Mrs. Dashwood wishes the stairs were more impressive. Weren't stairs a kind of status symbol at that time? I seem to recall being told that at some of the houses we visited in England this past summer.

She believes that it would not be difficult to widen the staircase, yet this strikes me as being a particularly difficult (if not impossible?) renovation to make! We've renovated our own home, and this is one type of alteration I cannot even imagine.