SAMUEL PROUT, ARTIST. 
265 
We have lately had an expression of public opinion in Plymouth 
regarding certain contemplated * changes, which are designated 
Plymouth Hoe Improvements ; and one is almost tempted to ask 
in the same vein as Mr. Euskin, and with no interests beyond 
those which are artistic, " Don't you feel that there is a great deal 
required to be done to the Hoe'? — all the rough irregularities of 
the place smoothed off ; all the footpaths nicely asphalted, and the 
roadways pitch -paved, and a tramway laid from the western 
entrance right along the lower drive, and terminating at the Great 
Western Docks 1 And especially don't you feel the necessity of a 
high-level pier (the higher the better) running right out into the 
sea, as straight as an arrow, and more than half a mile long] 
Don't you feel that all this is wanted, since nature has done so 
much and art so little for the Hoe ] " 
Such is, and such was, Plymouth, the honoured birthplace of 
Samuel Prout, the great artist of the picturesque. 
I do not know that he troubled himself very much about his 
ancestry; he was a gentle, unpretentious man; but those who have 
taken the pains to investigate the matter have been able clearly to 
prove that he belonged to a very ancient and even renowned 
Devonshire family, which has been traced back to Baron de Prout 
or Prouz, who came over with William the Conqueror. The 
Prouzes had their castle at Gidleigh, on the eastern border of Dart- 
moor, and according to Eisdon most of them were called William 
from the first Norman line to the reign of Edward II. One 
Sir William Prouz ordained by his will to be buried among his 
ancestors at Lustleigh, but his executors interred him at Holberton. 
Some time after the funeral it came to the knowledge of his 
daughter, the Lady Alice Mules, that the will had not been 
performed ; she therefore petitioned the then Bishop of Exeter that 
the corpse might be taken up and buried at Lustleigh. The 
petition was granted, and the body exhumed and re-interred. 
Erom some branches of the Prouz family, says Eisdon, " are 
sprung divers dignous houses ;" whilst of another branch he says, 
" It continueth in worshipful rank, though incomparable to its 
ancestry in title and estate." 
I do not know from which branch our hero was descended, but 
there can be no doubt that his great glory was that he painted to 
perfection "divers dignous houses. 71 
There are monuments to the Prouzes at Lustleigh. 
