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.