Ask any “Downton Abbey” fan about the wildly popular historical television drama and they will wistfully reminisce about being whisked away to a more gentile and elegant time in post-Edwardian England. With a majestic castle as the backdrop and actors adorned in lavish costumes, audiences were immersed into life as it was in the early 1900’s. Or, were they? A historian at the University of New Hampshire takes a closer look at the beloved show to reveal that it may have been preserving history not as it actually was but as fans believe it ought to have been.