(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.