Forgive me for coming in on a post you addressed at Peter, Deb P, but I'd like to comment on.....
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Deb P.
The novel tells us that Bingley and Darcy had a steady friendship, which implies to me that they'd been friends for years.
With the Bingleys being from the north ( possibly a big town or a port?) and having trade roots not likely to be in stately home land, and their father only having been dead a short time, I consider this unlikely. Firstly, there is the age gap. Darcy, at twenty seven, is five years older than Bingley's twenty-two at the end of the novel. This means that it would be unlikely they had met socially, or even at University, till after Bingley's father died due to the dreaded "trade" connections that Caroline made pains to conceal. Personally, I think it more likely that they had met in London during a season, possibly only a year back as Caroline obviously had met Georgiana ( who would only have been fifteen even then) and that would be unlikely to have happened in the north. There is certainly an unexplained situation as to how they met, and mine is but one view. I8'm sure this has been discussed in the past before I came here?
