“I had no suspicion you were become such an expert in the field of French horticulture, Mr. Darcy. Listening to you makes me quite ashamed that I spend any time at all reading novels, when I could be learning about things more likely to yield improvement,” Lizzy said laughing. “Perhaps one day we will be able to make the trip abroad together. I have always envied gentlemen this aspect of their educations, and have reason to believe that the discomforts of a life on the road, as you know, suit me very well. As we walk on, extol, for my benefit, the merits of an asparagus,” she said taking his arm, “for I am certain I espied you reading about that very subject this morning. And, to shew you I am in earnest, beg you enchant me with encomiums on plums or turnips, as you please!”

Mr. Darcy followed the pattern of many landed gentlemen in his avid interest in the improvement of soils, crops, plantations, livestock, practical buildings, mechanical implements, and such-like. His reading was broad, his numerous correspondents the chief agriculturalists of the day, and he attended scientifical meetings and academies when he was in town. Elizabeth had once enquired if his pursuit of new methods in husbandry was motivated by pecuniary or philanthropic interests, and he had replied, “Both, my dearest. It can no longer be assumed that ownership of land will be profitable; it is the ownership of profitable land that will ensure its preservation. And, in consequence of the capital raised from the land, we are able to improve the prospects for the tenantry, and, hence, keep the best of our tenants on the land when so many others are leaving the fields for the manufactories. It is a necessary endeavour on all counts: my effort is recompensed with capital, which enables increased investment in land and people. In these times of rapidly changing ideas and inventions, it is more complicated than in my esteemed father’s lifetime, when sheep and wheat or barley were enough. Now, one must chuse between many industries that may be supported in any place at any time: mining, manufacturing, housing, crops, livestock, or timber. It is not to be supposed that the sale of land would ever be beneficial to the increase of the value of the estate for future generations, but even that is not now always the case.