Jane Austen at Home: Housekeepers
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From Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley on page 210:
The mansion also had new fewer than eighteen manservants, headed by the steward ('a fine large respectable looking man') and Reverand Leigh had to buy them all black mourning outfits. The party were presumably shown round by the housekeeper. It seems like Jane transformed her remarks into those of Mrs. Reynolds, who gives the guided tour of Pemberley. Housekeepers of a great mansion would have regularly given tours to visitors.
page 96:
Jane even includes a handful of revolutionary moments when we hear something of the servants' side of the story, such as housekeeper Mrs Reynolds' unexpected praise for Mr Darcy.
page 131:
As Jane's family did not, could not, employ a housekeeper, it was Mrs Salkeld, and then her successor Mrs Driver, who must have provided Jane with the inspiration for her own fictional housekeepers, Mrs Whitaker at Sotherton, Mrs Hill at Longbourn, Mrs Hodges at Donwell Abbey and Mrs Reynolds at Pemberley.