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|young Mr Bennet, and Mr Bingley
Written by Nikki N
(4/7/2013 11:32 p.m.)
in consequence of the missive, The young Mr Bennet...., penned by Jim Morris
In chap 7, we're told that --
Earlier in chap 3, we're told -- "Longbourn, the village where they lived, and of which they were the principal inhabitants."
Mr Bennet was a gentleman with an estate of 2,000 a year, and the estate of Longbourn had a village sitting on it. The family of the master of Longbourn was of course its "principal inhabitants".
So Mr Bennet must have himself been a single gentleman of good fortune before he married, and he was a good catch for Mrs Bennet, the daughter of an attorney with a dowry of 4,000 pounds -- an ample fortune for an attorney's daughter, but a small one for a gentleman.
The Bennets were NOT living in present poverty. It was in chap 7 that we find out that the daughters' future was uncertain because unfortunately their father's estate was entailed, in default of a son, to a distant male cousin. It would be difficult foe the daughters, after being used to a good standard of living in their father's lifetime, to live in reduced circumstances if none of them married well.
As for the Bingleys -- chap 4 -- "They were of a respectable family in the north of England; a circumstance more deeply impressed on [the sisters'] memories than that their brother's fortune and their own had been acquired by trade.
Mr. Bingley inherited property to the amount of nearly an hundred thousand pounds from his father, who had intended to purchase an estate, but did not live to do it ...
His sisters were very anxious for his having an estate of his own; but, though he was now established only as a tenant,".
As has been mentioned in some posters, there was much trade in the north. The Bingleys' fortune had been acquired by trade, and they had no country estate yet. Mr Bingley was only a tenant of Netherfield. We don't really know the size of Netherfield in comparison to Longbourn. There is no mention of Nethrefield having its own village of Netherfield, unlike Longbourn with its village of Longbourn. Mr Bingley's income is mentioned at between 4000 to 5000 a year (the interest of nearly 100,000).
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