Tilney Britten

Tilney Britten is the villain of the fourth book *The Mysterious Visitor.* He poses as Mrs. Lynch's long lost brother Montague Wilson.

## Appearance

He is a small, thin man with brown eyes. Trixie comments about his eye colour to the other Bobwhites and how different they are to Mrs. Lynch's blue eyes.

When he first appears at the Wheelers he is wearing a dark suit and light spats. Later on at Diana's Halloween party he is wearing a cowboy costume and a black domino.

## Personality

Mr. Britten is a cold and calculating man who will stop at nothing to steal money from the Lynches as can be seen when he confronts Trixie throughout the book, first by the fireplace and again in the Robin.

Posing as Mr. Wilson, Tilney behaves as a cheerful man who knows (or pretends to know) a lot about horses.

> *"Nice people like that Lynch girl don’t have uncles who are crooks. Mr. Wilson is just one of those harmless little guys who likes to hear himself talk. Eccentric, you might call him, but aren’t we all?"* - Bill Regan on 'Uncle Monty'
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## Book Appearances

Tilney Britten appears in the series only once as the main villain in *The Mysterious Visitor* where he poses as Diana's uncle Montague Wilson. Mr. Lynch eventually decides to give his wife's supposed brother The Robin and a nice new tow car to get rid of him. He even goes so far as to install a TV in The Robin so that he can watch his own shows in peace.

Mart and Trixie both form plans to catch 'Mr. Wilson' and find out who he really is unbeknownst to each other.

Mart borrows a tape recorder from a classmate which he sets up under a bed in The Robin. Just as he's started it recording as a test he sees Trixie sneaking into the garage. In order to maintain his cover he hides in the shower compartment. This test recording is still running as Trixie finds the pistol license of, and confronts, Mr. Britten. The tape is then used as evidence to arrest him.

Trixie sneaks out in the night to investigate Mr. Britten's belongings in The Robin after realizing he would be leaving that night. Only dressed in her pajamas she sneaks inside and rifles through his clothing until she finds a pistol license which contains his real name and thumb print. He appears behind her and tells her to drop it and warns her that he has a gun (which is caught on tape). Trixie then calls him by his full name and he tells her that he intends to kill her because she knows too much he then ties her up in the Robin and leaves the Lynches. While driving Mart exits the shower compartment and unties her. Noticing that she is shivering he gives her his sweater, both then realize that the light from Mart's torch can be seen from the tow car. They quickly tie and gag Trixie again and Mart hides in the shower compartment. After checking Trixie's binds Mr. Britten goes back to driving. Mart reemerges and the pair form a plan to capture the attention of the night duty policeman 'Spider' Webster so that he can apprehend Mr. Britten. As they approach the intersection where Spider would be on duty the two Beldens prepare a large number of pots and pans which they hurl out the window while yelling. Spider then pulls Mr. Britten over and after a discussion takes them all back to the station to listen to Mart's tape. Tilney is then arrested and Mr. Lynch gives The Robin to the Bobwhites in thanks which then gets given to Tom and Celia to live in.

The real Montague Wilson then reaches out to apologizes and to invite the Bobwhites to his dude ranch in Arizona for Christmas.

## Relationships

### Mrs. Lynch

Posing as her brother, Tilney becomes quite close with Mrs. Lynch and plays canasta with her in the evening between his evening television programs.

### Mr. Olyfant

Before making himself known to the Lynches, Tilney made at least one visit to Mr. Olyfant, the hotel owner on Hawthorne Street (Skid Row) in order to gain information on the Lynch family. He later repaid Olyfant for his information with valuable china birds stolen from the Lynches. The police found them after Trixie told them about her visit to Hawthorne street and they arrested Mr. Olyfant as well.

### Mr. Lynch

Mr. Lynch strongly dislikes his wife's supposed brother and sympathizes with his daughter Diana. He goes so far as to take the earlier train in to work so that he does not have to commute with him. Eventually Mr. Lynch decides to give Mr. Wilson their luxury trailer The Robin and a brand new tow car to get rid of him. Mr. Lynch also has a television installed in the Robin because of their different tastes in programs which are unfortunately on at the same time.

### Diana Lynch

Diana absolutely despises her 'Uncle Monty' who actively makes her life miserable and attempts to isolate her from her friends by telling lies. He even goes so far as to try and ruin her Halloween party which, thankfully due to Honey's tactfulness, was a major success. Di was incredibly relieved to find out that he was not her actual uncle.

### Mr. Wilson

Tilney met the real Montague Wilson before the book and found out that he had no intention of reaching out to his sister due to her recent wealthy status. He then uses this information and that gathered from Olyfant to pose as him to take money himself. Mr. Wilson feels terribly about the whole thing, apologizes, and explains things from his end to Mr. and Mrs. Lynch.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Exact Citation Needed