The Dashwood women are reduced to living on £500 a year. This is a drastic change from Norland Park, which is assumed to be a substantially larger living. This would carry the Dashwood women from the gentry to the upper middle-class. A cottage is a realistic option for their new economic status, but is definitely a degradation from their former life.

http://web.stanford.edu/~steener/su02/english132/conversions.htm

In this scene, taste is used to mean the "condition of liking or preferring something; inclination, liking for; appreciation" as well as "enjoyment, pleasure, relish" (OED).

Described as "to subject to inconvenience or discomfort; to trouble, annoy, molest, embarrass, inconvenience."

This word was most popularly used in England between 1690 and 1760, but became uncommon by the 1950s. (OED)

The way England is geographically set up, it would be quicker to send a large, heavy shipment (such as furniture) by boat through the English Channel rather than by land in a carriage. Taking the English Channel would lead to the River Exe, which runs through Exeter, very near to where the Dashwood women's cottage is.

At Norland, the Dashwoods had well over a dozen servants, but, on an income of only £500, they can only maintain three at Barton cottage. The annual cost for a domestic servant ranged from £12-20. This would mean that Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret would have to help with the housework, where at Norland Park they would never be expected to. This is a significant mark of their altered status and quality of living. http://web.stanford.edu/~steener/su02/english132/conversions.htm

The OED defines propensity as a "favourable inclination or disposition towards a person, party, etc.; partiality; goodwill; an instance of this. Now rare."

The word began appearing in the English language in the early 17th Century, and was used most frequently in the late 18th Century and early 19th Century. Usage plummeted in the early 20th Century and now appears very rarely in common-day English.