Mr & Miss Thorne

I have to say I was a little disappointed with Barchester Towers. I think I will have to judge it as a series as a whole.

The characters I liked best were Squire Thorne and his sister. They seemed to be really, good people. They put on that big dinner and day out for their tenants and all the local dignitaries. It caused them a lot of headaches and it must have cost a lot. They told the steward not to be too strict at turning away the interlopers, particularly the children. Miss Thorne wanted to re-establish some traditional jousting game involving a shield swivelling around a pole, on the other end of which was a bag of flour. However, she readily abandoned it after one of her tenants' sons gamely tried it and nearly injured himself. It reminded me of Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee, in which the squire of his village put on a fete for all his villagers and tenants.