Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/241

Rh Cornwall, where he came safe to land; but when I consider that Solinus, who lived 1500 years past, tells us that the Cassiterides, by which he means the Scilly Islands (or the tin islands), in his days were separated from the coast of the Danmonii, by a rough sea of two or three hours' sail (as it still appears to be), and that hereditary coat armours and surnames in Britain are little above five hundred years old in Britain or Cornwall, there is small credit to be given to this tradition.

In this parish, or part of Davidstowe, is Foye-fenton, the original fountain of the Foys River; which well, in old records, is also called West Fenton, i.e. the west well, to distinguish it from Mark well in Lanick, otherwise east well; from which places the two cantreds (hundreds) of Eastwellshire and Westwellshire are denominated. And to this purpose it is evident, from Carew's Survey of Cornwall, page 41, that in 3 Henry IV. Reginald de Ferrar held in East Fenton and West Fenton, several knights' fees of land of the honour of Tremeton, which is now East and West Hundreds. (See also St. Stephen's by Saltash, of those tenures in 1360.)

In this parish stands Basil, a word sometimes taken for a herb or vegetable, sometimes for a vein in the human body, sometimes for the basilisk or cockatrice, &c.; but here I take it to signify after the Greek, a basilica or stately building; and although at present this mansion will not answer the etymology in the extreme latitude or longitude thereof, yet in probability it formerly did, at least comparatively so in respect to other houses in the neighbourhood.

This place is the mansion of the ancient, famous, and knightly family of Trevillyans; the present possessor of Basil is Peter Trevillyan, who married a daughter of Mr. Nicholas Borlase of Treludderin. From this Cor-