The Monctons, Volume I

Publisher Marketing: MY GRANDFATHER AND HIS SONS. There was a time-a good old time-when men of rank and fortune were not ashamed of their poor relations; affording the protection of their name and influence to the lower shoots of the great family tree, which, springing from the same root, expected to derive support and nourishment from the main stem. That time is well-nigh gone for ever. Kindred love and hospitality have decreased with the increase of modern luxury and exclusiveness, and the sacred ties of consanguinity are now regarded with indifference; or if recognized, it is only with those who move in the same charmed circle, and who make a respectable appearance in the world: then, and then only, are their names pronounced with reverence, and their relationship considered an honor. It is amusing to watch from a distance, the eagerness with which some people assert their claims to relationship with wealthy and titled families, and the intrigue and man uvring it calls forth in these fortunate individuals, in order to disclaim the boasted connexion. It was my fate for many years to eat the bitter bread of dependence, as one of those despised and insulted domestic annoyances-A Poor Relation. My grandfather, Geoffrey Moncton, whose name I bear, was the youngest son of a wealthy Yorkshire Baronet, whose hopes and affections entirely centered in his first-born. What became of the junior scions of the family-tree was to him a matter of secondary consideration. My grandfather, however, had to be provided for in a manner becoming the son of a gentleman, and on his leaving college, Sir Robert offered to purchase him a commission in the army. My grandfather was a lad of peaceable habits, and had a mortal antipathy to fighting. He refused point blank to be a soldier. The Navy offered the same cause for objection, strengthened by a natural aversion to the water, which made him decline going to sea. Contributor Bio:  Moodie, Susanna Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) is the Canadian pioneer and critically acclaimed author of Roughing it in the Bush and Life in the Bush Versus the Clearings, frank portrayals of life as a settler in 19th century Canada. She was the younger sister of writers Agnes Strickland and Catharine Parr Traill, who also wrote about her experience as a Canadian settler in The Backwoods of Canada. Before immigrating to Canada Susanna Moodie was a successful author of such children's books as The Little Quaker and The Sailor Brother, and was an active abolitionist. Moodie's works continue to influence contemporary writers like Margaret Atwood, and her contribution to Canadian literature was commemorated on a Canadian postage stamp in 2003.