Look: A photo of Mary and Matthew's baby from season 4 of 'Downton Abbey'

As expected, Mary looks sad but glamorous in solid black

By Liane Bonin StarrTuesday, Mar 5, 2013 2:32 AM

For those of you chomping at the bit to see the next season of "Downton Abbey" (and for those of you who are still slogging through season 3, SPOILER ALERT), here's a hint of what's to come thanks to a new photo.

In it, Mary is clearly wearing all black -- most likely in mourning for her beloved husband Matthew, who died at the very end of season 3. We also see (at least in part) Matthew's son in her arms. As you might expect, the new widow looks a little worn, bent but certainly unbowed. If anyone can handle such incredible bad luck, it's Mary.

What do you think of the photo?

The official poster for Catherine Keener's

Liane Bonin Starr
Sr. Editor

Liane Bonin Starr is an author, screenwriter and former writer for EW.com. Her byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Variety and a lot of other places. Her last book was called "a scandalously catty, guilty pleasure" by Jane magazine. Expect the same from Starr Raving.

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Amb

It's champing at the bit; not chomping.

March 5, 2013 at 7:03AM EST Reply to Comment
- simone The idiom is usually written chomping at the bit, and some people consider this spelling wrong. But chomp can also mean to bite or chew noisily (though chomped things are often eaten, while champed things are not), so chomp at the bit means roughly the same as champ at the bit.
  
  In fact, chomp, which began as a variant of champ, is alive in English while the biting-related sense of champ is dead outside this idiom, so it’s no wonder that chomping at the bit is about 20 times as common as champing at the bit on the web. Champing at the bit can sound funny to people who aren’t familiar with the idiom or the obsolete sense of champ, while most English speakers can infer the meaning of chomping at the bit.
  
  Still, if you’re writing for school or for readers who are versed in English, champing at the bit is probably the safer choice.
  March 13, 2013 at 4:37PM EST