It is a ruin of wide roofs and noble frontage. Above its windows sinister bartizans frown grimly; the portals yawn vast and deep; only the chapel-windows open frankly upon the face of the dwelling; but above, all apertures are narrow, up to the embattled towers.
In the lap of many an enfolding hill Compton huddles its aged fabric, and, despite certain warlike additions, can have risen for no purpose of offence, for the land rakes it on every side; it stands at the bottom of a great green cup, whose slopes are crowned with fir and beech, whose sides now glimmer under stubble of corn, green of roots, and wealth of wide orchards, bright with the ripening harvest. Close at hand men make ready the cider-presses again, and the cooper's mallet echoes among his barrels.
Much of the castle still stands, and the entrance hall, chapel, priest's chamber, and kitchen, with its gigantic hearth and double chimney, are almost intact. A mouldering roof of lichened slates still covers more than half of the ruin; but the banqueting hall has vanished, and many a tower and turret, under their weight of ivy, lift ragged and broken to the sky. Where now jackdaws chiefly dwell and bats sidle through the naked windows at call of dusk; where wind and rain find free entrance and pellitory-of-the-wall hangs its foliage for tapestry, with toadflax and blue speedwell; where Nature labours unceasing from fern-crowned battlement to mossy plinth, there dwelt of old the family of Gilbert.
One Joan Compton conveyed the manor for her partage in the second Edward's reign; and of their posterity are justly remembered and revered the sons of Otho Gilbert, whose lady--a maiden of the Champernownes--bore not only Humphrey, the adventurer, who discovered Gilbert's Straits and founded the first British settlement of Newfoundland; but also his more famous uterine brother, Walter Ralegh. For upon Otho Gilbert's passing, his dame mated with Walter Ralegh of Fardel, and by him brought into the world the poet, statesman, soldier, courtier, explorer, and master-jewel of Elizabeth's Court. A noble matron surely must have been that Katherine, mother of two such sons; and less only in honour to these knights were Sir Humphrey's brothers, of whom Sir John, his senior, rendered himself acceptable to God and man by manifold charities and virtues; while Adrian Gilbert is declared a gentleman very eminent for his skill in mines and matters of engineering and science.