] Shields suggest that Jane didn't really like her visits to Godmersham (and other opinions on this?), and that Edward's now deceased wife wasn't particular fond of Jane. Shields wonders if the feelings of Edward's Elizabeth might have been a factor in a delay in Edward offering lodgings to his mother and sisters.

Park Honan plays up this angle too. Apparently there is second-hand evidence that Edward's wife Elizabeth was none too fond of her husband's family. Honan cites a rather scathing letter written much later in which Elizabeth's daughter Fanny documents her mother's antipathy towards Jane's family (and in which Fanny herself characterises her Aunts Jane and Cassandra as provincial).

We can only speculate whether Elizabeth's reservations about Jane's family kept Edward from assisting his widowed mother and sisters during Elizabeth's lifetime. But it's very tempting to draw parallels between the Dashwoods in Sense and Sensibility and the Austens' situation at this time!