But we must now speak of one whom Davies Gilbert, P.R.S., described as, in every sense, the first man in the county--I mean that Francis Basset, D.C.L., Baron de Dunstanville of Tehidy, and Baron Basset of Stratton,[57] whose monument forms so conspicuous an object on the summit of the historic hill of Carn Brea, and which was erected to his memory by the county of Cornwall in 1836.[58] He was the grandson of Mrs. Delany's Francis Basset, and son of the Francis Basset who represented Penryn in Parliament from 1766 to 1769. His mother was Margaret St. Aubyn.[59] Born at Walcot, in Oxfordshire, on 9th August, 1757, he was educated at Harrow, Eton, and lastly at King's College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of M.A. when twenty-nine years of age. When Lord de Dunstanville's father died, the boy wrote to Dr. Bathurst--afterwards Bishop of Norwich--this characteristic little note: 'DEAR SIR, 'Knowing the regard my papa had for you, I wish you would be my tutor. 'Yours, 'FRANK BASSET.' A tour on the Continent in company with the Rev. William Sandys, the son of a former steward of the family, a gentleman who had been specially trained to perform the pleasant but arduous duties of cicerone, completed his education, and thus he started in life with every advantage that a youth of talents and position could desire; nor did he fail to employ them. On his return home he at once threw himself into the arena of public life; and from time to time published sundry political and agricultural treatises. Amongst the former may be mentioned, 'Thoughts on Equal Representation' (1783), 'Observations on a Treaty of Commerce between England and France' (1787), 'The Theory and Practice of the French Constitution' (1794), 'The Crimes of Democracy' (1798), and a speech which he delivered at a county meeting at Bodmin in 1809. That he considered the foregoing productions not unworthy of his genius may be judged from the fact that he had them handsomely bound together, and presented them to his 'dearest friend, Miss (Harriet) Lemon,' the daughter of Sir William Lemon, of Carclew, Bart., M.P., a lady who ultimately became his second wife: the volume is preserved in the Royal Institution of Cornwall. His agricultural tracts--'Experiments in Agriculture' (1794), 'A Fat Ox' (1799), 'Crops and Prices' (1800), 'Crops in Cornwall' (1801), 'Mildew' (1805)--mostly appeared in Young's 'Annals of Agriculture;' and, like his political treatises, evince much acumen and practical common sense.