starrika Wrote:
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> When it comes to university, I'm having the same
> struggle in deciding between Oxford and Cambridge.
> Or, would Collins not attend a boarding school,
> but simply go away to university? Or vice versa,
> with boarding school but no university? Although
> the Bennets are landed gentry, they're not
> presented as rolling in cash. How would such a
> family make economical decisions about schooling?
>
In canon, Collins certainly went to University, he had to go to University to have a living as a clergyman -- chap 15 -- "though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance".
He was sent to University although his father was "illiterate and miserly". In JA, "illiterate" meant not well-educated, it does NOT mean being unable to read and write. He was miserly but he sent his son to University.
The Bennets were not poor, Mrs Bennet and the girls would become poor because the estate would be inherited only by a son or male relative. The estate brought in 2,000 a year, the average gentry income was only 700 a year. In S&S, Col Brandon's Delaford estate brought in 2,000 a year also, and Col B is described as rich. If Mr Bennet had a son, his son would certainly have a gentleman's education. When Collins was a boy, the Bennets was hoping for a son to inherit Longbourn estate and help provide for his mother and sisters. But perhaps you could have them taking in Collins because he was an orphan with no other close relatives, and they were not expecting to raise him up as the heir. Perhaps Collins' miserly father had saved and hoarded quite a lot of money and left it in trust for his son and to pay for his son's education.
>
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> When it comes to university, I'm having the same
> struggle in deciding between Oxford and Cambridge.
> Or, would Collins not attend a boarding school,
> but simply go away to university? Or vice versa,
> with boarding school but no university? Although
> the Bennets are landed gentry, they're not
> presented as rolling in cash. How would such a
> family make economical decisions about schooling?
>
In canon, Collins certainly went to University, he had to go to University to have a living as a clergyman -- chap 15 -- "though he belonged to one of the universities, he had merely kept the necessary terms, without forming at it any useful acquaintance".
He was sent to University although his father was "illiterate and miserly". In JA, "illiterate" meant not well-educated, it does NOT mean being unable to read and write. He was miserly but he sent his son to University.
The Bennets were not poor, Mrs Bennet and the girls would become poor because the estate would be inherited only by a son or male relative. The estate brought in 2,000 a year, the average gentry income was only 700 a year. In S&S, Col Brandon's Delaford estate brought in 2,000 a year also, and Col B is described as rich. If Mr Bennet had a son, his son would certainly have a gentleman's education. When Collins was a boy, the Bennets was hoping for a son to inherit Longbourn estate and help provide for his mother and sisters. But perhaps you could have them taking in Collins because he was an orphan with no other close relatives, and they were not expecting to raise him up as the heir. Perhaps Collins' miserly father had saved and hoarded quite a lot of money and left it in trust for his son and to pay for his son's education.
>