The idea of the Cornish Echoes romantic adventures is to
weave a story around one of the county’s great Regency houses, and the family
who lived there. Very often there is a crossover with characters in the Poldark
books, and this time is no exception, as Ross and Demelza visit the Bassets at
Tehidy on more than one occasion.
Sadly Tehidy House no longer exists as most of it was burnt
down in 1919, when it had just opened as a sanatorium. The pavilions which
flanked it, the conservatory, the walled garden and the stables remain, but
have now been converted into dwellings on a private estate where there is no
public access. I discovered it because of the country park which surrounds it,
one of my favourite places to walk.
Tehidy is a mile or so back from the clifftop just south of
the former mining port of Portreath, a characterful and real village to this
day. I don’t know and love it as well as I do ‘Porthnevek’, which is just along
the coast and home to Anna in The Forgotten Maid.
One aspect of Tehidy’s history fascinated me. Francis
Basset, Baron de Dunstanville, had only one child, a daughter, but she never
married. He even went as far as to persuade friends in high places to given him
a second title, Baron Stratton, which could pass through the female line, but
still Frances remained resolutely single. Given the title and her family’s
wealth this was highly unusual and I wanted to know why.
History does not reveal the reason. There are no portraits
of her as an adult, and guests who recorded their visits to the house have
implied she lacked her mother’s looks and social graces, but still that should
not have put off every suitor. But there was a history of mental health issues
on both sides of her family, which perhaps could have done. Or maybe she
herself did not wish to marry, and her parents were unusually indulgent for the
time.
We cannot know the reason, and so I made it up. There is no
evidence at all that Franny and Harriet Lemon (who was a fixture in the Basset
household as their mothers were close friends) had a lesbian relationship, but
there are historical precedents. Neither is there evidence that Sir Christopher
Hawkins was a rapist, although he and Baron de Dunstanville were bitter
political rivals and fought a duel at about the same time as the one in the
book.
So history was definitely on my side, but I felt the story
needed a smuggler! Imagine my absolute delight when I discovered a successful
and famous one who lived locally at the right time… and then that he was most
likely de Dunstanville’s illegitimate son. Pure author gold, if ever there was
such a thing.
But what of my contemporary story, and why set it during
lockdown? It was a terrible time for many people, but here in Cornwall there
was a strange sort of peacefulness and calm. Space to stop, breath and think. I
wanted to create that for Carla – and contrast it with the hell that Mani and
Kitto, both living alone, go through.
And the lost heir themselves? Where does that fit into it?
Let me tell you, I drew a large number of family trees before reaching a conclusion,
but you’ll have to read the book to find out.
