Bennets were inferior to Darcys and de Bourghs, but not inferior to other country gentry in their neighbourhood. Mrs Bennet looked down on the Lucases who had a large house but no estate, although technically, Sir William, as a knight, would take precedence even over Darcy. (Officially, among the gentlemen, according to the table of precedence, Col Fitzwilliam, as an earl's younger son, would take precedence over them all, followed by Sir William, then Darcy -- but financially Darcy was the richest). The Bingleys were in a questionable position, they were rich (half of Darcy's wealth) but their fortune was from trade and they had no landed family estate.
Mrs Bennet dismissed the other houses in the neighbourhood as "deficient in size and importance" when she wanted Lydia and Wickham to settle there without considering what their income would be -- chap 50 --
"Haye Park might do," said she, "if the Gouldings would quit it -- or the great house at Stoke, if the drawing-room were larger; but Ashworth is too far off! I could not bear to have her ten miles from me; and as for Purvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful."
That she thought the Gouldings might quit Haye Park indicate that the Gouldings, like Bingley, were tenants and not owner. Mr Bennet was a prominent local gentleman with a family estate, entails were not meant to diminish status but to enhance it -- to ensure that the estate remained in the family and would not be sold off or gambled away.
Mrs Bennet dismissed the other houses in the neighbourhood as "deficient in size and importance" when she wanted Lydia and Wickham to settle there without considering what their income would be -- chap 50 --
"Haye Park might do," said she, "if the Gouldings would quit it -- or the great house at Stoke, if the drawing-room were larger; but Ashworth is too far off! I could not bear to have her ten miles from me; and as for Purvis Lodge, the attics are dreadful."
That she thought the Gouldings might quit Haye Park indicate that the Gouldings, like Bingley, were tenants and not owner. Mr Bennet was a prominent local gentleman with a family estate, entails were not meant to diminish status but to enhance it -- to ensure that the estate remained in the family and would not be sold off or gambled away.