[46] Major Glynn (who stammered), at one of the county meetings at
which Lord de Dunstanville had spoken with laudable pride of his
ancestors having come over with the Conqueror, is reported to have
said, 'We-ell-ell-ell, and, and wha-at of that, my lord? M-m-mine were
here c-c-c-centuries before the C-c-c-conqueror was born.'
[47] They quarter the arms of Plantagenet (or at least formerly did
so); and Davies Gilbert calls De Dunstanville 'a nominal barony of
Plantagenet blood.'
[48] Playfair says that the first of this family of De Dunstanville,
one Thurston Basset, whom we find on the Roll of Battle Abbey, came
over with the Conqueror. From him sprang _many_ families favoured by
our kings, most of them now extinct. There is a grant of lands from
King John to Wm. Bassett, and Cecilia his wife. In the 'History of the
Manor of Castle Combe, in Wilts, with Memoirs of the Dunstanvilles,'
etc., by Geo. P. Scrope, M.P. (_privately printed_ by J. B. Nichols
and Sons, in 1852), it is stated that Reginald de Dunstanville, Earl
of Cornwall, was first Baron of Castle Combe. There appear to have
been more than one of that name living in the twelfth century; one of
them, perhaps the earliest, was also sometimes named Reginald Fitz-Roy,
who was the son of Henry I. by Adeliza de Insulâ. Reginald, according
to Mr. Scrope's pedigree of the De Dunstanvilles, married Havisia (or
Beatrix), daughter of Caudor, the second Earl of Cornwall, 'ex Regio
sanguine Britannorum.' Adeliza, the sister of Cecilia de Dunstanville,
married another Basset, viz. Thomas, Baron Basset of Hedendon, 10th
Henry II. This work contains much minute information about the early De
Dunstanvilles.
[49] One of their sons, Gilbert, founded Bicester Abbey, in Oxfordshire.
[50] The name was also written Tydy, Tihidi, Tyhudy, Tehedie, etc. It
is perhaps right to add here (although this is a sketch of the Basset
family, rather than of the De Dunstanvilles) the following notes, which
I have gathered from Carew: 'Walter de Dunstanvil appears to have
had to furnish one knight in respect of his Cornish possessions. See
"Evidentiæ Extractæ de Rubro Libro de Scaccario," 143.--_Cornub._ And
Alan de Dunstanvill's name occurs in the "Nomina Baron: et militum et
rotulis de feodis militum, vel de scutagio solutis regi Richardo Primo:
in libro rubro scaccarii."--_Cornubia_ (A.D. 1189 to 1199). There was,
moreover, a Reginald de Dunstanville, a baron of the realm, temp. Hen.
I., who is mentioned in the Testa de Nevill.
[51] William of Worcester writes in 1478: 'Turris Castelli Karnbree,
Sir John Basset, chevalier stat.' Hals says (but I cannot conceive upon
what authority) that this castle was built by the Brays, who came over
with the Conqueror (and who certainly intermarried with the Bassets),
and hence the name. But Carn Brea is the appropriate Cornish form of
'rock-crowned hill.' Parker attributes the Castle to Robert Fitz Hugh
de Dunstanville--temp. Will. I.
[52] There is a monument to this Basset, amongst others, in the church
at Illogan; on it is recorded that he died '19 Sept., 1739, æt. 25,
descended from a Race of Virtuous, Loyal, and well-Allied ancestors,
who for more than four hundred years have lived at their Manor of
Tyhydy, in this Parish, in great honour and esteem.'
[53] In this latter post his brother, Sir Arthur, succeeded him. Sir
Thomas, another brother, was General of the Ordnance to Prince Maurice;
a major-general for the King; and commanded a division at the battle of
Stratton; he was knighted in 1644.
[54] At greater length.
[55] If not on the field of battle itself, he was certainly on the way
to it at Lostwithiel--hard by.
[56] The Pendarves property ultimately passed to F. Basset's relict, as
old Alexander died without signing his will.
[57] He was created a baronet, 24th Nov. 1779; Baron de Dunstanville,
by Pitt, 17th June, 1796; and Baron Basset, 30th Oct., 1797.
[58] A fine portrait of him, seated, is preserved in the Museum of the
Royal Institution of Cornwall, at Truro. Sir John St. Aubyn has another
portrait of him at the age of nineteen, in a 'Vandyck' dress, painted
by Opie, after Sir Joshua Reynolds.
[59] His first wife was Frances Susannah Coxe, to whom Penwarne
dedicated his volume of Cornish poems.
[60] It is perhaps worth while to notice here that a Private Act was
passed (47 Geo. III. sess. 1, c. 3, 1807), to relieve him from certain
pains and penalties for taking his seat in the House of Peers before
making the oaths and declarations, etc., required by law.
[61] Forty-one of his surplus pictures were offered for sale at
Christie's on 8th May, 1824, when six of them were bought in, and
the remainder sold for £703 13s. He was an early friend of Opie, and
attended the great Cornish artist's funeral in 1807; and it may be
added that he placed in a chapel, which he built at his own expense,
in Cornwall, an altar-piece by that eccentric artist, Lane, which was
exhibited in the Royal Academy, 1808.
_ADMIRAL WILLIAM BLIGH, F.R.S._
[Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)]
_ADMIRAL WILLIAM BLIGH, F.R.S._
'His name is added to the glorious roll
Of those who search the storm-surrounded Pole.'