several years. I was his guest at Newlyn, Penzance, in 1899; at the
time of my visit he was patriarch of the well-known artist colony
there. Garstin's pictures, although they have never been "boomed," and
have consequently not reached public favor, are thought very highly of
by other artists. To record that they have been hung in the Royal
Academy is like saying of an author's books that they have been on sale
in a railway bookstall. Two very beautiful examples of his work which I
specially recall are "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Lost Piece of
Silver."

Garstin told me a very significant tale. He kept an art school at
Newlyn. One day an intelligent young Cornish miner came and asked to be
received as a pupil; he at once paid a quarter's fees in advance. Then
he informed Garstin that he wanted to learn to paint pictures of St.
Michael's Mount. Garstin, finding that his pupil was ignorant of the
very rudiments of painting, endeavored to explain that some preliminary
training was necessary; but the young man would not argue the point.
St. Michael's Mount, and nothing else, was to be the subject; all he
wanted Garstin to do was to show him how to begin, and afterwards give
him an occasional direction.

Canvas, easel, brushes, and paints were all purchased according to a
list which Garstin supplied him with. He wanted, he said, everything of
the best. A pupil is a pupil, especially when he pays in advance, and
when pictures are not as saleable as they should be, so Garstin did all
he could to further this particular pupil's desire. The latter was very
apt; after a comparatively short time he was able to turn out some
daubs, the meaning of which could be more or less recognized.

When he had outraged St. Michael's Mount from one side, Garstin's pupil
attacked it from another. St. Michael's Mount at early morning, at high
noon, at dewy eve, and at all intermediate hours; St. Michael's Mount
in spring, in summer, in autumn, and in winter; St. Michael's Mount
lapped by a calm sea, or smitten by spuming waves. He made uncanny
progress. Before the second quarter was at an end this remarkable pupil
had produced several presentments of the celebrated Cornish
excrescence, which were not much worse than average lodging-house
oleographs, and were quite as suggestive of their subject as is
Turner's celebrated masterpiece. When the quarter came to an end, the
pupil announced that he considered he had now learnt enough.
Accordingly he