Daphne Blytherington?

August 14, 2012 By 31 Comments

People have been wondering what the Vicar’s wife looks like. Thanks to The Crescat a photograph of Daphne Blytherington–she who must be obeyed has just surfaced…

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About Fr. Dwight Longenecker
  • flyingvic

    Are you sure you didn’t mix this pic up with the Big Puppet?

  • Jim

    Can’t be right. The lorgnette is too ornamented. Nice hat though.
    What’s the fox fur?

  • Arnold

    Did Daphne co-star with the Marx Brothers before she married the vicar?

  • mike cliffson

    No, Don’t believe it, at best this was before she became a catholic.

    • lethargic

      Ditto. The current Daphne is much calmer and more at ease in every way … more like an English, somewhat younger, busier, and more buxom “Catholic Old Lady” of our acquaintance.

  • suzy

    No, no, no, that’s not the way I pictured Daphne in the least. That looks more like some of the church ladies in the vicar’s Anglican congregation than dear Daphne. whom I always pictured as somewhat mousy looking. The “she who must be obeyed” was so obviously a joke on the vicar’s part. The lady in the picture would never have had time (or inclination) to convert to Catholicism, she would have been far too busy running the parish for the vicar (Hyacinth Bucket would have nothing on this gal). Are you sure this isn’t a picture of Daphne’s mother?

    • Fr. Dwight Longenecker

      I agree. I think this is not really Daphne….

      • whimsy

        Well, maybe you caught her on one of the days her husband brought over Lavinia. I’d look that way too if I had to listen to Lavinia go on and on. . .

      • Deacon Nathan Allen

        I’m glad to hear you agree, Father. Our Daff has, after all, cheerfully embraced the Catholic Faith in all its fulness, and I’ve always thought she would look more like the kindly, laughing women in the photos of the ‘bun fights’ Fr Edwin Barnes of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham is always posting on his Ancient Richborough ‘blog.

    • mike cliffson

      Suzy :
      Anecdotal : (Im more expat than pat, in many senses)
      “she-who-must-be-obeyed” I never heard until the “Rumpole” of the Bailey humorous-cum-detective fiction about a QC, Rumpole, who so referred to his better half, became popular and was even adapted for TV.I suspect it’s older. M’father, and others in the family was capable of referring to “the management” , at odd moments, fondly and jocularly, neither coarsely nor crossly. I think , no more, The Vicar and Daphne have something more like a sacramental marriage in fact than oncemaoinstream Anglican ideas of ” astate ordained by god , let alone some strands of Anglicanisms’s prewar and older idea of “the gift of continence ” which DLSayers had Lord Peter Wimsey rightly saying he “wouldn’t have as agift”. Modesty I am sure will prevent FR ever let the vicar go into too many details whereof on a family blog.. Helpmate is such a lovely word for one’s lawful wedded wife, I wonder if the vicar has ever used it for Dafne ?
      Other commenters here are more scholarly than me and more informed of recent Britspeak.But Im filling in time waiting for threee urgent family calls on Skpe.

      • flyingvic

        “She”, by H Rider Haggard was, I think, the origin of ‘she-who-must-be-obeyed’. Nowadays “the wife” or ” ‘er indoors”, when spoken within earshot of the beloved, are equally likely to get a reaction . . .

  • Etienne

    With respect, and with infused knowledge, I know this is not Daphne. The actual Mrs. B is far less imperious looking and would never use a lorgnette. Likewise, she never scowls like that. She is, as Suzy says, a bit mousy, but no weakling. A gentle, but firm lady who knows her own mind, but who does not intimidate. Daphne is a dear.

    • Fr. Dwight Longenecker

      I think it might be Marjorie Huffington Post–the wife of Canon Huffington-Post the Rural Dean…

  • http://abbey-roads.blogspot.com/ terry nelson

    I love your imaginary friends!

  • Richard

    Yes, it is indeed Marjorie Huffington Post! I once was introduced to her at a cocktail party and she wouldn’t speak to me because I didn’t attend the right school. I’d recognize her anywhere!

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    Dear God if that’s the wife I don’t know how the Vicar manages on a half-pint of lager shandy.

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    Richard, she’d still have acknowledged you out of noblesse oblige until you used your dessert fork for your salad.

    • Richard

      So THAT was the reason!

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    I think the real Vicar’s wife is more like Joanna Bogle than that impostor at the top.

  • http://ttonys-blog.blogspot.com Ttony

    I think this is her mother. The Vicar’s worry, which you are projecting, is that his wife will end up like her.

    Women like this exist to remind men to cross their fingers behind their back if they even think the phrase “the weaker sex”.

  • veritas

    One thing is for sure – she is not one of the modernist nuns – she doesn’t have the inane grin.

    • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

      That’s way scary.

  • http://www.SwanseaAcupuncture.net Dr. Eric

    I don’t think this is Daphne, it’s too “Jack Sprat…” for the characters.

  • http://platytera.blogspot.com/ Christian

    I think that top photo is either the Crescat’s alter ego; or just her regular ego.

  • Ginny

    The eyebrows are a dead giveaway that this is Rowan Williams in drag.

  • Amy Giglio

    I think the lady up top must be Daffy’s mum. She is not amused at daphne’s conversion. I pictured Daffy like the lady in the picture at this blog post: http://anglocath.blogspot.com/2009/10/it-has-just-crossed-my-mind.html

    • Tracy

      I agree–much more like Daphne. I think this one pictured is, indeed, her mum.

    • lethargic

      Better, but Daphne is really a tad on the buxom side. Or full-figured, if you prefer that term.

  • Zwetschgenkrampus

    So, the consensus among the fond friends of the vicar is that the above is
    a) the Vicar’s Mother-in-law, who
    b) doubles as Canon Huffington-Post’s wife.
    Dear god, vicar. Lay off the shandy! Mine host! A doubled double whiskey, at the double, if you please!

  • http://www.sthubertsrosary.com shanasfo

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnvYymrCn4g (Tea Making Tips, [1941])

    And I picture her as the second lady, who shares her tea-making tips after ‘taking over the cantine’. The man Blytering about the tea leaves is the ‘voice’ I hear for the vicar.

  • Sal

    I concur- you don’t get fox furs and a smart little hat like that on a vicar’s salary.
    Besides, harsh reality intrudes- I know who that really is.