The Forth Cow

故事刚开始时，Jane在Netherfield养病，Eliza看护。某天傍晚Eliza与Bingley姐妹散步，Darcy加入。因为甬路不能并排走四个人，Darcy建议换条路走。Eliza讲了个说辞，跑掉了。那句说辞是：“The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth.”这句话不太起眼，我都没发现自己没看懂。后来才知道原来是有典故的：

The picturesque had become a popular aesthetic category, largely as a result of William Gilpin's Observations, on Several Parts of England ...relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty (1808). Gilpin held forth at some length on aesthetic effects created by cows, which, he claimed,, were far more picturesque than horses. "Cattle are so large," he writes, "that when they ornament a foreground, a few are sufficient. Two cows will hardly combine. Three make a good group -- either united -- or when one is a little removed from the other two. If you increase the group beyond three; one, or more, in proportion, must necessarily be a little detached."

To compare them to cattle, as Elizabeth implicitly does, is hardly flattering; but of course she includes herself in the same category, and she is quite happy to be "a little detached".