[68] Dame Thomasine Percival's chantry and college at Week St. Mary were, according to the Church Commissioners, in 1545, a great comfort to all the county, from children being sent there to board and to be taught; but two years after the schoolhouse was in ruins, owing (so it was stated) to its being in a desolate place; and removal to Launceston was suggested. _HENRY BONE, R.A._, THE ENAMELIST. [Illustration: (beginning of chapter vignette.)] _HENRY BONE, R.A._, THE ENAMELIST. Amongst the worthies of Truro who have left 'footprints on the sands of time,' there are few more deserving of remembrance than Henry Bone, the only Royal Academician that his native place ever produced. He was born on February the 6th, 1755, and was the son of a cabinet-maker and carver, who is said to have been a clever workman, and to have carved the old pulpit of St. Mary's Church, Truro. One of the same name, and perhaps of the same family, a Walter Bone, was Mayor of Truro in 1708. In 1767 the family removed to Plymouth, and in 1771 Bone, showing artistic tastes, was apprenticed to the ingenious William Cookworthy, a druggist there, who discovered the secret of making hard-paste porcelain, in England, out of Cornish granite and clay, and who thereupon established the Plymouth China Works. In 1772 Bone's master removed to Bristol, where, in conjunction with the Champions, to whom he had become related by marriage, Cookworthy established the equally celebrated Bristol Porcelain Works. Bone accompanied him; and here he remained until 1778, working from six in the morning to six in the evening in the factory, and after that improving himself in the art of drawing. It is considered that the best painting executed at the Bristol Works was by Bone, and he is believed to have used the figure 1 in addition to the factory-mark +. Bristol pieces so marked are now very rare. On the failure in business of his new master, Champion, in 1778, Bone, in the following year, came to London, with one guinea of his own in his pocket, and £5 lent to him by his friend, Morris, a cooper. At first he found employment in enameling watches, etc.; but this work failing him, owing to a change of the fashion, he commenced miniature-painting in water-colours on ivory, and also in enamel. Here it may be noted that he was employed first on enamel-painting, etc., by Randle and Co., Paternoster Row; and also on painting fans for Crowder and Co., Foster Lane. His distinguishing excellence is said to have been that he used enamel paints just as other colours, instead of, according to the feeble practice of the day, first mixing _on the palette_ every colour to be used. His predecessor in this art was Horace Hone; but the latter's work was, in many respects, very inferior to that of the Cornish artist.