]Mr. Bennet never signed any entail; it was set in place by an ancestor long before Mr. Bennet could have had any say in the matter. Without a son to co-sign a document to break the entail, he had no hope of doing that either.

I realize that the actual entail documents were drawn up a long time ago. I guess I shouldn't have referred to the documents as I did but at the time a person takes over an estate I am sure I read that documents are signed agreeing to certain conditions such as not selling off the land, cutting down lots of trees, keeping up the property and so on. Sorry for the confusion. My understanding is that Mr. Bennet as the son of his own father, had the right to try and break the entail with his father. It would have been difficult but not impossible and something a man with foresight might have thought of doing to offset an entail in favor of any family he might have had. I am sure I read all of this someplace but I can't seem to find the book to clear it all up. In any case if I am wrong, I apologize.

Has he been setting money aside? I purposefully put this into a question since we don't know but I do feel that since the subject of the lack of money/dowries for the girls, talk of getting thrown out if Mr. Bennet passed, and Mr. Collins even mentioning an amount and nothing has ever been said about anything further to indicate additional money that the chances are minimal at best that there's anything else. I figure Mr. Collins has discussed Elizabeth's financial prospects with Mrs. Bennet (since she has given him permission to propose) to discover what she would be able to bring to the table and would likely have known if there were further funds. But without complete knowledge of this, I did leave it up in the air.

About the family, I was referring to the Phillipses as family whom the Bennets do seem to have a decent relationship with and that they and the mentioned uncle might be helpful. I was trying to say that if Mr. Bennet would widen the circle of family, cultivate further family contact by visiting and having them visit in return, there would be further family members who could help them and perhaps take in someone besides the brother and sister of Mrs. Bennet since homes would have to be found for six ladies if none are married. It's hard to believe that there aren't other family members throughout England someplace but Mr. Bennet does not like to stir far from his library to travel.

You're right that there is no evidence about Mr. Bennet's true feelings about visiting Bingley. It's just a personal feeling of mine that anything that requires him to sacrifice his personal time, especially when it comes to leaving his home and more specifically his library, is not something he looks forward to but does due his duty in such instances as this because it would be a direct and public snub not to visit a new "next door" neighbor. Definitely a personal opinion, though.

I do understand your qualms because they are as you say mostly assumptions or, as I see it, possibilities. I wanted to show that just because an estate was entailed, didn't mean there weren't any other options that could be pursued on behalf of one's family. Thanks, for pointing out the detail about the entail. Hopefully, I can find the book that discussed entails because I might well have muddled the information up a bit and would like to check it out. In the meantime if you or anyone else can clear up any misinformation, I would be grateful. :)