Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/243

Rh in making an appearance to some civil suit, a process issued to the sheriff for attaching his person, who went to Basil accompanied by several horsemen, and riding into the court-yard made proclamation of his authority, and called on the defendant to surrender; but he, on the contrary, threatened the sheriff if he did not depart, with letting loose his spearmen upon him, and then overturned some hives of bees, which effectually routed the whole troop.

Basil now belongs to the family of Mr. Robert Fanshawe, an Out Commissioner of the Navy Board resident at Plymouth, who made the purchase from Mr. Tremayne of Sydenham.

This parish contains 3242 statute acres. giving an increase of 27 per cent in 30 years.

Present Vicar, the Rev. J. P. Carpenter, instituted 1823.

The western moiety of this parish runs much further south than the eastern, stretching in an irregular form into the granite near Roughton and Brown Walley.

The rocks adjoining this granitic portion are compost and schistose felspar, as at Alternun, and in a similar position. These are succeeded in the vicinity of the church by a peculiar calcareous rock, consisting almost entirely of hornblend and calcareous spar. The northern part makes part of a downs, extending almost to Launceston, and abounding in manganese.