SAMUEL PROUT, ARTIST. 
273 
success. They next proceeded to St. Austell, and "thence to 
Euan, where they were entertained by Whitaker, the historian. 
Here five or six extremely picturesque sketches were made, one of 
which included the church, the vicarage, some cottages mixing 
with trees, the waters of the river Pal, the moors in the distance, 
and a fisherman's ragged cot in the foreground, raised against and 
mixing with a mass of rocks ; also a broken boat, with nets, sails, 
(fee, in the foreground." At Truro, Prout was again embarrassed 
with the elaborate granite work at the church, and with the extent 
of iron railing around it. Here Britton and Prout parted pro tern. 
(mutually dissatisfied, I fancy, with each other), the antiquary 
going westward on foot, and the young artist returning to Plymouth 
by coach. 
" In the sequel, however, this connection and those adventures 
led to events which ultimately crowned the artist with fame and 
fortune." * 
This first visit of Prout to Cornwall strikingly shows his 
character and disposition. You see he could draw the fisherman's 
cottage on the Fal and the bits of rock, the fishing boat and the 
nets ; he could do all this perfectly because he understood what he 
was about ; he felt it all ; but he could not grasp at a bound the 
tall and elaborate tower of Probus, or the no less ornate church at 
Truro. 
He might quaff sack " simple of itself," as Falstaff says ; but 
as for the "eggs," why Probus is all eggs, and not very good ones; 
but I must not drive this simile too far, or I should say the eggs are 
not rotten enough for Prout. All the stones are square and true of 
joint, and the composition is regular, straightforward, and un- 
picturesque ; and he saw more beauty (from his point of view) in 
the cottages he had left in Devonshire than in this tower which 
was wanted for Britton's Beauties of England. If in after years 
he had seen Probus tower, or another like it, in Normandy or 
Brittany, he would never have drawn it but for some accessories 
and surroundings which would make it Proutesque. He had seen 
St. Andrew's tower at Plymouth ; but even that — though much 
simpler and finer — did not realize what he wanted, and he probably 
had never ventured on a sketch of it, though he had of the old 
houses underneath. 
At Truro it was even more trying for him. There, again, were 
* From an account of this tour written by Britton after the artist's death. 
VOL. VII. S 
