In examining this wonderfully researched
calendar, I'm having trouble with the trip to Rosings.
Chapter 30: "In this quiet way, the first
fortnight of her visit soon passed away.... Elizabeth had heard soon after her arrival that Mr. Darcy was expected there in the course of a few weeks...."
Fact: Easter was on
Sunday March 29 in 1812.
Chapter 35: "The
five weeks which she had now passed in Kent...." The day she receives Mr. Darcy's letter.
Chapter 37: Elizabeth and the Collinses dine with Lady Catherine after Darcy & Col Fitzwilliam leave Rosings. Lady Catherine attempts to convince Elizabeth to extend her visit, but Elizabeth declines ("I must be in town next
Saturday." Lady Catherine then complains, "Why, at that rate, you will have been here only
six weeks."
Chapter 38: Elizabeth and Maria Lucas leave Hunsford for London ("... they reached Mr. Gardiner’s house, where they were to remain a
few days.")
Chapter 39: "It was the
second week in May, in which the three young ladies set out together from Gracechurch Street for the town of ——, in Hertfordshire...."
The online calendar posits that Elizabeth arrived on Monday March 9. So the first fortnight ended Monday March 23, six days before Easter, while 3 weeks elapsed on the day after Easter when Darcy paid his first solo visit to the parsonage. This calendar skips ahead to April 14 as the proposal day, but calls it a Thursday and the 1812 calendars I've seen make it Tuesday. Regardless, the calendar then has the letter given out on Friday April 17, the next day's dinner at Rosings on Saturday April 18, and then the departure on Friday April 24, with Monday May 4 seeing the girls back in Hertfordshire.
Counting up on this calendar, Week 6 of Elizabeth's visit began on Monday April 20. So that sort of fits with what Lady Catherine said, although that week almost ends before Elizabeth leaves.
However, the earliest I can make the second week of May is Monday May 8. The online calendar puts 13 days between coming to London and arriving in Hertfordshire. That gap hardly seems "a few days." Am I missing something? Does anyone have any insight here? It's of course possible Austen made a mistake. Or are we?
-- Signed a pedantic FF author spending
far too much time puzzling over timelines.
