Pride and Prejudice question

It never says in the original book who starts the rumor, but it would be very easy for her start that rumor being so close to Lady Catherine (Darcy's aunt). I think it is apparent to anyone close to the party that Darcy pays close attention to Elizabeth, even from the beginning of the book. One of Bingley's sisters, but it escapes me which one exactly, teases him for admiring her "fine eyes". It was also very clear in their last interaction, when Darcy come to visit Elizabeth while she is visiting Charlotte, (at his aunt's) that there was some strange social interactions between the two (which is an understatement between Darcy proposing, and getting rejected based on false information from Wickham, and Jane being so hurt). So Charlotte could have very easily observes some of that behavior and relayed that information onto his aunt. Charlotte and Mr. Collins were very dependent on Lady Catherine because she provided the parsonage to them. So they would probably benefit a little by informing her of this rumor before it could actually come to fruition (since Lady Catherine and Darcy's mom planed for Darcy and Lady Catherine's sickly daughter). But the fact remains that Lady Catherine does find out about a rumored engagement, and instead of insulting Darcy by thinking it to be true(because of Elizabeth's low social ranking, and the recent patched up marriage of her sister which is seen as a blemish to the family's reputation), ends up going to Elizabeth to try to bully her into not accepting an engagement from him. Which really has the inverse affect of what she intended.

While at Rosings Park Elizabeth often unexpectedly meets Mr. Darcy during her walks in the Park. He does make his first proposal here at Rosings. It is possible Lady Catherine gets wind of this through conversations with Mr. Collins or Charlotte and the help at Rosings. The letter from Mr. Collins is not received until after Lady Catherine comes to visit Elizabeth. So it is hard to say if she comes because she heard of it through them or not. She does know Mr. Darcy is in town with Mr. Bingley to support him and she make take that as him tryi to see if Elizabeth's feelings remain unchanged or not.

Well, Darcy did propose at Hunsford, Mr. Collins house. No doubt the servants got wind of that.And yes, Darcy and Lizzie did meet often, so suspicion was bound to arise.

I suspect it could be Colonel Fitswilliam. :)

I kind of wonder if a person working at Rosings might have uncovered a early draft of Darcy's letter to Elizabeth in the bin. I imagine in his agitation he may have tried several drafts.

N

I just finished P&P again and in the part where Mr. Bennet received the letter from Mr. Collins in Chapter 57 with congratulations for Jane also expresses the soon to be congratulations for Elizabeth stating that they had received both pieces of information from the Lucases.

There is no smoking gun answer to this question; it's a rare plot hole from Austen. There's this book Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet?: Further Puzzles in Classic Fiction which examines the evidence and determines Charlotte is probably the source of the rumor. (A really fun book, by the way, has tons of puzzling plot holes from lots of great literature.)