What you posted is always a feasibility (as is much of the unsaid in J'A's works.) R.E. There is always the possibility, given that Aunt Gardiner knew quite a few residents around Derbyshire, Pemberley, Lambton and Kimpton that she came from a respectable family herself. As a respected (and successful) businessman he may have come into contact with her via another family also in trade. Their marriage seems more like one of two sensible, well-balanced people and Aunt Gardiner is also a woman of intelligence. Bakewell, (the area most claimed to be the place Jane Austen based Lambton on) was remarkably like Longbourne in being a small market town rather than anywhere industrial. Jus another view.
