[19] Mr. H. S. Stokes has written a pleasant descriptive poem on 'The
Vale of Lanherne,' illustrated by numerous excellent lithographic views
after one of our best Cornish landscape-painters, J. G. Philp.
[20] Little thinking, perhaps, that in the next reign its rays would
shine upon the grave of one of his descendants, who was destined to
fall in arms at the foot of the self-same mount.
[21] There was a John Michell, Dean of Crantock, in 1455: he may have
been the man.
[22] The story runs that when the remains of St. Piran were discovered
under the altar of his little chapel in the Sands, they were found to
be headless.
[23] Tremodret, or Tremodart, formerly belonged to the Hewis family,
then to the Coleshills, one of whom married Sir Renfry Arundell. On the
death of Sir Renfry's grandson, Sir Edmund Arundell, the Arundells sold
it, in 1711, to Sir John Anstis, Garter King of Arms. The Arundells
seem, however, to have long kept up their connection with Tremodret,
as we find from the pages of gossip-loving Hals, who tells us how 'One
Forbes, or Forbhas, was presented rector of this parish in the latter
end of Cromwell's usurpation, and lived here on this fat benefice,
without spending or lending any money, many years, always pretending
want thereof; at length he died suddenly intestate, about the year
1681, having neither wife nor legitimate child, nor any relation of
his blood in this kingdom; upon news of whose death Mr. Arundell, his
patron, opened his trunks, and found about £3,000 in gold and silver,
and carried it thence to his own house. The fame and envy of which
fact flew suddenly abroad, so that Mr. Buller, of Morval, had notice
thereof, who claimed a part or share in this treasure upon pretence
of a nuncupative will, wherein Forbes, some days before his death,
had made him his executor, and the same was concerted into writing,
whereupon he demanded the £3,000 of Mr. Arundell. But he refusing to
deliver the same, Mr. Buller filed a bill in Chancery against him, the
said Mr. Arundell, praying relief in the premise, and that the said
money might be brought or deposited in the said Court, which at length
was accordingly done; where, after long discussing this matter between
the lawyers and clerks in that Court, in fine, as I was informed, the
Court, the plaintiff, and the defendant shared the money amongst them,
without the least thanks to or remembrance of the deceased wretch,
Forbes, for the same; abundantly verifying that saying in the Sacred
Writings, "Man layeth up riches, but knows not who shall gather them."'
[24] Mr. Froude appears to thoroughly credit Walsingham's narration,
but there is to my mind an air of improbability in parts of it, as of
course is often the case in chronicles of the period.
[25] According to some writers near Scariff, according to others off
Cape Clear.
[26] A Sir John Arundell rescued the inhabitants of Southampton after
they had been surprised by a French fleet under Pierre Bahuchet, temp.
Edward III. Sir John slew 500 of the enemy on the spot, amongst them a
son of the King of Sicily, who had been promised by King Philip all the
lands he could conquer in England. Can this story refer to the same Sir
John Arundell?--Saunders' 'Voyage on the Solent.'
[27] Dr. Oliver has thrown grave doubts on the existence of this
College; and may, in fact, be said to have disposed of it altogether.
[28] Hals says that the Arundells endowed St. Columb Church, and that
there was a brass there inscribed to this effect, 'Here lieth the body
of Renfry Arundell, a patron of this Church and founder of this Chapel,
who departed this life the ---- Anno Dom. 1340.'
[29] There is an hereditary tradition at Lanherne that the Mass has
always been celebrated there ever since the Reformation.
[30] A sort of green-stone, so called from its being found at Cataclew
Point, near Trevose Head, Padstow.
[31] Tonkin says: 'Trerice in this parish (St. Allen) belonged to a
younger branch of the Arundells of Trerice in Newlyn; from whom it is
said to have been wrested, not very fairly, by an attorney, Mr. John
Coke. The estate now belongs to Lord Falmouth.' There are four or five
places in Cornwall called Trerice, which signifies 'the place on the
fleeting ground;' but _the_ Trerice is in the parish of Newlyn.'
[32] In _Notes and Queries_, 5th S., vii. 389 (1877), Fredk. Hancock
says the Arundells of Trerice frequently resided on their estate at
Allerford, in West Somerset, and that they were probably connected by
marriage with the Wentworths--one of whom was Governor of Jamaica,
circa 1690.
[33] Possibly Cuillé, in the Department of Mayenne, Canton of
Cossé-le-Vivier, twenty-five miles N.W. of Chateau-Goutier. From this
spot, therefore, or from a place of like name near St. Amand des Boix,
twelve miles N. of Angoulême, perhaps all our Cornish Arundells first
came. It is interesting to notice how many names in this part of
Normandy are familiar to Cornish ears, either as names of persons or of
places.
[34] In the year 1523, 'Duncan Campbell, a Scottish rouer, after long
fight, was taken on the sea by John Arundell, an esquier of Cornwall,
who presented him to the King.'--_Holinshed._
[35] The Grenvilles and the Arundells intermarried frequently about
this period.
[36] He was M.P. for Cornwall, Bodmin, Tregony, and Michell. The small
and now disfranchised borough of Michell was, as might be expected
from its proximity to Trerice, a place in which the Arundells took
much interest. They were Lords of the Manor of Medeshole (Michell), at
least as early as the time of Edward I. Indeed, Browne Willis, in his
'Notitia Parliamentaria,' observes: 'The Manor of Michell (not Michael)
is still (1726) in possession of the ancient family of Arundel of
Lanhern, whose ancestor, Ralph de Arundel, purchased the same, temp.
Hen. III., by whose interest, I presume, with Richard Earl of Cornwall,
King of the Almains (for whom he executed the Sheriff's office for
the County of Cornwall, anno 44 Henry III.), this town obtained its
privileges.'
[37] See the account of the Basset family, _post_.
[38] The original 'Articles of Surrender,' are in the British Museum,
Egerton MSS., 1048, fo. 86.
[39] 16 Car. II., 23 March, 1664.
[40] Sir Wm. Killigrew resigned the Government in 1635.
[41] A grandson of Sir Renfry de Arundell, of Treffry, who in the days
of Henry III. obtained Lanherne by his marriage with Alice, the heiress
of that house.
[42] Osbertus le Sor was at Tolverne in 1297, and was one of those who
had £20 a year in land at that date. John le Soor, or Sore, was at
Tolverne in 1324, and a John Soor was Dean of Canterbury at the end of
the fourteenth or the beginning of the fifteenth century.
[43] It is probably incorrectly described as a 'manor;' and I believe
the Bassets bought the property from the Arundells in 1755.
[44] Polwhele says that Norden (temp. Jas. I.) catalogues several
Arundells west of Tamar, viz., at Clifton, Carminow, Trythall,
Gwarnick, Lanhadron, Tolvern, Lanherne, Trevissic (? Trevithick),
Trebejew, Trerice, Efford and Thirlebec.
[45] For an account of the Palæologi, see _Notes and Queries_, 4th
Series, vols. iii. and iv.
_THE BASSETS OF TEHIDY._
[Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)]
_THE BASSETS OF TEHIDY._
'Pro Rege et Populo.'
(_The Family Motto._)
Anyone who examines the one-inch ordnance map of that part of Cornwall
which lies between Redruth and Camborne, cannot fail to be struck with
the strange lines and markings that appear upon it. Long-dotted lines,
and straight markings, showing the directions of the metallic lodes,
of the 'faults,' and the 'cross-courses;' and arrow-heads, indicating
the ever-varying dip of the strata, intermingled with those cabalistic
symbols which are usually employed to denote the planets, (but in this
case to explain the metals for which the innumerable mines are worked),
crowd the surface of the map to such an extent as to make it almost
illegible. These markings indicate the existence, in abundance, in this
part of the county of that mineral wealth for which Cornwall has so
long been famous, and which, until lately, has contributed no less to
the general welfare of her inhabitants than to the enrichment of some
of her more illustrious families--in a remarkable degree to that whose
story we are about to consider. Nor should we omit to notice here that
the lords of the soil--notably the houses of Basset and Pendarves--have
in their turn striven to ameliorate the condition of the miner by their
endeavouring, by the use of machinery and by many other means to lessen
his arduous and perilous labour, and to promote his social, domestic,
and moral welfare. We shall also see that the Bassets have been no
less distinguished in old times for their attachment to the Crown--an
attachment which at one period cost them the loss of nearly all their
estates--and that they have therefore fully justified the adoption of
their family motto, which I have used as the motto for this chapter.
The actual surface of the ground between Camborne and Redruth, in the
district referred to above, is even more disfigured than the appearance
of the map suggests. The earth seems to have been turned inside out:
grass is scarcely anywhere to be seen, but instead of it vast heaps of
'attle,' or refuse, from the subterranean excavations; the streams are
discoloured by the red mine-rubbish, and look like rivers of blood;
whilst the air is filled with discordant shrieks of the ill-greased,
out-of-door machinery, and the booming thuds of steam pumping-engines.
But, close to the northern confines of this scene of haggard ugliness,
and between it and the Bristol Channel, there lies a fair large park
of a thousand acres, beautifully timbered, and evidencing the care
and attention which have been bestowed upon it for centuries by the
ancient family[46] who have so long been its owners--the Bassets of
Tehidy.
That they were not originally of Cornish extraction their name
sufficiently proclaims. Like the Grenvilles and the St. Aubyns, they
'came over with the Conqueror;' as likewise did the De Dunstanvilles,
who were also seated here at a very early date.[47]
According to Lysons (who during the present century enjoyed peculiar
advantages for learning the story of the family, from being the
personal friend of Sir Francis Basset, Lord de Dunstanville), the
Bassets of Cornwall and Devon--for the members of this family seem to
have very early settled not only in the two westernmost counties, but
also in other parts of England--are descended from Osmund Basset, a
younger son of Sir Ralph Basset, the Justiciary of King Henry I.
I am aware that Hals says that one of the family held a military post
in this part of Cornwall, under Robert, Earl of Morton; and that
another writer (in Lake's 'Parochial History of Cornwall') states that
they are descended from one Thurstan Basset, who held six hides of land
in Drayton, Staffordshire, and who was probably a son of that Osmund
Basset who came over from his native France with William I.:--we
shall, however, probably be safer in following Lysons.[48]
The earliest mention of the _name_ that I have been able to discover is
that of Osmund Basset--probably the before named Norman Knight--who was
a witness in 1050 to an agreement respecting the Abbey of St. Ebrulf,
at Utica.
But, to come to the connection of the Bassets with _Tehidy_, or rather
in the first place to its possession by the De Dunstanvilles: it seems
that Alan, of the latter patronymic, was lord of the manor of Tehidy
in the year 1100; and here seems to be a fitting place to mention the
nature of the connexion between the two names which appears in the
titles of the Sir Francis Basset mentioned above. It arose thus: Thomas
Basset, a descendant--probably a great grandson--of King Henry I.'s
Justiciary, and himself holding a like post in the days of Henry III.,
married one Alice de Dunstanville,[49] and most of their descendants
seem to have settled mainly in Oxfordshire and the midland counties.
There was, however, according to Lysons, another Basset named
William, of Ipsden, also an Oxfordshire man, who, in the days of
Richard I.--probably about the close of his reign--married Cecilia,
the daughter of Alan de Dunstanville, and had with her 'Menalida'
in Cornwall, which property, Playfair says, 'her father acquired by
marriage with a daughter of Reginald Fitz-Henry;' Menalida--so our
author thinks--being an ancient name of Tehidy.[50]
The marriage of this William Basset with Cecilia de Dunstanville
probably began, or at least confirmed, the connexion which still
subsists between the Bassets and Tehidy. Here they settled; and, as
the centuries rolled on, their blood has intermingled with the old
Cornish stocks by marriages with the families of Rashleigh, Carveth,
Godolphin, Prideaux, Courtenay, Grenville, Trenouth, Trengove, Trelawny
of Trelawny, Marrys of Marrys (near Bude), and Enys of Enys. And their
bones lie in Cornish soil; for the most part in the adjacent parish
church of Illogan.
Amongst other early fragmentary notices of them that I have found, are
the following:
In the list of knights summoned from Cornwall, A.D. 1277, to attend
King Edward I. at Worcester, on service against Llewellyn ap Griffith,
the name of Ralph Basset occurs.
In 1324, William Basset's name occurs amongst the 'nomina hominum ad
Arma in com. Cornubiæ.' In the reign of Edward III., he obtained a
patent from that King for two markets weekly, and two fairs every year
for Redruth. There was another William Basset who held a military feu
at Tehidy and Trevalga, in 3rd Henry IV.
They were Sheriffs of the County during the reigns of three
Henries--the 6th, the 7th, and the 8th; and also in some subsequent
reigns: and one of the family[51] occupied, in the reign of Edward
IV., that Castle of Carnbrea which stands on the granite hill of that
name, within the manor of Tehidy, commanding a view of both the English
and St. George's Channels, and down whose slopes groves of old oaks
in those days flourished all the way from the summit of the hill to
Portreath, or Basset's Cove. Most of these were cut down in the time
of the Civil Wars--probably in order to raise money for the King--the
remainder (if Hals is to be trusted) by the old Lady Basset, 'who had
the estate in jointure.' Well might Leland say that theirs was 'a right
goodly lordship,' extending as it did over large portions of the three
parishes of Illogan, Redruth, and Camborne, the advowsons of which
belong to the manor of Tehidy. In illustration of the latter statement,
and further, as showing the early connexion of the Bassets with this
neighbourhood, a writer in Lake's 'Parochial History of Cornwall'
says, that '11 March, 1277, Sir Lawrence Basset, Knight, presented
one Michael to the Church of St. Euinus, Redruth; and William Basset,
Knight, presented Thomas Cotteford to Illogan in 1382; Alexander
Trembras by J. Basset, of Tehidy, 1435,'--and so on. Sometimes a member
of the Basset family held one or other of the three livings.
Of the early members of the family I know of little further that seems
worthy of record; but perhaps we should not pass altogether unnoticed,
the fact that the William Basset who obtained the patent for the
Redruth markets, obtained a license to embattle his manor-house of
Tehidy, in the year 1330-31 (Rot. Pat. 4th Edward III., Memb. 10);
and that at this time the Bassets also had seats at Umberleigh, White
Chappel, and Heanton Court, in Devon. This William appears to be he
who was Knight of the Shire for Cornwall, 6th Edward II., and again
in 6th and 8th Edward III.; a position which probably assisted in
procuring for him the above-mentioned permission to fortify his house.
No representation of the original house at Tehidy, so far as I know,
exists. We may be quite sure that it was a very different structure
from that which now occupies its place, and which was built for John
Pendarves Basset[52] by Thomas Edwards, about the year 1734. Dr.
Borlase figures it in his 'Natural History.' Edwards was a London
architect, and, as I was informed by the late Mr. Thomas Ferris of
Rosewyn, Truro, was employed in the erection of some of the best
modern Cornish mansions--as Nanswhydden, destroyed by fire early in
this century; and the handsome house of Mr. William Lemon, in Prince's
Street, Truro. Mr. Edwards was also the architect of the steeple and
west front of St. Mary's Church, Truro, recently removed to give
place to the new cathedral. The present mansion of Tehidy has been
much enlarged, and contains some excellent pictures by Vandyck, Lely,
Kneller, Rubens, and Reynolds; and the Print-Room of the British Museum
contains interesting engravings of portraits of some members of the
family.
Not even any remains exist of the ancient structure; yet portions at
least must have been standing in comparatively modern times; for Leland
speaks of a castelet or pile (of Basset's), and a park wall, both of
which Tonkin says were to be seen in _his_ time: and he died about the
year 1750.
For more than a century after the date of the Basset who fortified
Tehidy, the family appears to have made little mark in history, unless
we may mention one John Basset (then Sheriff, as so many of his race
were before and after him) whose _posse comitatus_ was so weak that he
dared not encounter the Cornish insurgents at the Flammock (or Flamank)
rebellion; and thus allowed the rebels, whose object was to depose King
Henry VII., on account of his exactions for the expenses of the Scotch
war, to march on to Bodmin and Launceston; and so into Devon. But,
despite their daring, the bills and bows of the Cornish, though their
arrows were (says Lord Bacon) 'the length of a tailor's yard--so strong
and mighty a bow were they said to draw'--were no match for the King's
artillery, which completed their defeat at Blackheath, in 1496.
About the middle of the sixteenth century, the family appears to have
divided into two branches. The Devonshire branch, descended from
John, the elder son of John Basset of Umberleigh and his wife Honora
Grenville, became extinct in 1796, by the death of Francis Basset; the
Cornish branch was continued by George, the younger son of the above
Sir John and the Lady Honora. Of this George there is little further
to say, except that his wife bore the odd name of Jaquet Coffin, and
that he himself was member of Parliament for Launceston, in which
neighbourhood the Bassets formerly held a considerable amount of land,
which they disposed of a few years ago. The children of George and
Jaquet do not seem to have distinguished themselves: the two girls
married, respectively, a Cary and a Newman; the son and heir, who has a
brass at Illogan recording that he died in 1603, aged 43, married Jane,
a daughter of Sir Francis Godolphin.
Possibly the intermixture of the blood of the more warlike Godolphins
may have contributed to the result, but this at least is certain--that
their eldest son Francis, whom we shall have to notice more fully, was
one of the most distinguished members of the family.
The Bassets, like most of the Cornish gentry, as we shall see, were,
with perhaps one exception, of whom more hereafter, stout Royalists;
and at the outbreak of the Civil War, Francis, then head of the family,
was Sheriff and Vice-Admiral of Cornwall (a command subsequently
divided into two--north and south)--and Governor of St. Michael's
Mount,[53] which was his own inheritance. He was 'a staunch friend to
Church and King; and--a devoted lover of game-cocks,' says a writer
who was not much disposed to magnify Francis Basset's good points.
I hardly know whether or not it is worth recording, as showing the
Vice-Admiral's love of sport; but Hals tells the story how he 'let fly
his goshawk or tassel to a heath-polt, or heath-cock,' and both were
lost to sight; but were both sent back to Tehidy the next day by the
Mayor of Camelford, the heath-cock killed by the hawk, but the latter
alive and well. By a comparison of time it was shown that in half an
hour the birds had flown thirty-two miles. Sir Francis was, moreover,
Recorder of St. Ives, represented that borough in Parliament, procured
its first Charter, and presented the burgesses with a loving-cup,
bearing this genial, though uncouth, inscription:
'If any discord 'twixt my friends arise
Within the borough of belov'd St. Ives,
It is desirèd this my cup of loue
To euerie one a peace-maker may proue.
Then am I blest to have giuen a legacie,
So like my harte, unto posterite.'
FRANCIS BASSET, A^o. 1640.
In 1640 he also contested the Cornish borough of Michael, or Michell,
for which, however, he did not sit, owing to a double return.
Francis Basset took to wife Ann, daughter of Sir Jonathan Trelawny.
They were married at Pelynt in 1620; and, that time had not dulled
their affection, the two following letters, written nearly a quarter of
a century after the wedding-day, will show.
But it should be premised, that whilst Sir Bevil Grenville, aided by
Major-General Thomas Basset, was defeating the forces of the Parliament
at Stamford Hill, near Stratton in North Cornwall, Francis Basset
in the West was busily engaged in raising money for the King, and in
bringing together and drilling what forces he could in his own part
of the county. It was also his function, in co-operation with Lord
Goring, to intercept the supplies furnished from West Cornwall to the
Earl of Essex, and thus to precipitate the engagements which ended so
disastrously for the cause of the Parliamentary troops in the West of
England.
The good news from Stamford Hill seems to have reached the Sheriff at
Truro, whereupon he writes, with an overflowing heart, this letter:
_Francis Basset to his Wife, after the News of the Victory of Stratton._
'Truro, this 18th May, 1643.
6 o'clock, ready to march.
'DEAREST SOULE,
'Oh, deare Soule, prayse God everlastingly. Reade this enclosed, ring
out the bells, rayse bonfyres, publish these joyfull tydings. Believe
these truths, excuse my writing larger,[54] I have no tyme; wee march
on to meete our victorious friends, and to seaze all the rebells left,
if wee can finde such livinge. Your dutyous prayers God hass heard.
Bless us accordingly, pray everlastingly, and Jane, and Betty, and all
you owne. Thy owne
'FRS. BASSET.'
'Pray let my cousin Harry know these joyful blessings. Send word to
the ports south and north, to searche narrowly for all strangers
travellinge for passage, and cause the keepinge them close and safe.
'To my dearest, dearest friend Mrs. Basset att the Mount. Speede this,
haste, haste.'
The foregoing letter appears to me to be interesting, not only as
showing the loving terms on which the wife and husband were, but also
as indicating the tension of feeling which existed in Cornwall at this
critical period in Charles's affairs. We may be sure that Francis
Basset and his men pushed forward rapidly on the receipt of this good
news, and that he determined not to lose the chance of being present
at the next engagement when the banners of King and Parliament were
again to float in defiance against each other. Accordingly we find him
on the field of Braddock soon after,[55] and again, after the fight,
chronicling another victory in the following impassioned terms to his
wife. Notice that he was now knighted, and the change of style in which
he addresses 'my lady' at '_her_ Tehidy:'
'Thanks to our Jesus.
'DEAREST HARTT.
'L---- is the happy messenger to the West of Cornwall. Peace, and
I hope perpetual. Sadd houses I have seen many, but a joyfuller
pleasanter day never than this. Sende the money, as much and as soon
as you can. Sende to all our ffriends at home, especially, this good
news. I write this on my saddle. Every friend will pardon the illness
of it, and you chiefly, my perfect joy.
'F. BASSET.
'The Kinge and army march presently for Plymouth. Jesus give the Kinge
it and all.
'The King, in the hearing of thousands, as soon as he saw me in the
morning, cryed to mee "Deare Mr. Sheriffe, I leave Cornwall to you
safe and sound."
'To my lady Basset, at her Tehidy, joyfull.'
But Sir Francis, though he did not live to see the days of the
Commonwealth (for he died 19th September, 1645), lived long enough to
see the reverse of such joyful pictures as the foregoing.
Upon his son and heir, John, fell the full vengeance of Cromwell's
government. He was imprisoned for his father's 'delinquency'--though
he had never himself been in arms--was compelled to compound for his
estates, and, saddest blow of all, in 1660 to sell St. Michael's Mount,
which from that date has been held continuously by the family of St.
Aubyn. Other hardships too he suffered, which, the county historians
tell us, reduced his estate and the family very low. Up to this date
the Bassets had undoubtedly vindicated their claim to the first half of
the family motto--'Pro Rege.'
But three good matches brought more money into the impoverished Tehidy
coffers; and great profits from tin again restored the Bassets to
wealth and prosperity.
The Vice-Admiral had a second son--Francis--also a Colonel in the
army. But in later life he became a Baptist, and resided at Taunton;
one of that class who, imbued with stern and self-denying views of
religion, caused Erasmus to ejaculate, 'O, sit anima mea cum Puritanis
Anglicanis.'
The Colonel was accused in 1661 of a conspiracy against Charles II.,
and there is a Star Chamber complaint to this effect; but ultimately
the letter pretending to have been written by Francis Basset was
demonstrated to be a forgery. Indeed the whole family seems to have
been so thoroughly attached to the Stuarts, that, on the accession of
the house of Hanover in 1714, one is not very much surprised to find
that Mr. Basset of Tehidy would have been arrested by Mr. Boscawen
(then Sheriff of Cornwall) as a Jacobite, had not Mr. Basset made a
timely flight from his house. Unless I am mistaken, this was the same
Francis Basset who was himself Sheriff of Cornwall in 1708.
The connexion between the families of Basset and Pendarves is amusingly
illustrated by the record of a marriage which took place at St.
Stephen's in Branwell, on 12th April, 1737, the scribe who entered the
event in the Parish Register describing the bridegroom as 'a Squar,'
that being the nearest approach which the parish clerk's acquaintance
with orthography enabled him to make towards writing the happy man down
an Esquire.
We now come to what I cannot help considering a very interesting period
in the family history--interesting not so much from the importance of
the incidents chronicled (though they give us a curious peep into the
interior of a Cornish gentleman's household early in the last century),
as from their having been recorded by the pen of the beautiful and
accomplished Mary Grenville, a descendant of the old Cornish family of
Stow, better known to us nowadays as the Mrs. Delany to whom Ballard
dedicated his 'Celebrated British Ladies,' and whose autobiography,
edited by one of her descendants, Lady Llanover, is, notwithstanding
its portentous length, one of the most entertaining books of modern
times.
When only sixteen or seventeen years of age, Mary Grenville married
her first husband, Alexander Pendarves, of Roscrow near Penryn, he
being then sixty years old. She describes with much vivacity her first
acquaintance with her Cornish home, and her grumpy old husband whom
she styles in her diary 'Gromio.' The old man had quarrelled with
Francis Basset for marrying, as his second wife, Gromio's niece, Mary,
daughter and heiress of his younger brother, the Rev. John Pendarves of
Drewsteignton, and for refusing his offer to settle upon Francis Basset
his whole estate if he would take the name of Pendarves after his,
Alexander's, death. This, Basset, justly proud of his own family name,
declined to do; and hence no doubt the reason of Alexander's marriage
with the young Mary Grenville. Their marriage life lasted only about
seven years, and was not a particularly happy one. Soon after her
husband's death Mrs. Pendarves married Dr. Delany, Dean of Down, to
whom she seems to have been fondly attached; though he too was much her
senior.
To this charming and talented lady we are indebted for the following
glance at the interior of Tehidy nearly 150 years ago, and for a
portrait of the Basset of the period--Francis, grandfather of the first
Lord de Dunstanville:
'About a month after we had been at home (_i.e._, at Roscrow), and had
received the compliments of the chief of our neighbourhood, Gromio
proposed that we should make a visit to Bassanio (Mr. F. Basset), who
had married his niece. I made no objection, but was rather pleased
to leave my own house for some time. Bassanio had been in his youth
a man of gallantry; his figure despicable enough, but his wit and
cheerfulness made amends, though at this time both were a good deal
impaired by an ill state of health and a very dull wife, who, with a
very inferior understanding to his, was the chief agent. He seemed
only to act with her permission, which was most astonishing. We were
received at first, I thought, very coolly. Gromio's marrying was
a great disappointment to Bassanio and Fulvia (Mrs. Basset). They
expected his estate, and were both avaricious. Bassanio liked to take
wine, but not to excess. When his spirits were a little raised, he was
very gay and entertaining; and till then I had not laughed, or shown
the least sign of mirth. After having spent a fortnight at this place,
Gromio grew thoughtful, and would often retire to his chamber, and at
supper and dinner sat gloomy and discontented. When I was alone with
him, he would sigh and groan as if his heart would break. I thought
him ill, and asked him several times if he was not, to which he always
answered with great sullenness "he was well enough." I began then to
examine my own behaviour to him; I was sure he could resent nothing
in that more than he had reason for before, and that I was not so
grave, but (in appearance) happier than at first. After enduring great
anxiety of mind for a week, I could not forbear taking notice to him
of the change I found in his temper; for though he never made himself
agreeable to me, it had not been for want of kindness and civility in
his behaviour; but now he had laid aside both, and I own I was greatly
perplexed to find out the cause. 'Tis certain that fondness from a
person distasteful to one is tormenting, and what can so much hurt a
generous heart that can make no return for it? On the other hand, it
is very disagreeable to be treated with gloomy looks which show an
inward discontent, and not to be able to account for it.
'At last the mighty distress broke out in these words: "Oh, Aspasia!"'
(Mrs. Delany's assumed name), '"take care of Bassanio; he is a
cunning, treacherous man, and has been the ruin of one woman already,
who was wife to his bosom friend!" and then he burst into tears. I was
so struck with this caution, and his behaviour, that I could not for
some time speak; at last I said, "I am miserable indeed, if you can be
jealous of this ugly man. What am I for the future to expect?" I was
so much surprised and vexed, that it threw me into an agony of tears.
He assured me all the time that he had nothing to charge me with; that
my behaviour was just what he wished it to be, but he could not help
seeing how much Bassanio was charmed with everything I said or did,
and he knew him to be a man not to be trusted. By this time I was a
little recovered, and entreated him to return to Averno (Roscrow); but
he said, "No; to convince me he had no doubt of my conduct, he would
not go before the time he had first proposed."'
And so it seems the party did not break up for a week or ten days;
Gromio grumbling; Bassanio vainly trying to make himself extremely
agreeable during their walks and drives in that 'very romantic part
of the country,' as Mrs. Delany well calls it; Fulvia as dull as
ever; and Aspasia untouched by the flattery and gallantries of her
would-be lover. At length she had to write 'that Bassanio was too
quick-sighted not to perceive Gromio's suspicions and my great dislike
of his behaviour; and, as it was his interest to keep in favour with
his uncle, he was upon his guard, and never gave either of us reason
to be offended with him any more. Soon after (in 1721) he was seized
with terrible fits, that ended his life a year and half after I
married.'[56]
There is yet another entry in Mrs. Delany's diary which refers to the
Tehidy family. In June, 1756, she writes: 'I am going into mourning for
my great-great-nephew Basset, who died last week. I pity his unhappy
mother extremely. She has gone through much care and anxiety on his
account.'
John Basset, the son of the Rev. John Basset, rector of Illogan and
Camborne, now claims a passing notice before we come to the last and
perhaps most illustrious member of this family. He was born on 17th
November, 1791, and was elected member of Parliament for Helston in
1840, failing, however, to retain his seat at the election in the
following year; but he chiefly distinguished himself by the zealous
interest which he took in the welfare of Cornish mining and the Cornish
miner. In 1836 he published some treatises on the 'Mining Courts of the
Duchy of Cornwall,' and, in the same year, 'Thoughts on the' (then)
'New Stannary Bill.' Three years afterwards appeared the 'Origin and
History of the Bounding Act;' and, after another similar interval,
in 1842--the year before his death at Boppart, on the Rhine--his
'Observations on Cornish Mining.'
But perhaps his most valuable contribution to Cornish literature
was a treatise published in 1840, having for its humane object
the amelioration of the physical condition of the miner--viz.,
'Observations on the Machinery used for Raising Miners in the Hartz.'
There can be little doubt that this work tended in no small degree to
direct public attention to the great and avoidable exhaustion caused to
the miner by his having to ascend many fathoms of ladders after long
and laborious work in the heated and vitiated atmosphere of many of
our deep mines. The result was the invention of an ingenious machine
known as the steam man-engine, by means of which two huge vertical
poles, with foot-rests at intervals, are set in motion side by side
the whole depth of the mine-shaft. As one pole ascends, the other
descends, and thus, by changing from one to the other by help of the
foot-rests, the miner is enabled to ascend from his work, or descend to
it, with the minimum expenditure of his own strength. If he who makes
an oak grow where none grew before is to be considered a benefactor to
his race, surely anyone who contributes in greater or less degree to
so benevolent and beneficial an object as this steam man-engine has
proved to be, has a good claim to be ranked among the philanthropic
benefactors of his race. There is, of course, some little risk in
performing this feat in the dark, damp and slippery mine-shafts, lit,
perhaps, by a solitary candle stuck into a lump of clay and attached
to the front of the miner's hat; and it is scarcely necessary to add
that the use of the man-engine is most strictly forbidden to all except
those by whom it is really required. Is it necessary to say that the
man-engine, therefore, became a great attraction to all schoolboys who
chanced to be within easy distance of one?--at any rate the writer,
then a schoolboy, used to spend parts of many a half-holiday in
practically investigating the merits of the machine, by descending by
its means into the depths of the earth, until the utter darkness made
the descent too dangerous even for a schoolboy.
John Basset's eldest son, John Francis Basset, of Stratton, brother of
the present owner of the estates (Gustavus Lambert Basset, who served
in the Crimea as lieutenant in the 72nd Highlanders), was a barrister,
and was Sheriff of Cornwall in 1861. He succeeded to the Tehidy
property on the death of his aunt, Frances, Baroness Basset, in 1855,
and died at the family mansion in 1869. His chief mining interests
(which were immense) were in the Bassets, South Frances, and Dolcoath
mines. His landed property lay chiefly in Illogan, Camborne, Redruth,
and St. Agnes, besides other estates which he owned in Meneage,
Gluvias, Falmouth, Tywardreath, etc.
But we must now speak of one whom Davies Gilbert, P.R.S., described
as, in every sense, the first man in the county--I mean that Francis
Basset, D.C.L., Baron de Dunstanville of Tehidy, and Baron Basset of
Stratton,[57] whose monument forms so conspicuous an object on the
summit of the historic hill of Carn Brea, and which was erected to
his memory by the county of Cornwall in 1836.[58] He was the grandson
of Mrs. Delany's Francis Basset, and son of the Francis Basset who
represented Penryn in Parliament from 1766 to 1769. His mother was
Margaret St. Aubyn.[59] Born at Walcot, in Oxfordshire, on 9th August,
1757, he was educated at Harrow, Eton, and lastly at King's College,
Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. when twenty-nine years of
age. When Lord de Dunstanville's father died, the boy wrote to Dr.
Bathurst--afterwards Bishop of Norwich--this characteristic little note:
'DEAR SIR,
'Knowing the regard my papa had for you, I wish you would be my tutor.
'Yours,
'FRANK BASSET.'
A tour on the Continent in company with the Rev. William Sandys,
the son of a former steward of the family, a gentleman who had been
specially trained to perform the pleasant but arduous duties of
cicerone, completed his education, and thus he started in life with
every advantage that a youth of talents and position could desire; nor
did he fail to employ them.
On his return home he at once threw himself into the arena of public
life; and from time to time published sundry political and agricultural
treatises. Amongst the former may be mentioned, 'Thoughts on Equal
Representation' (1783), 'Observations on a Treaty of Commerce between
England and France' (1787), 'The Theory and Practice of the French
Constitution' (1794), 'The Crimes of Democracy' (1798), and a speech
which he delivered at a county meeting at Bodmin in 1809.
That he considered the foregoing productions not unworthy of his genius
may be judged from the fact that he had them handsomely bound together,
and presented them to his 'dearest friend, Miss (Harriet) Lemon,' the
daughter of Sir William Lemon, of Carclew, Bart., M.P., a lady who
ultimately became his second wife: the volume is preserved in the
Royal Institution of Cornwall. His agricultural tracts--'Experiments
in Agriculture' (1794), 'A Fat Ox' (1799), 'Crops and Prices' (1800),
'Crops in Cornwall' (1801), 'Mildew' (1805)--mostly appeared in Young's
'Annals of Agriculture;' and, like his political treatises, evince much
acumen and practical common sense.
He was chosen Recorder for Penryn, and represented that borough in
Parliament in 1780. On his entrance into political life he joined
Lord North's party, and was hurried into the fatal coalition; though
the outbreak of the French Revolution considerably modified his
political views, which ultimately became what we should now call
Conservative.[60] As illustrative of his electioneering activity, the
following will be interesting, at least to my Cornish readers:
_Extracts from Letters from the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen to Mrs. Delany._
'June, 1784.
'... Your turbulent nephew Sir Francis Basset has failed in his
first petition, and our friend Mr. Christopher Hawkins of Trewithan
is declar'd duly elected for Mitchell, in preference to Mr. Roger
Wilbraham, one of Sir Francis's _moveable candidates_, for he set
him up at Truro too, and has presented a petition _there too_, and
_another_ at Tregony, where our friends had a majority of 21! I hope
Sir Francis will continue to have the same success as he had in this
first attempt, which was decided in Parliament last night....'
'18 Oct., 1784.
'... My son (George Evelyn, 3rd Viscount Falmouth) and his sposa are
very cheerfull in Cornwall, giving balls to their neighbours; while
_your nephew Basset_ is waging most _inveterate war_ and _hostilities_
at Truro. My son has _all the lore_ (they say), but then he (S^r F.)
has _all the money_--la partie n'est pas égale!'
Possibly personal pique had something to do with Sir Francis's
desertion of his original political allies; for I find amongst the
Additional MSS. in the British Museum, a letter in his hand to the Duke
of Portland, on the 20th November, 1783, relinquishing all connexion
with that nobleman's Government, on account of their having superseded
Sir Francis's nephew, Mr. Morice, as Warden of the Stannaries.
'Ill-usage to myself' (wrote he) 'I could better have brooked than to
my friends.'
In the year 1779, it will be remembered, Plymouth was threatened by the
combined French and Spanish fleet, and Francis Basset distinguished
himself on the occasion by marching to that town a large body of the
miners' militia, who, under his directions, rapidly threw up such
additional earthworks as were deemed necessary for the security of
that port. This prompt action on his part gained for him his first
title--his baronetcy. Indeed, he seems to have had quite a talent
for fortification, for to him also are due the works of defence of
which traces are still to be seen at Basset's Cove, now better known
as Portreath, and which formerly consisted of one battery of four
12-pounders, and another of two 6-pounders.
Sir Francis evidently took great interest in the affairs of Rodney,
and on 7th June, 1783, moved an address to the King that a 'lasting
provision' might be made for the gallant Admiral; but, on the
Government's undertaking to see after it, he withdrew his motion.
He opposed the Peace, and argued 'with energy' against it; but, as
the report from which I quote merely 'preserves the substance of the
argument without the _declamation_,' we are unfortunately deprived of
this specimen of the Baronet's eloquence. In November of the same year
he seconded the Address in reply to the King's speech, declaring his
confidence in the Administration, his desire to alleviate the burdens
of the people, his abhorrence of smuggling, as to which he said he
spoke with some authority, living as he did in a maritime county; and,
having spoken with tenderness of the natives of India, whose grievances
the Government had promised to redress, he concluded with a warm eulogy
of the unparalleled successes of Lord Rodney.
Nor did he neglect the arts of peace; deriving as he did an almost
princely income from the mines which lay within sight of his mansion,
he was ever on the watch for opportunities for developing mining
prosperity, and promoting the moral and social welfare of the miner. He
was deeply interested, too, in improving the means of locomotion in the
county, and in 1809 laid the first rail of the iron tramway designed to
connect Portreath on the northern shore of Cornwall with the Gwennap
mines.
Moreover, he was a liberal patron of the fine arts,[61] and his edition
of Carew's 'Survey of Cornwall,' enriched with Tonkin's notes, and
published in 1811, is one amongst many instances of his public spirit,
and his interest in the affairs of his county.
He lived to the good old age of seventy-seven, but the end came at
last; and on his way to London, to attend in his place in the House
of Peers, he was seized with paralysis at Exeter. He managed to reach
town, but died at his residence, Stratheden House, South Place,
Knightsbridge, nearly opposite the Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks, on the
5th February, 1835.
These were the days before railways, and the tale is still told in the
west country of the magnificent procession, with its 'outriders and ten
pages on horseback,' which wended its way at a walking-pace from London
to Tehidy, a distance of 300 odd miles, accomplished in twelve days.
His monument, adorned with a portrait by Westmacott, stands in Illogan
Church; and an epitaph that does not flatter records that 'his open
heart, his generosity, and universal benevolence, won him the esteem
of all classes, and the affection of those who intimately knew him.
A sincere Christian, an elegant scholar, the patron of merit, and
a munificent contributor to charitable institutions throughout the
Empire, he proved himself the friend of his country and of mankind.
But, with a laudable partiality, he especially devoted the chief
energies of his mind, and directed the influence of rank and talents to
advance the moral welfare and to promote the prosperity of Cornwall,
his native county.'
The entailed estates devolved, upon his death, on his nephew, the
before-named John Francis Basset, from whom they have passed to their
present owner, Gustavus Lambert Basset, Esq., of Tehidy.
The first Baron de Dunstanville left only one daughter, Frances, who,
on her father's decease became Baroness Basset of Stratton. Noted for
her diligence in charity and all good works, she died at Tehidy, on
22nd January, 1855, in her seventy-fourth year, last of her race in the
direct line; and in her the revived, but short-lived, peerage became
extinct.