Helston was one of the Stannary Towns, and it was said that vessels
could at one time come quite near it. Daniel Defoe has described it as
being "large and populous, with four spacious streets, a handsome
church, and a good trade." The good trade was, however, disappearing,
owing to the discovery of tin in foreign countries, notably in the
Straits Settlements and Bolivia; the church which Defoe saw had
disappeared, having since been destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1763. We
did not go inside, but in walking through the churchyard we casually
came upon an ordinary headstone on which was an inscription to the
effect that the stone marked the resting-place of Henry Trengrouse
(1772-1854), who, being "profoundly impressed by the great loss of life
by shipwreck, had devoted the greater portion of his life and means to
the invention and design of the rocket apparatus for connecting stranded
ships to the shore, whereby many thousands of lives have been saved."
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO HENRY TRENGROUSE. (_Inventor of the rocket
apparatus._)]
We had seen many fine monuments to men who had been instrumental in
killing thousands of their fellow creatures, but here was Trengrouse who
had been the humble instrument in saving thousands of lives, and (though
a suitable monument has since been erected to his memory) only the
commonest stone as yet recorded his memory and the inestimable services
he had rendered to humanity: the only redeeming feature, perhaps, being
the very appropriate quotation on the stone:
They rest from their labours and their works do follow them.
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