The extract Mrs Rich (Claire Skinner) reads to the girls is from Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market; about the sexual corruption and awakening of young girls.
Carol Macready appeared 18 years earlier in "Poirot: Peril at End House" as Milly Croft. 1990.
Miranda Raison (Mlle Blanche) would later play Sonia Armstrong in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express (2017).
Harriet Walter and Claire Skinner have both portrayed Fanny Dashwood in different adaptations of Sense and Sensibility. Harriet Walter was in the 1995 Ang Lee production (Sense and Sensibility (1995)) and Claire Skinner was in Sense & Sensibility (2008) BBC production directed by John Alexander.