When the hour of departure grew near ...

In chapter 2 we get a reference to Richardson. It starts with the advice that Mrs. Morland does not give her daughter:

Cautions against the violence of such noblemen and baronets as delight in forcing young ladies away to some remote farmhouse, must, at the moment, relieve the fullness of her heart. Who would not think so? But Mrs. Morland knew so little of lords and baronets, that she entertained no notion of their general mischeviousness, and was wholly unsuspicious of the danger to her daughter from their machinations.

The reference here is to Sir Charles Grandison in which Sir Hargrave Pollexfen kidnaps Harriet Byron, although it could also refer to the bit of Pamela where Mr. B sends Pamela away and cuts her off from her family.

The Richardson references continue with the news that Catherine's sister does not insist "on Catherine's writing by every post, nor exacted her promise of transmitting the character of every new acquaintance, nor a detail of every interesting conversation Bath might produce." This a fairly clear dig at the lack of realism of Richardson's epistolary style, which Austen had recently used then abandoned.

There is also an interesting criticism of Richardson in the way Mrs. Morland knows little of lords and baronets, a nice realistic detail. It is a bit of realism that Austen herself will violate in Pride and Prejudice where the meeting and marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth goes well beyond realistic probabilities.

And there is more ...