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.'