"If I were as rich as Mr Darcy.......I should not care how proud I was. I would keep a pack of foxhounds, and drink a bottle of wine every day." JA is making two Pitt/political references either deliberately or inadvertently.

She may well have been referring to her own member of Parliament, a certain Mr Chute, of Basingstoke, who not only was a Tory, and an ardent huntsman but also a fairly well-known drunk. He, apparantly caused a sensation when he first moved into the neighbourhood, being young, handsome, single and worth about £5,000 a year. (I don't know if he came from the north country , though! ;-))

He was also great friends with JA's brother James.