Here is Robert Ferrars going on about his taste for cottages (even if in a grand style) and earlier (ch. 14) we had Willoughby's nonsense "were I rich enough, I would instantly pull Combe down, and build it up again in the exact plan of this [Barton] cottage." I never noticed that both of them had favorably mentioned cottages until your post, but wonder if JA meant us to make some sort of comparison between the two men.