In order to be as eligible for marriage as possible by the standards of the day, Crawley daughters Mary, Edith, and Sybil would probably have been taught various skills like learning to sing and accompany themselves on the piano and possibly also painting, decoupage, and embroidery. A governess would have taught them French and, in some families, German. Series creator Julian Fellowes says he heard stories from older family members about the training female relatives had to undergo. "My great-aunts would be taken round the gardens by their governess and at every shrub they would have to introduce a new subject," Fellowes said. "The idea was that you could keep a conversation going even with someone who was completely socially incapable."
