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.