276 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
bilities and anxieties connected with such an important step were 
lightened by assistance he received from Mr. George Eastlake, our 
present townsman's grandfather; and it is even of greater interest to 
us to know that Prout gave lessons in drawing to Mr., afterwards 
Sir Charles Eastlake, the distinguished president of the Koyal 
Academy. In recognition of Mr. George Eastlake's kindness, Mr. 
Prout, shortly after his residence in London began, sent him the 
drawings of Launceston and Tintagel which are on the screen, and 
kindly lent by Mr. W. Eastlake, and which are curious and pleas- 
ing specimens of the artist's early work. The drawing of Launceston 
(representing one of the noble old gateways of that town which 
remains to this day, and which I am glad to say is likely to remain) 
was in the loan collection of drawings to which I have before 
referred, and Mr. Ruskin in his Notes says of it, " Had this 
drawing been brought to me as an early Turner, I should have 
looked twice and thrice at it before saying, No." 
One of the most important drawings in the collection, and one 
of the finest Prout ever made — "The Ducal Palace at Venice" 
was formerly in the artist's native town, and belonged to the late 
Mr. Wm. H. Hawker, and afterwards to the Eev. Treasurer 
Hawker ; it is now possessed by Lord Coleridge. For engraving 
this, or another drawing illustrating the same subject, Le Keux, the 
eminent engraver, was paid £1,000. 
The first few years of Prout's residence in London were for the 
most part years of toil and discouragement ; but though weak in 
body, he was strong in resolution; and though modest, he was 
ambitious. His earliest subjects there, as at Plymouth, appear to 
have been marine ; but out of these he glided altogether in a few 
years. 
Three years after he settled in London he " settled in life," as 
the saying is, not wishing to bear the " ills he had " alone, and not 
fearing to " fly to others that he knew not of;" but in his case 
there was nothing to fear, as he had made a very lucky and happy 
choice. He married in 1810 Elizabeth, then only surviving 
daughter of Captain Gillespie, a Cornishman, who was a large ship- 
owner, and who enjoyed almost a monopoly of the trade with the 
Bahamas.* 
* From the time of his marriage (in 1810) till 1836 he lived at Brixton ; 
from 1836 to 1844 at Hastings ; and from 1844 to 1852, the year of his death, 
at Denmark Hill. 
