The Cary family were once the owners of the
estate, and in the time of the Spanish Armada George Cary, who was
afterwards knighted by Queen Elizabeth, with Sir John Gilbert, at that
time the owner of Tor Abbey, took charge of the four hundred prisoners
from the Spanish flagship _Rosario_ while they were lodged in the grange
of Tor Abbey.
[Illustration: COMPTON CASTLE.]
From Cockington we walked on to Compton Castle, a fine old fortified
house, one of the most interesting and best preserved remains of a
castellated mansion in Devonshire. One small portion of it was
inhabited, and all was covered with ivy, but we could easily trace the
remains of the different apartments. It was formerly the home of the
Gilbert family, of whom the best-known member was Sir Humphrey Gilbert,
a celebrated navigator and mathematician of the sixteenth century,
half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, and knighted by Queen Elizabeth for
his bravery in Ireland. Sir Humphrey afterwards made voyages of
discovery, and added Newfoundland, our oldest colony, to the British
Possessions, and went down with the _Squirrel_ in a storm off the
Azores. When his comrades saw him for the last time before he
disappeared from their sight for ever in the mist and gloom of the
evening, he held a Bible in his hand, and said cheerily, "Never mind,
boys! we are as near to Heaven by sea as by land!"
We had a splendid walk across the hills, passing through Marldon, where
the church was apparently the burial-place of the Gilbert family, of
which it contained many records, including an effigy of Otho Gilbert,
who was Sheriff of the County and who died in 1476.
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