity.
* SaintlyChurch: He'll make his one or die trying.
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: Despite the occasional condescension of {{Oxbridge}} men to a [[UsefulNotes/BritishUnis KCL / London]] man, he does in fact have Latin. And makes a point of ''not'' using it.
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: After reconciling with the Duke, this was the next step.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. (Mary) Chubb]]

!!Mary Chubb, wife to the Bishop:

Despite having been devastated by the death of their son, she Carries On: "an English gentlewoman, case-hardened steel in a twin-set and pearls: the sort of woman who, through every tragedy, is to be found implacably gardening, resolutely pouring out the Darjeeling, indefatigably having people to dinner." Manages tricky situations with ease and under the radar; without her, the Bishop would be a good deal more lost than he is.

->''"I leave the theology to Stephen."''
----
* CoolOldLady: In a very proper way.
* DeathByOriginStory: As for her husband. Their son's death very nearly destroyed her.
* EnglishRose: Was one, before age and stress transformed her into the ProperLady version of the GrannyClassic she now is.
* TheSocialExpert: And thus a great help to her husband.
* PrematurelyGreyHaired: Subverted. She's old enough to have gone a ''bit'' grey, but it's admitted that what she's been through hasn't exactly helped.
* ProperLady: As noted, "an English gentlewoman, case-hardened steel in a twin-set and pearls."
* TeamMom: Particularly to the clergy of the diocese. It helps that she ignores the issues dividing them:
--> "'I,' said the Bishop's wife, gently, 'leave the theology to Stephen. My own faith, such as it is, is very personal; devotional. I have really no opinion on these matters. All the same, I appreciate, with, I think, a special insight, the points on both sides."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Venerable Nigel Philips [=MA=] (Oxon) [=BTh=] (Westcott / Cantab), Archdeacon of Beechbourne]]

!!The Ven. Nigel Philips [=MA=] (Oxon) [=BTh=] (Westcott / Cantab), Archdeacon of Beechbourne ("Flops," to the Duke and other old schoolmates):

Languid, diplomatic ecclesiastical enforcer and fixer, ''ex officio'' – the Duke, his oldest and best enemy, thinks he ought to have been at the [=FCO=], selling out the country –; not unambitious, but far too discreet to let it show. As noted, was at school and university with the Duke: Hawtreys, Eton, and Oxford – he's a Keble man –; the Duke has not changed his assessment since: "Glib, facile, and mean with his tuck, was Flops...."

->''"Your Lordship is assured that there's no dissent...?"''
----
* DeadpanSnarker: The man went through his prepper, Eton, and Oxford holding his own against the Duke. And can yet.
* TheFace: The actual RealLife job of archdeacons is to be this … and TheLancer and enforcer.
* TheGoodChancellor: Although not in fact the chancellor of the diocese, which is another role entirely.
* HiddenDepths: He can be quite witty when he unbends. And, deeper and more hidden, his favorite film is … {{Patton}}.
** Among the few who know this InUniverse, it's a matter of speculation whether he sees himself as [[TheLancer Omar Bradley]] or as a MagnificentBastard.
* TheLancer: To Bishop Chubb, officially and temperamentally.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: He and the Duke have been the dearest of enemies for decades.
* NeverAcceptedInHisHometown: Well, not by the Duke or some other Old Etonians, who still regard him in a schoolboy light.
* RulesLawyer: It's a job requirement. Sometimes to the exasperation of bishop and clergy alike. But Canon Law is Canon Law, full stop, and bad things happen when it isn't followed.
* TheSheriff: AllAPartOfTheJob. Archdeacons are this to the clergy on behalf of the bishop.
* TheStarscream: Subverted. He is discreetly ambitious, and intends to be a bishop before he dies, and knows that doing his bets job and being self-effacing is the surest way to that. But he remains [[TheGoodChancellor both virtuous and loyal]].
* VitriolicBestBuds: With the Duke. For ''ages.''
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Very Rev'd Simon Blanchard [=BA (Dunelm) MA (Oxon) BTh (Chicester) MTh (Oxon) DD=] (Oxon), Dean of Wolfdown]]

!!The Very Rev'd Simon Blanchard [=BA (Dunelm) MA (Oxon) BTh (Chicester) MTh (Oxon) DD=] (Oxon), Dean Emeritus, Rural Dean (Dean of Wolfdown):

Cousin to the local surgeon Gilbert Blanchard; a stout, comfortable, formidable man, sometimes impatient – he was at Marlborough and then went up to Durham – of all the Eton-Harrow and Oxford-Cambridge matches being played out in the Deanery and the Diocese by other means. Reveres and worries about Noel. Was Dean of the Cathedral Chapter before retiring to his Rural Deanery, and knows all the dodges. Cut his teeth in the Downland parishes, for which he retains a special concern and for whom he will stick at very little. Wily as an old badger. Incumbent of S Edith Compton Malet joined with S Mary Magdalene Teaselbury St Mary.

->''"I apologise, but it's always a joy to see Your Lordship suddenly reminded of just how sharp the quillets of canon law can be."''
----
* BadassPreacher / WarriorMonk: Commonly with words. But he is physically imposing, with StoutStrength, and no one fails to yield to him (his being the previous Dean of the Cathedral Chapter helps, of course). In fact, he's all a good bit [[Myth/RobinHood Friar Tuck]].
* CunningLikeAFox: And Fr. Gascelyn Levett calls him out as such when the Dean drafts him into Holy Orders as a retirement gig after being a Fellow at Cambridge.
--> "'You're up to something, you cunning old clerk. Out with it.'"
* GuileHero: How he gets his way. For the good of the Church. Well, the Diocese. Well, the parishes he's specially fond of. (The Woolfonts and the Downland parishes, even as against the others in his deanery, are very much his old {{Protectorate}}. So also is Noel Paddick, personally.)
* MentorArchetype: The Archdeacon and Canon Potecary both served their titles under him, and he is gently disinclined to allow them to forget it.
--> "Dean Blanchard, obviously, yet retained an ascendancy over the Archdeacon from the Cliff Ambries days, and the Archdeacon remained sentimental about those parishes which had very much been the Dean's downland fief when he'd been young. And the current Dean and Chapter simply accepted as a fact of life that, throughout the Diocese and specially in the Wolfdown Deanery, there was a sort of 'mafia' of clergy who'd done stints at S Aldhelm Woolhead S Aldhelm and at S Michael & All Angels Sutton Whitfield, or both: a mafia which notably included the Archdeacon and Canon Potecary: and one simply had no choice but to wear the fact with such Grace as one were given."
* {{Oxbridge}}: Averted in that he's a Durham man, although his higher degrees are from Keble and St Stephen's House Oxford ("Staggers"). He yawns over Oxford-Cambridge matches and the Boat Race.
* RulesLawyer: To match the Archdeacon. [[MyRuleFuIsStrongerThanYours His rule-fu is stronger.]]
* SeriousBusiness: He's the one who will always lampshade, even to the Bishop, that, to nine-tenths even of their own nominal parishioners, all these church crises are utterly meaningless.
--> '''To the Bishop and the Archdeacon:''' "Young Mr Mirza at the school is not the only member of a religious minority in this district: we are as well, all of us. We may be the national and Established Church, and our nominal rolls, extensive: but they are ''nominal''. To the average man and woman, all these upsets and quarrels are an inexplicable and incomprehensible wrangle amongst a few odds and sods with an eccentric ''hobby''. It impinges upon the common mind to the same extent as an argument between factions in the British Bee Farmers' Association – indeed, rather less so, as this is, after all, an agricultural district."
* TurbulentPriest: When necessary.
--> "Dean Blanchard, however, was not capable of being daunted. He was one of the bulldog breed."
[[/folder]]

[[folder: The Rev'd Canon Judith Potecary [=BS=] Hons (Theology & Sociology) (Brist) [=BTh (Ridley / Cantab) MA=] (Pastoral Theology) (Cantab Theol Fdn / Ang Rus), Team Rector of Beechbourne, Chickmarsh, & the Woolheads]]

!!The Rev'd Canon Judith Potecary [=BS=] Hons (Theology & Sociology) (Brist) [=BTh (Ridley / Cantab) MA=] (Pastoral Theology) (Cantab Theol Fdn / Ang Rus), Team Rector, Beechbourne:

Stout, staunch Rector of the Combined Benefice of Beechbourne, Chickmarsh, & the Woolheads. The Duke went ballistic when, briefly and improperly, ''his'' livings were folded in to that benefice. [[ChastityCouple Canonically chaste civil partner]] of local psychiatrist Cicely Pinnell-Cundick. Intends to be a bishop sooner or later. Has Uncompromising, Right-On Views; loves Noel, with some exasperation, anyway.

-> "'I need your approval like a fish needs a chasuble.'"[[note]]... to which Noel lovingly and smilingly pointed out that she ''had'' loaves and fishes embroidered on her Ordinary Time chasuble....[[/note]]
----
* AmbitionIsEvil: Subverted. Her desire to be a woman bishop now that these are permitted in the C of E, like her having taken Orders to begin with, is not presented as evil; but she confronts, with a little [[NotInThisForYourRevolution helpful advicefrom Cicely (who isn't keen to move somewhere else where there's a bishopric open – let alone to move OopNorth)]], the fact that her reasons for wanting to be part of the first wave were Not Unmixed and not purely [[UsefulNotes/Feminism feminist]] and churchly.
* ChastityCouple: Presumably. InUniverse, the dying Father Pryor notes that if she and Cicely ''weren't'' one themselves, she'd have been honest enough to say so before raising the issue in front of her bishop and the Archdeacon. On the other hand, she worries for Noel in a way that suggests she knows how hard the choice is and how likely it is to fail....
* EarthMother: As part of a [[FatAndSkinny stout and pugnacious to elegant and snarky]] duo with Cicely, though she's not a mother and not really even HollywoodPudgy, really. She ''is'' earthy....
* GoodShepherd: In her own combative way, very much so.
* LipstickLesbian: Subverted in that she and Cicely are (a) in a canonically chaste civil partnership as required by the canons of the C of E and (b) are neither one particularly or notably femme, high femme, butch, or what have you. They are simply two women in a same-sex partnership.
* NatureLover / OutdoorsyGal: Averted and lampshaded. Cicely accuses her of having a passion for frowst and an aversion to fresh air, let alone countryside. (Her present benefice, a town living in part, seems to suit her better than the Woolfonts did.)
* {{Oxbridge}}: Was up at Bristol. Certain {{Oxbridge}} sorts make a meal of the fact.
* SarcasticDevotee: To Noel, to the Church, even to the Duke (cue SnarkToSnarkCombat in three, two, one...). In her first scene with Noel, she ''and'' the Archdeacon get to snark lovingly at him:
--> '''When the Archdeacon introduced her to the newly-installed Noel, after he'd punched out a footballer who was groping the Hon. Gwen:''' "Say what one liked about Judith Potecary – and the duke did – no one denied that she had a fine singing voice and a wicked sense of humour. She demonstrated both on the Sunday, at the Rectory, after service, when, as Noel greeted her, the Archdeacon, and the Rural Dean, she grinned at him and began singing [[Film/Rocky 'Gonna Fly Now']].\\
"He blushed and ducked his head. \\
"'My dear Noel,' said the Archdeacon, '"Muscular Christianity" is all very well, but…..'\\
"'Nigel,' said the Rural Dean, warningly. It is not commonly given to a Rural Dean to correct an Archdeacon, but when the former is the senior man, is the late Dean of the Cathedral, and is known twice to have turned down elevation to the See, it can happen: as it was happening just then."
* StrawFeminist: Averted good and hard. She gets some great lines and makes (indefatigably) a consistent and compelling argument.
--> "I accept his right to his view, and no one can say I don't appreciate the points he makes. But the C of E ''has'' voted long since to ordain women, and, now, to raise us to the episcopate. I accept as valid ''his'' orders, and I don't claim Dean Blanchard or the Archdeacon haven't a right to their cloth; surely I and the other women ordained in the Church might expect to have the same right in return. […] If a woman's a priest, she's a priest; if a bishop, she's a bishop, full stop, and that's the end of it. They needn't ''like'' it, but why ought ''they'' to have the choice – ''we'' never had – whether or not to lump it?"
* VitriolicBestBuds: With Dr. Emily Witchard the local GP.
* WorthyOpponent: To Noel, in a white-on-white clash of opinions about every imaginable issue in the C of E today, and with love and respect on both sides. She is aware that if she could ''convince'' him by actual argument, she'd have no greater supporter of women's ordination and consecration, and says as much.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Cicely Pinnell-Cundick, psychiatrist, civil partner to Canon Potecary]]

!!Cicely Pinnell-Cundick, psychiatrist, Beechbourne:

[[ChastityCouple Canonically chaste civil partner]] of local Canon Judith Potecary. Elegant, soignée, sardonic, and very, very shrewd.

->''Cicely smiled: a cat's smile, sleek and arch."

----
* BrainyBrunette: And a damned handsome woman, too, by Jove.
* ChastityCouple: With [[PairTheSmartOnes Judith]].
* TheClan: Related to Judge Cundick and Tony Macey the solicitor.
* DeadpanSnarker: As part of a [[FatAndSkinny stout and pugnacious to elegant and snarky]] duo with [[EarthMother Judith]].
* SarcasticDevotee: To all those she likes. From Duke to Judith.
* TheShrink: Well, yes. Of the awesome variety.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Rev'd John Birdwell [=BA=] Hons (Theology) (Exon) [=BTh=] (Ministry) (Westcott / Cantab), Team Vicar of Beechbourne, Chickmarsh, & the Woolheads]]

!!The Rev'd "Jock" Birdwell [=BA=] Hons (Theology) (Exon) [=BTh=] (Ministry) (Westcott / Cantab), Team Vicar, Beechbourne:

Canon Potecary's diligent Team Vicar in Beechbourne, Chickmarsh, & the Woolheads.

-> "At the Beechbourne care home, Fr Campion, just departing the room of old Bert Carpenter, who was 'not so well today, but never mind that, Padre, what's going on in Parva, eh, and how are my roses doing', waved at Canon Judiths' Team Vicar and all-'round Number Two, Jock Birdwell, doing his round amongst the contingent of ''his'' joint benefice."
----
* TheClan: There are a lot of local Birdwells, including young Hal at the Free School.
* GoodShepherd: Jock Birdwell isn't hugely interested in theological disputation: he's all about ''minstry''.
* NatureLover: Averted and lampshaded. Cicely lumps him in with Canon Potecary as having no liking for fresh air.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Very Rev'd Alexandra Herridge, Dean of the Cathedral Chapter]]

!!The Very Rev'd Alexandra Herridge, Dean of the Cathedral Chapter, Cathedral Dean:

Dean of the Cathedral Chapter, opinionated, clever, and dedicated.

-> "Dean Alexandra Herridge, sped there in haste from the Chapter, looked as always alert and vulpine."
----
* TheClan: Cousin to one of the Spinsters of Cliff Ambries, and plenty of other Herridges.
* CunningLikeAFox: Predatory, alert, and vulpine, you may recall.
* FieryRedhead: By clerical standards, certainly.
* TheGoodChancellor: In effect, though not the chancellor of the Diocese (that's Judge Cundick: it ''is'' a legal post).
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: There's not much she won't countenance for the greater good of the Church. As she defines it. All the same, she's firmly on the side of righteousness.
* WorthyOpponent: To the Duke and vice-versa.
--> "'Quite clever – yes, obviously, he is; and quite a good idea, too, which is not always the case. Can't bear the little man, but.... He might, actually, make a decent lay canon.' \\
"The Bishop slewed 'round and stared at her in utter shock – not, thought the Archdeacon, altogether unmixed with horror."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Rev'd Canon George Maidment, Diocesan Press Officer, Diocese of Salisbury]]

!!The Rev'd Canon George Maidment, Diocesan Press Officer:

Ex-''Independent'' [[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers journalist]]. Finds Noel Paddick his best if most wearisome job security. Not amused by the InUniverse fandom that's grown up around the Woolfonts. Almost as cunning and sinuous as the Duke. A rather less sweary [[Main/TheThickOfIt Malcolm Tucker]].

->''Canon Maidment, seated cunningly behind the lawyers, smirked.''
----
* CunningLikeAFox: Fleet Street will do that to a man … who survives.
* TheCynic: Fleet Street will do ''that'' to a man, too. He also regards saintly clergy like Noel as being far more likely to cause crises for him than the more humanly-frail types.
* DaEditor: Poacher turned gamekeeper version: he is this to the diocesan communications staff, right down to having their backs.
* SeenItAll: And reported most of it. Knows all the dodges.
* WorthyOpponent: Regards the Duke as such. Detests all he represents (ex-''Independent'' journalist, remember?) but cynically admires his ManipulativeBastard qualities.
[[/folder]]

!!The Combined Benefice (The Woolfonts, Somerfords, & Harstbournes)

-> "Anglo-Catholic the clergy of the combined benefice might be, but they doled out Muscular Christianity as wanted, full measure, pressed down, and running over."

[[folder:The Rev'd Paul Campion [=MA (Oxon) MA (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff) SSC=], Curate, the Woolfonts and Downland parishes]]

!!The Rev'd Paul Campion [=MA (Oxon) MA (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff) SSC=] Curate with special responsibility for the Woolfonts:

Brother to Dr Tim Campion the organist and choir director, and at once the youngest and most senior in service of Noel's curates. Hearty, sporty, rugger-bugger (in fact, he won his Blue at Oxford for just that) called mysteriously to the cure of souls, and resembling a young Jonny Wilkinson in vestments. Equally happy celebrating Mass or banging away at the piano and leading a sing-along down [[MyLocal the Boar]]. Happier yet taking the Church Lads for a match. A gentle giant: but don't be fooled by that....

->''"I'll do better than that. ''I'll'' shout-in the first round down the Boar, after Evensong. You'll be in want of it."''
----
* AcademicAthlete: He didn't get a mere pass degree at Keble, you know.
* BadassBaritone: To his Rector's heroic tenor. It keeps the service music interesting when they take alternate services.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Applies with extra force to him and his parish colleagues.
--> "There were fools – mostly but not exclusively idle, drunken men and fathers, though occasionally slatternly women as well – who thought that clergymen – and, forgetting the hard lesson of the money-changers in the Temple, their Master – were 'gentle, meek, and mild'; who had not considered that a good shepherd is just that precisely because he protects his flock from predation and smites predators; who regarded, with some national justification which simply did not apply in these parishes, the C of E especially as spineless and happy-clappy; and who mistook 'good' for 'weak'. \\
"Unfortunately – for fools – the Rev'd Canon Noel Paddick had boxed and rowed, though not for his college (being too busy with his studies), at Oxford, and could probably bench-press the duke's prize Gloucester bull; Fr Paul Campion, as a cursory glance ought to have revealed to the most casual observer, had won his Blue, and not so very long since at that, playing [[RugbyIsSlaughter murderous rugger]] for Keble and for Oxford; and the eldest of the three currently resident clergy in the benefice, Fr Gilbert Bohun, all ascetic whipcord, was, formally and in full, the Rev'd Sir Gilbert Bohun Bt MC, late Major, the Blues and Royals: and Fr Bohun took a decidedly military and officer-like approach to difficulties which required the intervention of the Church Militant. As an army. With banners."
* FriendToAllChildren: And they love him right back. Even when he takes them for sport (the Church Lads' and Church Girls' Brigade is very popular in the Woolfonts; trains [[IncrediblyLamePun religiously]]; and could quite likely draw with Wales, if not the All Blacks, under his tutelage).
* GentleGiant: The Reverend Rugger-Bugger.
* GoodShepherd: Prevents {{BarBrawl}}s by his mere presence, then calms everyone down by starting a sing-along. Endlessly patient; endlessly insistent on reproving sin and requiring repentance. Diligent at all hours, and tirelessly cheerful.
* LargeAndInCharge: Zigzagged. He is cheerfully obedient to ecclesiastical superiors (and reveres his Rector), despite being as large as any and larger than most. He expects of parishioners no deference to his personal authority and complete deference to his cloth, his spiritual authority. (And does so cheerfully and charmingly. And ''gets'' the deference.)
* LovableJock: In the American sense of "jock": he's not Scots. Comes of being a rugger-mad GentleGiant.
* RealMenLoveJesus: The serious practice of Christianity is in his view like growing older: it's not for wimps. (His and Fr. Paddick's old mentor, Fr. Pryor, ''was'' prone to quoting Paul on the armour of faith, fighting the good fight, finishing the course, tackling wild beasts at Ephesus, and the like....)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Rev'd Sir Gilbert Bohun [=Bt MC MiD MA (Oxon) MA (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff) SSC CBS CMP ACS=], late Major the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons), Curate, the Woolfonts and Downland parishes]]

!!The Rev'd Sir Gilbert Bohun [=Bt MC MiD MA (Oxon) MA (Liturgy) (Coll Resurrection Mirfield / Sheff) SSC CBS CMP ACS=], late Major the Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1st Dragoons), Curate with special responsibility for the Downlands ("Gib" and "Gibbon" to old Army sorts, the Duke included):

Gaunt, ascetic, and not at all cheerless or forbidding; called to Orders late in life, and still a trifle the [[MajorlyAwesome major]] in mufti … clerical mufti. Was one of Michael Nazir-Ali's last ordinations. A widower, who had chosen to live in poverty and minister without stipend to the poorest communities, he was called in to assist as a supply clergyman during Noel's illness. Seeing the want in the Downland parishes, has been persuaded to return as Noel's second curate, with special responsibilities in the newly joined benefices. While acting as a Home Missionary to the poor in London, [[spoiler: became a widower when his wife was killed in the [=7/7=] terror attacks]].

->'''To, of course, Edmond:''' "That I speak to you of things that don't seem to you "churchy" and priestly does not change that: it merely suggests you're not as familiar with priests, or the C of E, as you might be, or might think yourself to be."
----
* BlueBlood: Even by Household Cavalry officer standards. He's a baronet, which is ''not'' particularly blue-blooded, but the point is that he's a Bohun: pegging level with de Cliffordes, Clares, Malets, Mortimers, Percys, Lacys, and indeed Plantagenets.
* CavalryOfficer: Subverted. He ''was'' previously a [[MajorlyAwesome major]] in the Blues and Royals. What he is now is a humble parish priest. One with whom it is wisest not to trifle.
* GoodShepherd: And God help you if you're a wolf.
--> "It had wanted less than five days for him to sort Black Jack Biddiscombe, the most reprobated and drunken domestic tyrant and all-'round bad hat in the Downland parishes. Black Jack Biddiscombe had been a bad bargain, but he ''had'' in his time been a squaddie, if in and out of close tack and once at least in the glasshouse. Fr Bohun had descended upon him in wrath when Mrs Biddiscombe had been spotted bruised and bereft and half-mad with worry over the household funds (which Black Jack had invested … at a Shaftesbury off-licence); and had done so not at all as Fr Bohun SSC but wholly as Major Sir Gilbert Bohun MC, in tones which should have caused envy in an RSM and led any regimental defaulter on the mat of old, to quail. \\
"Jack Biddiscombe – 'Pi-Jaw Jack' as he was now known – was nowadays working as a cowman in Stoke Yarncombe, attending AA religiously, and well on his way – the Biddiscombes were rather Chapel than Church, which had not mattered a damn to Fr Bohun – to becoming, as he was to become in after years, a lay preacher in the Vale."
* LeanAndMean: Averted – and how. He's a friendly, all-loving[[note]] … but sin-reproving[[/note]] ascetic.
* MajorlyAwesome: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Retired or not.
* RespectedByTheRespected: The rest of the clergy (from the Bishop down) are awed by him; Edmond actually ''listens'' to him; he and the Duke talk frankly on Bohun-to-Fitzjames-Holles-Clare-Malet and [[MajorlyAwesome decorated-officer-to-decorated-officer]] terms; and the retired ''[[UsefulNotes/NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]]'' think he had a damned good war record and might even have made an acceptable officer to ''them''. (No, seriously, Do Not … [[NarrativeProfanityFilter Mess About]] … With This Guy. Just, ''don't''.)
* RetiredBadass: For certain values of "retired." The man won the Military Cross. That doesn't come up with the rations.
* SeriousBusiness: The other cleric who will point out that, to most people even in their own parishes, most of what's at stake in C of E infighting, seems to them utterly meaningless:
--> '''To Edmond:''' "As Dean Blanchard wisely says, we are, nowadays, a fringe, a minority of anoraks with an odd hobby looked on with indulgent contempt by most of the country: ecclesiastical trainspotters. [snip] … the clergy, like the gentry as a whole and the peerage and the professional classes, are objects of public interest not for their position or their views, but as players in the village dramatics, which are always amateur. The struggles and spiritual warfare involved do not impinge upon the public consciousness: there are Test matches and weeding and pop music acts and the weekly shop, farming troubles and politics – and the lottery and the pools – and Premier League transfers to worry about instead."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The Rev'd Prof. Henry Gascelyn Levett [=MA (Cantab) MSt (Cantab) PhD (Cantab) FRSA FRHistS RIBA=], Fellow of Clare College (Cantab), Curate, the Woolfonts and Downland parishes]]

!!The Rev'd Prof. Henry Gascelyn Levett [=MA (Cantab) MSt (Cantab) PhD (Cantab) FRSA FRHistS RIBA=], Fellow of Clare College (Cantab), Curate with special responsibility for the Downlands:

Comfortably sedentary Cambridge don, and the greatest living authority on ecclesiastical architecture and restoration. Snookered, on the eve of academic retirement, by (of course) Dean Blanchard, into taking Orders (which any {{Oxbridge}} don is allowed to do, under Canon C 5 of the C of E, pretty much on demand), so as to come to the Downland parishes, oversee their restoration, and act as Noel's third curate. Distantly related to that old [[TheGrandHunt foxhunting squire]] Gerald Warmestre [=MFH=], whose great-grandmother was "a Levett of what might be called the Quorn branch." Welcomes bad weather because it means staying by a warm fire with tea and muffins.

->''"You're up to something, you cunning old clerk. Out with it."''
----
* BigEater: He's a NonActionGuy and hearty trencherman who's spent his life scoffing everything the buttery can send up and [[GeniusSweetTooth eating cakes in the Fellows' Garden]]. And you'd still be wise not to underestimate him.
* CoolOldGuy: Very.
* GoodShepherd: He may have been conned into this vocation, but he'll bring to it every talent he's honed over many decades at Cambridge. Even unto giving up his donnish BrilliantButLazy lifestyle.
* TheProfessor: Subverted. He's the sort of don [[TruthInTelevision they really do have]] at {{Oxbridge}}, not at all [[AbsentMindedProfessor vague and befuddled]] or a TVGenius or any of that sort of rubbish.
* [[TeamDad Team Grandpa]]: In the Combined Benefice. The newbie in terms of taking Orders, but by far the senior man, and, as a retired Cambridge don, knows everything about people's follies from years of dealing with undergraduates, the [=SCR=], Masters, bedders, Vice-Chancellors, and, especially, the porters.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The late the Rev'd Giles Wyndham, Team Rector]]

!!The late the Rev'd Giles Wyndham, Noel's predecessor in the Woolfonts:

Tiny little man, known to generations of schoolchildren as "Friar (or Father) Puck;" his wife was an Antrobus from Teddy's own Cheshire. A kindly soul, with an authority five times his stature, and great friends with the Duke, whom he restrained when he might.

->''"Now, Charles...."''
----
* FriendToAllChildren: And vice-versa. Mind you, they were of a height....
* FunSize: A wee man loved by all.
* GoodShepherd: Well, David was smaller than Goliath, and what was David's first job? Exactly.
* PurityPersonified: Why even the Duke waited until Fr. Wyndham had died in harness to demand ''his'' parishes back, splitting them off from Beechbourne once more.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Even the Duke listened to him.
* RespectedByTheRespected: Once more with feeling: even the Duke gave way to his moral authority.
* TinyGuyHugeGirl: He and Mrs. Wyndham.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The late the Rev'd Matthew Pryor [=MA (Oxon) SSC QHC=], S Peter's Wolverhampton]]

!!The late the Rev'd Matthew Pryor [=MA (Oxon) SSC QHC=], Noel's mentor ("Googly," in his cricketing days):

Shrewd Old Harrovian cricketer who once faced the Duke-to-be (and the Nawab) in a Schools Match at Lord's; afterward, a priest in Wolverhampton, where he discovered Noel's voice, made a chorister of him, and set him on the path towards the priesthood. '''(His being Noel's mentor is why he appears in ''this'' part of the list.)''' Similarly influential in shaping Tim Campion the organist and the Rev'd Paul Campion [=SSC. Ended up QHC=], an Honorary Chaplain to Her Majesty. Died of cancer halfway through ''Literature/CrossAndPoppy''. [[NamesTheSame No relation to the England cricketer of the same name]]: an InUniverse and lampshaded RunningGag.

->"'''Laus Deo!'' Peace to you, my dear boy."
----
* AlmostFamousName / NamedLikeMyName / NamesTheSame: Shares a name with a (younger) England cricketer, and was himself a noted cricketer at Harrow. As he ''is'' the elder, it's not a case of NamedAfterSomebodyFamous; it's a case of "[[Film/BlazingSaddles It's Hedley!]] [[{{Cricket}}[AC:Headingley]!]]"
* CoolOldGuy: Even, or especially, when dying by inches.
* FriendToAllChildren: He was Noel's first friend when Noel was an IllChild and Fr. Pryor was doing the hospital visitations. And Noel wasn't a one-off in terms of shepherding the tinies to God.
* GoodShepherd: Not least in forming vocations.
--> '''Bishop Chubb, speaking to Fr. Pryor at Noel's installation as Rector:''' "Bishop Chubb, recessing from the church, did not scruple to take Fr Pryor by the elbow and whisper, 'You've served Our Lord well, Matthew, but that young man's the best work you ever did.' \\
"Fr Pryor simply smiled. He knew that perfectly well."
* GrowOldWithMe: He and his wife [[CoolOldLady Elizabeth]]. Theirs was an ageless romance until, as the Marriage Service puts it, death them departed.
* LikeASonToMe: Noel and Pauline were their children in all but blood.
* MentorArchetype:
* RespectedByTheRespected: He and the Duke have respected one another since a thrilling over at Lord's in the School Match of '78, Matt Pryor being Harrow's demon bowler and Charles Templecombe, as he then was, batting Eton out of a looming disaster. And Fr. Pryor ''was'' an honorary chaplain to Her Majesty, after all. And when he died … never mind Old Harrovians, old cricket blues, the Duke, his ducal cousin the Duke of Trowbridge, the Nawab,[[note]]the future Kit Trowbridge, captaining Eton, had sent on the Duke-to-be and the Nawab-to-be to bat against the future Fr. Pryor in that match[[/note]] and the entire City of Wolverhampton: the whole West Midlands showed up to the funeral and couldn't all fit into the church. The man had the next thing to a HundredPercentAdorationRating.
--> "The funeral, then. Mayors and Deputy Lieutenants, bishops, the Lord Lieutenant escorting a Royal Duchess; [=MPs=]; peers and prelates beside pupils from the school; the Mercians on parade and their bandsmen supplementing the choir and organ; publicans and directors and chairmen and charwomen; representatives of other faiths, and the faithless and unchurched who yet recognised a communal loss; gentlemen and players, aging Blues, MCC members, men capped for England; organisations without number or counting; the great and the good outnumbered by the poor and humble who had loved Fr Pryor."
* SilverFox: Went grey [[YoungerThanTheyLook early]]; all it did was make him look like an 18th Century buck with powdered hair.
* SoProudOfYou: Of Noel, Paul Campion, and indeed Tim Campion.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mrs. Matthew Pryor (Elizabeth), S Peter's Wolverhampton]]

!!Elizabeth, Father Pryor's widow:

A great lady called to humble service.

-> "It's as well to be busy; and everyone is being so very kind and helpful."
----
* CoolOldLady: Always. Even in a crisis.
--> "Matthew was, thank God, more priest than public school boy, but the OE manner does seem even more tiresome than the OH, really. Now, Noel, dear.' She raised her hand toward someone in the crush behind Noel. 'Matthew left you his library and some other things.' \\
"'Specifically,' said Tim Campion the organist, coming up behind them,'' 'me.' \\
''"'Timothy, Matthew didn't precisely bequeath you like a ''slave''.' Noel had the inconsequent thought that in an earlier century, which she'd have adorned superbly, Elizabeth should have tapped Campion with a fan."
* ProperLady: Of the most classical type.
* SilverFox: It's a [[Cool Crown crown]] of dignity.
* StiffUpperLip: Everyone's been so very kind, but, really, she'll be quite all right, though it's very kind of you to enquire. And, no, of course she'll not move down to the Woolfonts, though it's very good of the Duke to offer; Wolverhampton is her home, and her friends are here....
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The late Mrs. Noel Paddick (Pauline, née Stamford)]]

!!Pauline, Fr. Paddick's late wife:

Pretty, witty, clever, devoted to Noel, and gone far too soon. She died in the last months of her first pregnancy, and the daughter they'd have had with her. But from the moment they met, and never mind the minor interruption of death, she made Noel what he is, and yet does so.

-> "It had been his rare integration of cool head and hot heart that she had seen at once, and immediately loved, and set herself to gain, to win and to hold and forever to love. As she had done, until she had died, death them departing."
----
* DeathByChildbirth: Subverted, in that it was in late pregnancy.
* TheLostLenore: Absolutely. Loving her and losing her have between made Noel the man and the priest he is today.
* LoveAtFirstSight: On both sides.
* MixedRace: And no one said a disparaging word, either.
--> "Her mum was of a family mostly English now, but which had rooted itself in Wolvo when an Irish navvy had come over in search of work, and which had picked up a dash of Romanichal blood in the next generation after. Her father was partly Afro-Caribbean by descent, and accordingly racially-mixed. This collision of genes had left her the prettiest girl in school, all curls and caramel: the prettiest, indeed, Noel had ever seen. \\
"But it had been the beauty of her soul that had opened his eyes to her, when she, the prettiest and most likeable of the girls in their year, had approached him – ''him:'' he still couldn't quite credit it – the shy and quiet lad from Bilston, and first made friends with him before ever romance and desire came into the picture. They were friends, first and foremost – and always, to the last day."
** It's lampshaded that she knew, though Noel was too naive to know, that this fact in itself assuaged some right-on resistance to his becoming and being a theologically conservative Anglo-Catholic clergyman.
* TheSocialExpert: Smoothed Noel's way many a time (as a former IllChild, he had uncertainties and had to work for his social skills); and everyone adored her.
--> "She'd made a bishop, an archdeacon, a dean, and the rector, collapse in joyous and congratulatory laughter when she'd come to him, there on the lawn at a fête, with her phone in hand, and told him he'd best look out a stable with a comfy manger, because the doctors'd just rung to confirm that they were going to have a Christmas child. (Noel thought – hoped – they'd laughed, his superiors, only in joy with them, and not because he'd fainted dead away. Pauline had always sworn, with a worrying twinkle in her eye, that they'd not laughed at him for that. She'd always refused, grinning, to say whether ''she'' had done.)"
* SpiritedYoungLady: And never mind class considerations. (Although her family were perhaps a shade higher up the scale than Noel's, as between members alike of the respectable working- and small-tradesman classes). She was always a lady and treated as such.
[[/folder]]

!!The Parish Staff in the Woolfonts

Because priests want supporting. Organists, wardens, secretary, sidesmen, sextons, and the Parochial Church Council. (Some of these, having other primary roles – e.g., the Duke, patron of the livings and churchwarden – listed elsewhere.)

Those not yet meriting full entries include Margaret Jesse and Robert Portnall of the Joint PCC, who put out the parish magazine; the choir directors at Crucis and Magna, Rob Goodfellow and Alice Street; Mrs. Hart-Macey, one of the Magna churchwardens; and the ringers not otherwise given entries in other capacities: George Cull, garage proprietor; Will Short, chemist; Bert Baker, manager of the farm equipment dealers'; and bank manager Frank Targett.

->"Noel let them thunder and wonder. He had a church administrator to hire (mornings, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday: the Old Rectory at Crucis served admirably as a central office), servers and readers to work upon, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Brownies and Guides to speak with, accounts to go over, flowers to indent for, parish breakfasts to arrange, a sexton to boot up the backside, a sermon to write…."

[[folder:Rose James, Housekeeper, the Rectory]]

!!(Mrs.) Rose James, housekeeper to the Rector:

Wolfdown-trained, motherly, and [[KindlyHousekeeper kindly]] housekeeper imposed upon the humble Rector by the Duke – and immediately found indispensable.

->"Rose James, housekeeper to the Rector, a motherly wee body and a dab hand in the kitchen, had taken on this job – which she treated as a vocation – upon retirement from the duke's service; and she brought to the Rectory – itself nobly Georgian and wholly gentlemanly – a sense of fitness, and of what was fitting, which she had learnt in a great household. That great household having been the duke's, there was no snobbery in it, nor any servility; and as she opened the door and ushered Sher Mirza in, she wasted not a moment in proceeding at once to maternal chiding.''

----
* BestFriend: To the Wolfdown Cook, Mrs. Woolley – although on a LastNameBasis ''with'' honorifics – and to Mrs. Viney the ducal Housekeeper (ditto).
* KindlyHousekeeper: A "wren-like widow now and a motherly little body all her days," she exults in being able to mother Noel (and Sher when he stops for two meals in three), even after their ctual mums come to live in the Woolfonts.
* LastNameBasis: Subverted. Although housekeepers are always "Mrs." Rose James, being retired from ducal service, is always simply Rose James unless being directly addressed ''ex officio''.
* MatronChaperone: Subverted and played with. Her presence as a protection against scandal and gossip (and, as speculated by several characters InUniverse, possibly their own [[ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt giving way]]) is invaluable in allowing Sher and Noel to take breakfasts and dinners and tea together as a ChastityCouple who remain chaste ''and are known to remain so.''
* OldRetainer: She was Wolfdown-trained, after all.
* SupremeChef: Teddy keeps trying to wheedle the secret of her liver and bacon out of her.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Gregory Snook, Sexton, the Woolfonts parishes]]

!!Gregory Snook, Sexton:

[[CrustyCaretaker Sexton]] [[spoiler: until late in ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'']] of the most useless, snarling, beer-soaked, ill-tempered, slovenly, and lead-swinging sort. Not even his niece Betty, the jobbing gardener, can put up with him. Regularly barred from every pub in the District. Got and kept his job [[spoiler: as long as he did keep it]] only because he'd served in [[UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar Korea]], as had the previous Duke, though had the old Brigadier ever ''commanded'' Snook, he'd have had him before a court-martial in five minutes.

->''He were for the Boar, he were, and something better than tea and bread and cheese; and wouldn't he just tell them down the Boar of his rights and the wrongs as was done him!''
----
* ChildHater: The ''next'' to last straw for Father Paddick.
--> "The Rector didn't at all like having Snook on the mat, or enjoy delivering a rocket; he was equally indisposed to evading his plain duty.\\
"'Children can be very vexing, I agree: because, as children, they are literally rather thoughtless: they don't think what they're doing. All the same, and particularly as sexton, you mustn't shout at them, let alone wave a threatening scythe. It's morally wrong; it brings discredit upon the Church; it is the sort of thing you're fortunate to have me to deal with regarding, rather than Sergeant Alice and the constables. And the churchyard is the ''churchyard:'' one of the precincts of Heaven. Remember, please, what Our Lord said: "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven" – Matthew, the Nineteenth Chapter, the fourteenth verse.' \\
"Snook muttered a half-apology and an extremely unlikely promise of amendment, and skulked, sulking, out."
* TheClan: His niece – daughter of his youngest brother, and, generationally, more like a granddaughter in age, is the jobbing gardener Betty Snook, who is everything he isn't. And there are plenty more Snooks in the parish churchyard, and have been since the start of surnames.
* CrustyCaretaker: At best, and a very unpleasant version, too.
* DeathByRacism: Subverted (so far). He ''is'' sacked, and then pensioned off when – well, ''see'' OOCIsSeriousBusiness, below. He's in the care home now.
* LastNameBasis: Without the honorific.
* LazyBum: Utterly.
--> '''The Rector, giving him his [[KirkSummation last warning]]:''' "'One does not like to let an old servant go, Snook, however useless he be – or have always been. One does not like to – I speak frankly here only out of duty, and much against my inclination – give over a, to be quite frank, charity case occupying a sinecure.'"
* MisplacedRetribution: Before his collapse but after his sacking, he tries to sue the Rector under the employment laws. And actually imagines that what he's doing is a WhosLaughingNow scenario. Worse yet, his AmoralAttorney decides to spice it up with a theory that he was fired because Snook knew something scandalous about Noel and Sher.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: He's a nasty piece of work, and it finally gets him fired / sacked (and slapped by his niece for the same underlying cause). But when he starts ranting about Sher and the Rector and becomes overtly racist, Dr. Witchard insists he be taken to (the) hospital before Sergeant Fay charges him; and in fact it ''is'' a symptom of organic illness speeding the ''overt'' onset of senile dementia.
--> '''Dr. Emily Witchard to Police Sergeant Alice Fay:''' "'My point is this, that, in my medical judgement, there is suspicion of organic trouble here which should mean he is not responsible.'"
* [[RacistGrandpa RacistGrandma]]: Subverted in that he becomes an explicit racist due to a swift slide into senility. It's not played for comedy, either, either way.
* TheResenter: He hates Lord Crispin. Which, fine, so does Lady Crispin, but Snook wishes him dead to his face in front of the Rector and two churchwardens. Which terminates his employment. Which leads him to blame and resent the Rector....
* WeirderThanUsual: The village ought probably to have become suspicious earlier than they did. But Snook's just so ghastly at his best....
--> "All the same, Trulock the [[KindlyVet Vet]], passing by Crucis churchyard on his way back from a call to an outlying farm, was at once amused and contemptuous to see Old Snook addressing, with evident outrage and, surely, a deal of profane swearing, an old headstone.\\
"'Probably broke a tool on it,' said he to himself; 'although that'd be a fine thing, Snook actually doing a hand's turn of work.' And he put the matter from his mind, it being occupied with ovine medicine, from obstetrics to prophylaxes against foot-rot, just then, and engaged in the precise opposite of wool-gathering."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Robert Timmins, parish sidesman, gardening curator, and cousin to the Rector]]

!!Robert Timmins ("Bob" to all):

Cousin to the Rector; brought down from Wolvo by the Duke to act as curator of the Bert and Betty Carpenter Memorial Gardens and cottage museum, and drafted in to act as acting sexton by making him a sidesman, putting him on a committee to look after the fabric, and making the committee to understand that there was no hurry in getting a new sexton.

->''... Bob Timmins took on all the duties of a sexton without anyone's remarking it, in increments ('the British Constitution in action,' as had the Nawab murmured, quite dryly, to His Grace; 'or the acquisition of your former Empire'), whilst the subcommittee very deliberately considered the position. It might – with luck – take years.''
----
* CrustyCaretaker: Averted and stood on its head. He's a dear.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Who's "Robert?"
* PerpetualSmiler: A relentlessly cheerful man. (Oh, the contrast to Snook....)
* WorkingClassHero: Botany degree? Bletherin', all bletherin'. ''Now, ''here's'' how you do grow a rose, cocker, me old gran taught me ''that'' when Ah were a babby....'' (The Duke didn't have the Joint PCC hire Bob as sexton directly only because the middle classes, unlike the Duke, would faint at the thought that the mere sexton was the (''ex officio" gentleman) Rector's cousin. It's a [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion class thing]].)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Elizabeth Snook, jobbing gardening, and gardener to the Rector]]

!!Elizabeth Snook (although it's always "Betty," love):

Cheery if somewhat punk gardening expert, and long-suffering niece to the appalling Snook.

-> "… the sensible jobbing gardener whose outer integument was politely ignored by householders in want of proper gardens (and minded not at all by Rector, who happily employed her and considered her a friend, piercings and [[DelinquentHair purple hair]] be damned)."
----
* TheClan: A Snook among Snooks.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: It's "Betty." Full stop.
* TheQuincyPunk: Subverted: looks like one, perhaps, but as decent a person (and churchgoer) as you'll find.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dr. Timothy Campion [=BA MA MSt DMus FRCO=], Composer; Music and Choir Director, Master of Music, and Organist to the Combined Benefice]]

!!Dr. Timothy Campion [=BA MA MSt DMus FRCO=], Music and Choir Director, Master of Music, and Organist to the Combined Benefice:

Jocund, plump composer and organist, late of St Peter's Wolvo: "a man made for merriment;" married to the jolly Charmian and father of Cressida, Piers, and Nigel (Nigel being the most reliable of the trebles in the church choir). Second-best organist in the West Country. (The best cannot very well act as a C of E church organist. Sher is, after all, a devout Muslim....)

-> "Dr Timothy Campion was to be let loose upon the organ as he listed: when one has an expert – and one expert surreptitiously advised by another, for no one saw any use in pretending Sher wasn't taking a hand in the only way in which he could, which was sure to mean Bach, and, as one of the hymns was 'O God, our help in ages past', quite likely included BWV 552 – one gave him his head and stood out of his road."
----
* BenevolentBoss: The choristers find him a breath of fresh air … even as he keeps them up to their King's College standard.
* BestFriend: With Sher.
* BigFun: Er. Yes.
* TheClan: Elder brother to the Fr. Paul Campion, and ThePatriarch of his own clan.
* TheConfidant: To Sher.
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Evidently. Three children already.
* OminousLatinChanting: Averted. He makes service music ''fun.''
* PerpetualSmiler: He has trouble at funerals: he can't help being cheerful through anything.
[[/folder]]

!!The [=RCs=], Nonconformists, and Others

Because the national church is not the same thing as the church of the nation.

[[folder:The Revd Monsignor Timothy Folan [=MA (TCD, Dub) STB & STL (NUI / Pontifical University of Ireland (Maynooth)) STD=] (Pontifical Gregorian University), Priest, Our Lady & S Edith of Wilton (RC) (Beechbourne)]]

!!The Revd Monsignor Timothy Folan, Our Lady & S Edith of Wilton (RC) (Beechbourne):

The Breener's old Downside schoolmate, now occupying the memeticly ugly Victorian brick presbytery in Beechbourne. Ginger, fubsy, kindly, untidy, unassuming, rather Boris-Johnsony in looks … and, as The Breener says, "Socrates in a Roman collar." Parish priest to a parish of considerable extent on a map (the Duke, who has no taste for {{InterfaithSmoothie}}s but is smoothly ecumenical in his philanthropy, gave him as well as the other non-Anglican clergy a Range Rover shooting-brake at the same time he gave a few to the C of E parish); but a parish in which even RaisedCatholic sorts, let alone the non-lapsed, are thin on the ground (the Agninis, The Breener, a few old recusant families, some established British Polish families of the 1939 vintage, and a handful of Continentals). A Beechbourne native, and well up on all the local news … and what's not news. Do ''not'' mistake his loving-kindness for weakness.

->''"We Folans came through with the first drove of pigs headed for Calne: I like to think we helped, in our way, to create Harris bacon."''
----
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Averted. Though some characters ''will'' persist in making that mistake. (If they were GenreSavvy, they'd remember their Literature/FatherBrown).
--> "On matters of principle, one did not, if one were wise, attempt to do anything more with the C of E Rector – not when Noel was being rather Father Paddick SSC than friend Noel – or with The Breener's own Mgr Folan, than to leave them strictly alone and walk warily about them at some distance."
* BrilliantButLazy: The Breener claims Tim Folan was this in their school days. He isn't nowadays, that's certain.
* FieryRedhead: Averted. He's not much inclined to fire. Or indeed brimstone.
* GoodShepherd: And willing to help strays from other flocks, and fellow shepherds. But ''see'' InterfaithSmoothie, below.
* InterfaithSmoothie: Averted. Not on his watch. Ecumenical joint efforts in practical charity, yes; diluting the Magisterium? He'll hear your confession now and impose penance for your having even ''thought'' about it.
* IrishmanAndAJew: He and Sir Ben Salmon before Ben died; now, he and Lew (and Melanie) Salmon. They can always be counted on to be working for some good end in the community.
* IrishPriest: Subverted. He's Irish by ancestry and is a TCD man, but his people have lived in Beechbourne for nigh on two centuries now.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: He's an exorcist when (reluctantly) so called upon by his bishop; he very much does ''not'' see [[IfJesusThenAliens malefic influences in everything or credit without extraordinary proof the least suggestion of demonic or paranormal activity]].
--> "'Well,' said Mgr Folan. 'There ''may'' have been some psychotropic or hallucinogenic nasties spread on that knife....' [snip] 'The souls of men, when they have died […] do not – cannot – hang about (and why would they, you know, why would they?) and play charades with the living. That's a simple theological fact."
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are a fair few Timothys about (including the C of E parish choir director).
* RaisedCatholic: Well, obviously, he was, in the literal sense; but his primary challenge isn't the parishioners who, like him, remained so without lapse (e.g., the Agninis and The Breener), but all the semi-lapsed, Christmas-and-Easter ones, and the cultural ones. His parish is geographically large and demographically tiny, and he is concerned to prevent any further falling-away.
* SeenItAll: He's an RC priest, a monsignor as a Chaplain to the Pope (appointed pre-Francis), one of the diocesan exorcists, [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets a canon lawyer (which may be worse than dealing with exorcisms)]], and hears confessions every day. He's seen ''and'' heard it all.
* SmarterThanYouLook: Even people too clever not to know GoodIsNotDumb think Mgr Folan too sweet to be quite as razor-sharp as he is. (The Breener suspects it's ObfuscatingStupidity on the padre's part).
* SmartPeopleKnowLatin: And use it as often as their bishops allow.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Dr Mohammed Jettou (University of al-Qarawiyyin (Tétouan), Imam, Trowbridge ''masjid'']]

!!Dr Mohammed Jettou, Imam, Trowbridge ''masjid'':

A sort of French-speaking, Maghrebi Mgr Folan. Married to a chic, soignée, Francophone wife, an academic lawyer who lectures on the law of armed conflict at Shrivenham; InUniverse imam of the (RealLife) mostly Maghrebi Maliki ''masjid'' in Trowbridge. A fatherly wee man who worries a good deal for Sher, and is hand in glove with Noel … except when the youths of his congregation play the Woolfonts Church Lads on the pitch, of course. Is somewhat bewildered by the British, and particularly ''le cricket.'' Is thankful that Noel and the Duke both speak French, though his English is excellent. Great friends with Lew and Melanie Salmon.

->''"It is, you comprehend, a story to me of the most familiar."''
----
* BestFriend: To Noel (jokingly "''M l'Abbé''" and "''Père Noël''" to him). And to Sher, about whom he frets in a fatherly sort of way. And vice-versa: Noel once put him up at the Rectory when he took a chill on the touchline of a match between the Church Lads and the ''masjid'' football side.
* FishOutOfWater: The UK never ceases to befuddle him, despite all his cleverness.
* GoodShepherd: Very much so, and a highly conscientious one.
* InterfaithSmoothie: Averted. In fact, it's lampshaded that there's not even an interdenominational one (to speak loosely): it's the only mosque within miles, and Sher and his family are welcome and accommodated there, but it remains a Maliki congregation of British Maghrebis with a few unexpected British Pakistani Hanfis attending it.
* NarrativeProfanityFilter: He is recorded as having said a few unspecified but rather stark things in several languages when there was a slander campaign against Sher.
* {{Omniglot}}: Necessarily. Classical Arabic is a must (he is, after all, the imam), and Standard Literary Arabic; naturally he speaks the various dialects of Western or Maghrebi Darija; and then there's Riffian Berber; French; and English.
* PoirotSpeak: Of the BluntMetaphorsTrauma variety, on occasion,. ''You'' try keeping all these languages straight in your head.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mme Professeure-Maîtresse Farida Jettou (Double-maîtresse, Cantab / Caen; University of Carthage; Dr en droit (Assas (Paris II)), Doctoresse en droit (Dr Farida Jettou), Academic lawyer and wife to the imam]]

!!Mme Professeure-Maîtresse Farida Jettou, Doctoresse en droit:

Academic lawyer, chic as the 7th arrondissement, with a double degree from [[{{Oxbridge}} Cambridge]] and Caen and the ''ijazat attadris;'' wife to Dr Jettou the imam. Understands perfectly well precisely what she says: to wit, that, in the UK:

->''"Push does nothing in this country; it is all ''pull''."''
----
* ArmyOfLawyers: Contemplates mobilizing one when Sher is slandered. Waiting on divine punishment for the offenders takes too long....
* ButNotTooForeign: Subverted, and doubly. She is of French Maghrebi background; but what everyone thinks of her is, simply, she's ''French'' and in the UK. She's Not British, but she is more than welcome as a guest.
* DeadpanSnarker: Of a Parisienne sort.
--> '''To Sir Thomas Douty and the Salmons:''' ''"'M le duc,'' as we all know, is not given to giving help: he is given to munificence, absolute. If asked – and we have long trembled at the prospect that he might do this unasked – ''M de Taunton'' should, we are assured, create for us, and for the Salmons' co-religionists, buildings of the most expensive, expansive, and surpassing. This is why we do not ask; and why we are prepared to forbid. […] Push does nothing in this country; it is all ''pull.'' And ''M le duc'' … he is like one of your church-tower bell-ringers, ''I'' think, and pulls many strings.'\\
'''Sir Tom Douty:''' "'Well,' smiled Sir Tom, 'at least, my dear lady, he knows the ropes.'"
* EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench / EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: She does and she is. (This is one subconscious reason why she's more than welcome as a guest in the UK....)
* GoodLawyersGoodClients: Played with. She's an academic lawyer … who lectures on the laws of war and international law at [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships JSSC Shrivenham and the Defence Academy]].
* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave / StacysMom: French and chic. Yeah. Sher and Noel notice; Teddy notices; The Breener notices; the Duke notices.... Even Edmond notices. A definite case of OlderThanTheyLook, too.
--> "'You must not feel yourself rebuked, child,' said Mme Dr Jettou. 'I speak as one old enough to be your mother –' \\
"'You're nothing of the sort,' protested Sher, gallantly – and guilelessly. \\
"She chortled. 'Ah, child, you are kind."
* {{Omniglot}}: But of course. ''Naturellement.''
* PoirotSpeak: ''Mais bien sûr.'' But of course.
* TheSocialExpert: Fortunately for her husband, who may be a GoodShepherd and an AllLovingHero, but is wholly bewildered by people.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Patricia Mullin, Methodist Local Preacher]]

!!Patricia Mullin, Methodist Local Preacher:

Member of an [[TheClan appallingly ramified local family]] found at every stratum of society and in every imaginable religious denomination, she is not inclined to forego any chance to bring the Good News to all, and is dedicated to interdenominational and interfaith cooperation. A fixture of [[UsefulNotes/ThePoppy Remembrance Day]] ceremonies, representing the [[UsefulNotes/ATouchOfClassEthnicityAndReligion Nonconformists]] generally.

->"'We will remember them.'"
----
* TheClan: You cannot through a rock in the District and not hit a Mullin.
* CoolOldLady: Floods, tempests, it doesn't matter, she will get through them with ease to bring the Good News, and has been doing it for years.
* TheMissionary: Home mission variety.
[[/folder]]

-> ''Here endeth the Lesson.''

!!The Local Folk and The Rest:

Loads and loads of … yeah, all right, you get the point. These are the people without whom the foregoing would have no role. And in some cases, no existence.

[[folder:The late Sir Bennett Salmon KBE RA]]

!!Sir Ben Salmon RA:

Late [[ThePatriarch patriarch]] of a [[TheClan large and distinguished family]]. Deliberately [[GoodOldWays old-fashioned]] painter, [[TrueArtIsAncient a follower of the Old Masters]]. Son of a highly respectable solicitor; uncle to Lew Salmon OBE; an artist always acceptable in Society without every descending into being a Society artist. Established excellent relations in the village by painting the village [=XI=] going against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl, and repainting the [[MyLocal pub sign]]. Died at his easel.

->"'I wish only to paint the downs and the country 'round until I die.'"
----
* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: Averted, lampshaded, and explicitly justified in story. He, like his nephew Lew and indeed like Lew's wife Melanie, are descended of Ashkenazim – many of them Baltic traders who were in partnership with Scots merchants – and Sephardim from Amsterdam, dating to a time when London and Amsterdam, unlike many other places, ''had'' Jews, but not enough that Ashkenazim and Sephardim could avoid interrmarriage.
* BestFriend: He and the Duke (both being {{DeadpanSnarker}}s); he and Sher and Noel.
* TheClan: Of which he was ThePatriarch, although himself childless.
* CoolOldGuy / HiddenDepths: Came to the Woolfonts in his later years to paint the landscape for what time was left him. Kept painting and living much longer than expected. He was a survivor. (He was by then Sir Ben Salmon RA, and the "RA" stood for Royal Academician, not Royal Artillery; but from 1939 to 1945, he was [[MajorlyAwesome Major]] Salmon RE, Royal Engineers, having declined to become an Official War Artist in favor of doing camouflage through the Blitz and for [[AC:Overlord]]. Talk about SavingTheWorldWithArt....
* FictionalMedia: His paintings. Some of which are, InUniverse, in the Tate and the National Gallery.
* MentorArchetype: To other artists, and – in how to deal with being a FishOutOfWater in the countryside – to Noel and Sher.
* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: As for every other character. In his case, a knighthood and membership of the Royal Academy.
* StarvingArtist: Averted. He did very well for himself, even if the critics who insisted TrueArtIsIncomprehensible sneered for years at his old-fashioned style.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sir Thomas Douty Bt, third baronet, late Alderman of the City of London for the Ward of Farringdon Without; of Davill Court]]

!!Sir Tom Douty Bt, Davil Court:

Third baronet, but declined to be an UpperClassTwit and did very well in the City. Was married to [[GrandeDame Caroline, Lady Douty]]. Has two adult children, a son and a daughter; as a widower, has learned that life without his wife is indescribably boring unless he un-retires himself. Old Harrovian, so you can imagine how he and the Old Etonian Duke get on when there's an Eton-Harrow match.

->"He was the third baronet, was Tom Douty, but he'd not been an idle youth, and had long been a power in the City."
----
* BestFriend: He and the Salmons; he and the Duke (nowadays).
* BigFancyHouse: A mild example. There are plenty of places where Davill Court would be a local showpiece. Those places are not within the long shadow of Wolfdown House.
* BlueBlood: Subverted. He's a (mere) baronet. The third one. Which puts the creation of the baronetcy back to about [[UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge the Goat's]] day, so God knows what the first baronet did or paid to get the baronetcy.
* GoodWithNumbers: With pound signs in front of them, especially. Of course, this does tend to go with his [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets bland and mild-mannered accountant]], [[HenpeckedHusband henpecked]], NonActionGuy character.
* HenpeckedHusband: While Lady Douty was alive.
* HiddenDepths: Regarded for a long time, locally, as a lightweight (not least by the Duke), he ''was'' in his day a "power in the City" (i.e., a [[Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet wolf-of-Wall-Street-and-Master-of-the-Universe]] sort) and sufficiently RespectedByTheRespected to have been a London alderman.
* MeaningfulName: Toyed with, subverted, and zigzagged. There was a time (before, frankly, Lady Douty died and let him see sunlight) when the Duke called him "Doubting Thomas" and said he wished he ''were'' doughty. Now Sir Tom, as a widower, is on the PCC and active in local affairs, and good friends on equal terms with the Duke.
* RailEnthusiast: He and the Duke between them created and direct the heritage steam railway. And the community real ale brewery, and the new social housing, and the canal restoration project, and.... It helps that the Duke has money (not that Sir Tom doesn't, but to a much greater extent), and Sir Tom understands finance (not that the Duke doesn't, but to a much greater extent). Guess who gets to cost and act as CFO for these projects.
* TrueCompanions: With a dash of HeterosexualLifePartners thrown in, with the Duke. They moved tons of earth and even more red tape to get the railway up and running, and have been pals ever since.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The late Caroline, Lady Douty, of Davill Court]]

!!The late Lady Douty:

Described as "lean, dutiful, and acidulated, the sort of woman who gives good works a bad name, charitable without ever being at the least risk of being pleasant," who "who resembled a malign caricature of the duchess of Cornwall." She and the Duke were at daggers drawn for years (he called her a basilisk who made virtue more repellent than vice); the objects of her bounty were grateful for the help, but wished she were less overbearing with it; and even Lady Crispin thought her a bit too much at times. She died of a sudden High Street heart attack on the very day Noel was being shown about, in mufti and incognito, his prospective parish: and he dashed to the church, vested, and made it back in time to give her the (in effect) last rites (Anglo-Catholic C of E version, naturally). Her funeral – before his own installation, and taken under special license from Bishop Chubb – was his first service in his new benefice; and by the time he was done with his homily, the parishes were thoroughly ashamed of themselves for having not liked her.

-> "… Caroline, Lady Douty, had died so suddenly amidst her peremptory good works and acidulated virtues."
----
* DeadpanSnarker: She had an almost ducal line in vitriol.
* DeathGlare: The Duke did not call her a basilisk for nothing.
* GrandeDame: Of the loftiest sort. And [[HenpeckedHusband ruled Sir Tom with a whim of iron.]]
* IronLady: Locally, a power in the land, and very much expecting everyone shape up and snap to it.
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: She and the Duke. They were even on points when she died.
--> '''Lady Douty, when the Duke popped by:''' "We were just speaking of adventures: and behold, an adventurer appears."\\
'''The Duke:''' "And I make certain you mean that in the best sense. All the same, I want your aid, Caroline – you and Connie, and Viney, are the only people in the District – I might say, in a sense, the only ''men'' – capable of organisation, bar m' own sweet self."[[note]]Mind you, Sir Tom is ''sitting right '''there''''' at the time.[[/note]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Edith Rice (née Eiluned Jones) DBE]]

!!Dame Edith Rice, the Free School:

Introduced in ''Literature/TheDayThouGavest''. Retired Welsh actress made DBE for services to charity and entertainment, now teaching Drama at the Free School. A self-taught historian of the theat-ah, and always humble. Didn't go to any of the drama academies; started in repertory and always prided herself on it. Was, all the same, the definitive [[Theatre/TheRivals Mrs. Malaprop]] of her generation and an acclaimed [[Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest Lady Bracknell]].

-> "With all this, however, she remained insistent upon regarding herself simply as a jobbing actress, whose natural home and regular post was the Birmingham Rep, and who happened to have a good enough singing voice to knock 'em in the Old Kent Road."
----
* TheClan: InUniverse cousin to the RealLife Victorian Welsh actress Eleanor Bufton, though she;s not precisely part of a Theatrical Dynasty.
* ConsummateProfessional: Is and was.
--> "No marches, no demos, no politics, no – by theatrical standards – scandals (divorces do not count, in theatrical circles)."
* ContraltoOfDanger: As students can attest if they tick her off; though in fact, she mostly reserved that for certain roles on stage: [[Theatre/TheMikado Katisha]], [[Theatre/HMSPinafore Ruth]], [[Theatre/{{Iolanthe}} the Queen of the Fairies]].... (She did, and preferred doing, a ''lot'' of Creator/GilbertAndSullivan).
* CoolTeacher: Well, obviously. And kindly, too.
* TheIngenue: Averted and lampshaded. She never was one and she never played one. (Soubrettes when young, character parts such as [[Theatre/TheSchoolForScandal Lady Teazle]] and [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Juliet's Nurse]] later on.) And as much [[{{Pantomime}} panto]] as she could manage.
* IWasQuiteALooker: And has aged reasonably well, though relieved to be past all that.
--> "She had passed with celerity (and marked equability) through two marriages and three divorces (one of them not being hers: she'd often said she'd had her share of husbands, some of them even her own) without ever losing her countenance."[[note]]In either sense: her composure ''or'' her looks. Or for that matter her fans.[[/note]]
* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Averted. She didn't like the films, she didn't like the telly, she was glad when she was old enough to play Lady Bracknell, and she [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knew when it was time to take the final curtain]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jeremy Trulock MA (St And) MA (Dunelm) [=MiD=], Headmaster, Beechbourne Free School]]

!!Headmaster Jeremy Trulock MA, the Free School:

[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Headmaster]] of the Free School; brother to [[KindlyVet Giles Trulock FRCVS]]; and, being a late officer of 1 PARA who was in Sierra Leone, [[SternTeacher not a man who has trouble with discipline at the school]]. Very good at what he does: other headmasters may worry about getting their charges to university, his problems come when a talented cricketer turns down Oxford for Loughborough (where the English Cricket Board training center is located).

-> "The Headmaster did not altogether agree with the ducal vision. He agreed wholly with the ducal idea of how the Free School was to be ''managed''. And as Jeremy Trulock was not merely a headmaster with degrees from Durham and St Andrews both, but also a former officer of 1 PARA, he had Decided Views on discipline: firm but fair and reasonable."
----
* TheCaptain: Was one. In 1 PARA.
* TheClan: The Trulocks are an old local gentry family. The local [[KindlyVet vet]] nowadays is his brother Giles, who took of their uncle's practice.
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both by habit and by descent.
* HappilyMarried: Yep.
--> "He had breakfasted with his wife – with no more than the usual teasing over her more sidewise suggestions for the ''Daily Telegraph'' crossword, which daily chaff had been the only cross words of their married life, always...."
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure / SternTeacher: These go together so far as he is concerned.
--> "The Headmaster of Beechbourne Free School, Jeremy Trulock MA (and, sometimes rather more pertinently, Jeremy Trulock [=MiD=] – a Mention in Despatches being one distinction he shared with Sapper Seymour[[note]]The Maths master, late Royal Engineers[[/note]] – late Captain 1 PARA), ran his school with gentle firmness … beneath which remarkably velvety, and languidly elegant, glove, was rather a military sort of fist, in terms of discipline, which was not merely iron, nor yet merely steel, but was evidently compounded of next-generation Chobham armour technology. [snip] Punctuality was one of the Head's watchwords."
* RetiredBadass: They don't hand out Mentions in Despatches for nothing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Francis Algernon Hamilton Seymour MA [=MiD=], late Captain RE, Fellow of the Institution of Royal Engineers, Maths master, Beechbourne Free School ("Sapper")]]

!!Sapper Seymour MA, Maths master, Beechbourne Free School:

Maths master at the Free School who announces his retirement at the beginning of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' … to be succeeded by a retired Brigadier and find himself tapped for the new ducal charity foundation, STETHEL,[[note]]named for Anglo-Saxon "staddle-stones"[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staddle_stones]][[/note]] which trains retired, demobbed, and wounded Forces members to build such things as social housing and to repair heritage buildings. Related, as his name suggests, to a cadet branch of the RealLife Dukes of Somerset.

-> "That sprig of the Somersets got on quite as well as one should expect with Charles Taunton; and although he was retiring at the end of term from teaching at the Free School, he was not at all about to subside into ''otium cum dignitate''[[note]]Leisure with dignity[[/note]], or indeed without it: leisure was not a word which bulked large in Sapper's vocabulary. Even by RE standards."
----
* TheCaptain: Was one in the Royal Engineers.
* GoodWithNumbers: He ''is'' the Maths master.
* RespectedByTheRespected: Notably including the Duke. There's a reason he chose him both as the first Maths master when he set up the Free School, and, now, to run STETHEL:
--> "As you can imagine, [snip] I want someone, in addition to m'self, Mils Lacy can't overawe."
* RetiredBadass: They're called ''combat'' engineers for a reason. When they get a Mention in Despatches in addition....
[[/folder]]

!!The Local Folk and The Rest:

Loads and loads of … yeah, all right, you get the point. These are the people without whom the foregoing would have no role. And in some cases, no existence.

[[folder:The late Sir Bennett Salmon KBE RA]]

!!Sir Ben Salmon RA:

Late [[ThePatriarch patriarch]] of a [[TheClan large and distinguished family]]. Deliberately [[GoodOldWays old-fashioned]] painter, [[TrueArtIsAncient a follower of the Old Masters]]. Son of a highly respectable solicitor; uncle to Lew Salmon OBE; an artist always acceptable in Society without every descending into being a Society artist. Established excellent relations in the village by painting the village [=XI=] going against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl, and repainting the [[MyLocal pub sign]]. Died at his easel.

->"'I wish only to paint the downs and the country 'round until I die.'"

* AllJewsAreAshkenazi: Averted, lampshaded, and explicitly justified in story. He, like his nephew Lew and indeed like Lew's wife Melanie, are descended of Ashkenazim – many of them Baltic traders who were in partnership with Scots merchants – and Sephardim from Amsterdam, dating to a time when London and Amsterdam, unlike many other places, ''had'' Jews, but not enough that Ashkenazim and Sephardim could avoid interrmarriage.
* BestFriend: He and the Duke (both being {{DeadpanSnarker}}s); he and Sher and Noel.
* TheClan: Of which he was ThePatriarch, although himself childless.
* CoolOldGuy / HiddenDepths: Came to the Woolfonts in his later years to paint the landscape for what time was left him. Kept painting and living much longer than expected. He was a survivor. (He was by then Sir Ben Salmon RA, and the "RA" stood for Royal Academician, not Royal Artillery; but from 1939 to 1945, he was [[MajorlyAwesome Major]] Salmon RE, Royal Engineers, having declined to become an Official War Artist in favor of doing camouflage through the Blitz and for [[AC:Overlord]]. Talk about SavingTheWorldWithArt....
* FictionalMedia: His paintings. Some of which are, InUniverse, in the Tate and the National Gallery.
* MentorArchetype: To other artists, and – in how to deal with being a FishOutOfWater in the countryside – to Noel and Sher.
* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: As for every other character. In his case, a knighthood and membership of the Royal Academy.
* StarvingArtist: Averted. He did very well for himself, even if the critics who insisted TrueArtIsIncomprehensible sneered for years at his old-fashioned style.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Sir Thomas Douty Bt, third baronet, late Alderman of the City of London for the Ward of Farringdon Without; of Davill Court]]

!!Sir Tom Douty Bt, Davil Court:

Third baronet, but declined to be an UpperClassTwit and did very well in the City. Was married to [[GrandeDame Caroline, Lady Douty]]. Has two adult children, a son and a daughter; as a widower, has learned that life without his wife is indescribably boring unless he un-retires himself. Old Harrovian, so you can imagine how he and the Old Etonian Duke get on when there's an Eton-Harrow match.

->"He was the third baronet, was Tom Douty, but he'd not been an idle youth, and had long been a power in the City."

* BestFriend: He and the Salmons; he and the Duke (nowadays).
* BigFancyHouse: A mild example. There are plenty of places where Davill Court would be a local showpiece. Those places are not within the long shadow of Wolfdown House.
* BlueBlood: Subverted. He's a (mere) baronet. The third one. Which puts the creation of the baronetcy back to about [[UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge the Goat's]] day, so God knows what the first baronet did or paid to get the baronetcy.
* GoodWithNumbers: With pound signs in front of them, especially. Of course, this does tend to go with his [[AcceptableProfessionalTargets bland and mild-mannered accountant]], [[HenpeckedHusband henpecked]], NonActionGuy character.
* HenpeckedHusband: While Lady Douty was alive.
* HiddenDepths: Regarded for a long time, locally, as a lightweight (not least by the Duke), he ''was'' in his day a "power in the City" (i.e., a [[Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet wolf-of-Wall-Street-and-Master-of-the-Universe]] sort) and sufficiently RespectedByTheRespected to have been a London alderman.
* MeaningfulName: Toyed with, subverted, and zigzagged. There was a time (before, frankly, Lady Douty died and let him see sunlight) when the Duke called him "Doubting Thomas" and said he wished he ''were'' doughty. Now Sir Tom, as a widower, is on the PCC and active in local affairs, and good friends on equal terms with the Duke.
* RailEnthusiast: He and the Duke between them created and direct the heritage steam railway. And the community real ale brewery, and the new social housing, and the canal restoration project, and.... It helps that the Duke has money (not that Sir Tom doesn't, but to a much greater extent), and Sir Tom understands finance (not that the Duke doesn't, but to a much greater extent). Guess who gets to cost and act as CFO for these projects.
* TrueCompanions: With a dash of HeterosexualLifePartners thrown in, with the Duke. They moved tons of earth and even more red tape to get the railway up and running, and have been pals ever since.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:The late Caroline, Lady Douty, of Davill Court]]

!!The late Lady Douty:

Described as "lean, dutiful, and acidulated, the sort of woman who gives good works a bad name, charitable without ever being at the least risk of being pleasant," who "who resembled a malign caricature of the duchess of Cornwall." She and the Duke were at daggers drawn for years (he called her a basilisk who made virtue more repellent than vice); the objects of her bounty were grateful for the help, but wished she were less overbearing with it; and even Lady Crispin thought her a bit too much at times. She died of a sudden High Street heart attack on the very day Noel was being shown about, in mufti and incognito, his prospective parish: and he dashed to the church, vested, and made it back in time to give her the (in effect) last rites (Anglo-Catholic C of E version, naturally). Her funeral – before his own installation, and taken under special license from Bishop Chubb – was his first service in his new benefice; and by the time he was done with his homily, the parishes were thoroughly ashamed of themselves for having not liked her.

-> "… Caroline, Lady Douty, had died so suddenly amidst her peremptory good works and acidulated virtues."

* DeadpanSnarker: She had an almost ducal line in vitriol.
* DeathGlare: The Duke did not call her a basilisk for nothing.
* GrandeDame: Of the loftiest sort. And [[HenpeckedHusband ruled Sir Tom with a whim of iron.]]
* IronLady: Locally, a power in the land, and very much expecting everyone shape up and snap to it.
* SnarkToSnarkCombat: She and the Duke. They were even on points when she died.
--> '''Lady Douty, when the Duke popped by:''' "We were just speaking of adventures: and behold, an adventurer appears."\\
'''The Duke:''' "And I make certain you mean that in the best sense. All the same, I want your aid, Caroline – you and Connie, and Viney, are the only people in the District – I might say, in a sense, the only ''men'' – capable of organisation, bar m' own sweet self."[[note]]Mind you, Sir Tom is ''sitting right '''there''''' at the time.[[/note]]

[[folder:Edith Rice (née Eiluned Jones) DBE]]

!!Dame Edith Rice, the Free School:

Introduced in ''Literature/TheDayThouGavest''. Retired Welsh actress made DBE for services to charity and entertainment, now teaching Drama at the Free School. A self-taught historian of the theat-ah, and always humble. Didn't go to any of the drama academies; started in repertory and always prided herself on it. Was, all the same, the definitive [[Theatre/TheRivals Mrs. Malaprop]] of her generation and an acclaimed [[Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest Lady Bracknell]].

-> "With all this, however, she remained insistent upon regarding herself simply as a jobbing actress, whose natural home and regular post was the Birmingham Rep, and who happened to have a good enough singing voice to knock 'em in the Old Kent Road."

* TheClan: InUniverse cousin to the RealLife Victorian Welsh actress Eleanor Bufton, though she;s not precisely part of a Theatrical Dynasty.
* ConsummateProfessional: Is and was.
--> "No marches, no demos, no politics, no – by theatrical standards – scandals (divorces do not count, in theatrical circles)."
* ContraltoOfDanger: As students can attest if they tick her off; though in fact, she mostly reserved that for certain roles on stage: [[Theatre/TheMikado Katisha]], [[Theatre/HMSPinafore Ruth]], [[Theatre/{{Iolanthe}} the Queen of the Fairies]].... (She did, and preferred doing, a ''lot'' of Creator/GilbertAndSullivan).
* CoolTeacher: Well, obviously. And kindly, too.
* TheIngenue: Averted and lampshaded. She never was one and she never played one. (Soubrettes when young, character parts such as [[Theatre/TheSchoolForScandal Lady Teazle]] and [[Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet Juliet's Nurse]] later on.) And as much [[{{Pantomime}} panto]] as she could manage.
* IWasQuiteALooker: And has aged reasonably well, though relieved to be past all that.
--> "She had passed with celerity (and marked equability) through two marriages and three divorces (one of them not being hers: she'd often said she'd had her share of husbands, some of them even her own) without ever losing her countenance."[[note]]In either sense: her composure ''or'' her looks. Or for that matter her fans.[[/note]]
* WhiteDwarfStarlet: Averted. She didn't like the films, she didn't like the telly, she was glad when she was old enough to play Lady Bracknell, and she [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knew when it was time to take the final curtain]].

[[folder:Jeremy Trulock MA (St And) MA (Dunelm) [=MiD=], Headmaster, Beechbourne Free School]]

!!Headmaster Jeremy Trulock MA, the Free School:

[[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Headmaster]] of the Free School; brother to [[KindlyVet Giles Trulock FRCVS]]; and, being a late officer of 1 PARA who was in Sierra Leone, [[SternTeacher not a man who has trouble with discipline at the school]]. Very good at what he does: other headmasters may worry about getting their charges to university, his problems come when a talented cricketer turns down Oxford for Loughborough (where the English Cricket Board training center is located).

-> "The Headmaster did not altogether agree with the ducal vision. He agreed wholly with the ducal idea of how the Free School was to be ''managed''. And as Jeremy Trulock was not merely a headmaster with degrees from Durham and St Andrews both, but also a former officer of 1 PARA, he had Decided Views on discipline: firm but fair and reasonable."

* TheCaptain: Was one. In 1 PARA.
* TheClan: The Trulocks are an old local gentry family. The local [[KindlyVet vet]] nowadays is his brother Giles, who took of their uncle's practice.
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Both by habit and by descent.
* HappilyMarried: Yep.
--> "He had breakfasted with his wife – with no more than the usual teasing over her more sidewise suggestions for the ''Daily Telegraph'' crossword, which daily chaff had been the only cross words of their married life, always...."
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure / SternTeacher: These go together so far as he is concerned.
--> "The Headmaster of Beechbourne Free School, Jeremy Trulock MA (and, sometimes rather more pertinently, Jeremy Trulock [=MiD=] – a Mention in Despatches being one distinction he shared with Sapper Seymour[[note]]The Maths master, late Royal Engineers[[/note]] – late Captain 1 PARA), ran his school with gentle firmness … beneath which remarkably velvety, and languidly elegant, glove, was rather a military sort of fist, in terms of discipline, which was not merely iron, nor yet merely steel, but was evidently compounded of next-generation Chobham armour technology. [snip] Punctuality was one of the Head's watchwords."
* RetiredBadass: They don't hand out Mentions in Despatches for nothing.
[/folder]

[[folder:Francis Algernon Hamilton Seymour MA [=MiD=], late Captain RE, Fellow of the Institution of Royal Engineers, Maths master, Beechbourne Free School ("Sapper")]]

!!Sapper Seymour MA, Maths master, Beechbourne Free School:

Maths master at the Free School who announces his retirement at the beginning of ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'' … to be succeeded by a retired Brigadier and find himself tapped for the new ducal charity foundation, STETHEL,[[note]]named for Anglo-Saxon "staddle-stones"[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staddle_stones]][[/note]] which trains retired, demobbed, and wounded Forces members to build such things as social housing and to repair heritage buildings. Related, as his name suggests, to a cadet branch of the RealLife Dukes of Somerset.

-> "That sprig of the Somersets got on quite as well as one should expect with Charles Taunton; and although he was retiring at the end of term from teaching at the Free School, he was not at all about to subside into ''otium cum dignitate''[[note]]Leisure with dignity[[/note]], or indeed without it: leisure was not a word which bulked large in Sapper's vocabulary. Even by RE standards."

[/folder]