A little inland is Tehidy House, the seat of the Bassets, a famous Cornish family. The house once had parks and plantations of far greater area than at present; they are said indeed to have reached to the foot of Carn Brea. During the Civil Wars many a humdrum family flowered into distinction. It was a chance to prove their mettle. After the battle of Bradock Down the Francis Basset of that date was knighted, and a little later we find him Sheriff of the county. His marriage was such another as that of his friend, Sir Beville Grenville, and after Essex' troops had surrendered to the King in 1644, he hurried to send his lady the gracious news. "I write this on the saddle. Every friend will pardon the illness of it, and you chiefly, my perfect joy. The King and army march presently for Plymouth. Jesu give the King, it and all. The King, in the hearing of thousands, as soon as he saw me in the morning, cried to me, 'Dear Mr. Sheriff, I leave Cornwall to you safe and sound.'" Before the war Sir Francis had represented St. Ives in Parliament. In 1640 he presented the town with a silver wishing cup, on which was inscribed:
"_If any discord 'twixt my friends arise Within the borough of beloved Saint Ies It is desired that this my cup of love To every one a peacemaker may prove, Then am I blessed to have given a legacie So like my heart unto posteritie._"
No doubt he saw that his borough was mainly Parliamentarian and that trouble was ahead, and took this sweet and pleasant manner of testifying the unalterable nature of his personal sentiments.
It is sad to think how many of the families that distinguished themselves during those wars are now only a memory.
"_The four wheels of Charles' wain, Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain._"
But though Trerice is empty, Lanherne a nunnery, and Stowe but a farmhouse, there are Bassets still at Tehidy, and long may they continue.
The house contains some interesting pictures by the best of our English artists, and a service of plate made from the silver found in Dolcoath mine.
After Portreath are several fine cliffs ending in Navax Point, the further horn of which looks across the deep curve of St. Ives Bay. On an island just off the shore is the white and black of Godrevy Lighthouse, first built in 1857. On the day Charles I. was beheaded a vessel containing his wardrobe and other furnishings was driven by a sudden squall on the Godrevy Rocks. Fifty-eight persons were drowned, only a man, a boy, and a dog reaching the little island.