Shrimp Curry

Downton’s connection with India is via Rose’s father, Hugh MacClare, the Marquess of Flintshire. In season 4, he is appointed governor of Bombay and moves to India, which at the time was under British rule: in 1877, Queen Victoria was declared empress of India, and in 1887 she had five Indians brought over to act as her personal attendants. British fascination with India went back much further, however, and the first curry recipes appeared in English cookery books in the eighteenth century.