I have these particulars, and one or two yet to be related, from my father.
At the period of my youth but three of the Monktons were left at the Abbey--Mr.and Mrs.Monkton and their only child Alfred, heir to the property.

The one other member of this, the elder branch of the family, who was then alive, was Mr.Monkton's younger brother, Stephen.

He was an unmarried man, possessing a fine estate in Scotland; but he lived almost entirely on the Continent, and bore the reputation of being a shameless profligate.

The family at Wincot held almost as little communication with him as with their neighbors.
I have already mentioned my father, and a lady and her daughter, as the only privileged people who were admitted into Wincot Abbey.
My father had been an old school and college friend of Mr.Monkton, and accident had brought them so much together in later life that their continued intimacy at Wincot was quite intelligible.

I am not so well able to account for the friendly terms on which Mrs.Elmslie (the lady to whom I have alluded) lived with the Monktons.