Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/178

 CORNWALL in 1620. Being held for the Parliament and taken by the Royalists, the prize fell to Sir Richard Grenville, but Parliament afterwards restored it to Lord Robartes. He must have been a skilful courtier, for he won the favour of the king against whose father he had fought, became Lord Privy Seal, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and was further created Viscount Bodmin and Earl of Radnor. Much of the original building was destroyed by fire in 188 1, but its restor- ation has been largely in keeping with the first plan. Specially noticeable is the old ceiling entitled the "Creation," in a gallery 116 ft. in length. The ornate gateway dates from 165 1, and parts of the wings are a little earlier; the noble avenue of sycamores was planted in 1648. To quote Mr. A. H. Norway, "it is a situation of perfect beauty in which the old house stands, high hills sloping upwards from the gardens, a little church nestling on their first slopes, a wide open undulating park in front, studded with noble trees ". The little church, restored in 1887, is Perp. ; it contains many memorials of the Robartes family. It was at this estate that the famous Tregeagle is said to have been steward, and there was undoubtedly a steward here of that name, around whom many far more ancient traditions have gathered. It is strange that popular fancy should have used a real personage of the seventeenth century as a peg on which to hang ideas actually pre- historic in their antiquity. Lanivet (3 m. S.W. of Bodmin) claims to 150