Part 8

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.