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SATURDAY MAY 4 , 1901 .

Masonic Notes.

Masonic Notes .

The Quarterly Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter was held at Freemasons' Hall , on Wednesday , the 1 st instant . It will be seen from our report of the proceedings which appears in another column , that the majority of those who were appointed to office in Grand Lodge on the 24 th ult , have been appointed to positions of corresponding rank in the Royal Arch .

# » # It will also be seen that the number of new chapters for which warrants have been granted is four , of which one is to meet in London and the others in the

Masonic Notes.

Provinces . The London chapter will be attached to and bear the name of the Earl ' s Court Lodge , No . 2765 , and will meet at the Crown Hotel , Cricklewood . Of the three Provincial chapters , one will meet at Bishop Auckland in the Province of Durham , and will bear the name of the Babington

Boulton Chapter , No . ii 2 r , and will be attached to the Wear Valley Lodge ; another will meet at Widnes , in West Lancashire , and will be known as the Widnes Chapter , No . 2819 ; while the third will be held in Alderney , in the Province of Guernsey and Alderney , and will be known as the St . Ann ' s Chapter , No . 593 . #

* * The half-yearly Chapter of the Great Priory of the Order of the Temple for England and Wales and the Dependencies thereof , will be held at Mark Masons Hall , Great Queen-street , on Friday , the 10 th instant , at

4 . 45 for 5 p . m . In the course of the proceedings the Report of Council will be submitted and dealt with , and the Grand Officers for the ensuing year appointed and invested . Subsequently a Chapter of the Great Priory of Malta will be held under the banner of the Preceptory of St . George , at which any Knig ht

Templar who may have signified his desire can be admitted ; fee , including certificate , one guinea . At 7 p . m . the customary banquet will be held at Freemasons' Tavern , tickets for which , at 21 s . each , must be applied for on or before Monday , the 6 th inst . * * *

The earlier paragraphs of the Report of Council treat of matters relating to the death of Queen Victoria and the accession to the throne of his Majesty King Edward VII ., who has graciously condescended to be Patron of the Order . Among the

recommendations of Council are one to the effect that the Calpe Preceptory , Gibraltar , the warrant of which was cancelled by Great Priory in May , 1 9 , be restored to its place on the Register , the said chapter having made its Returns and paid its fees and dues .

In reference to the announcement that the sixth annual conference of the United Orders in the United Kingdom , which was appointed to be held in Edinburgh on Thursday , the 18 th ult ., the Council recommended that the words " Royal Arch Masons" in Statute 108 of the Order should be interpreted to refer

to the Royal Arch over which the Supreme Grand Chapter of England presides , and which , in accordance with the Articles of Union , is declared in the Book of Constitutions of United Grand Lodge to be included in the Degrees of pure and antient Masonry as recognised by the said Grand Lodge .

» * The Council report that only two preceptories at home and eight Abroad are in arrear in making their Returns and remitting their fees and dues , and that

at the close of the Account on the 28 th February , the balances on the Great Treasurer ' s account as audited were about £ 637 on the General Fund , and £ 60 on the Benevolent Fund . The report strikes us as being in all respects eminently satisfactory .

* # # The Royal Somerset House and Inverness Lodge was greatly honoured at its meeting last month by the presence of Earl Amherst , M . W . Pro Grand Master , to meet whom a number of Grand Lodge Oliicers

and other brethren of distinction had been specially invited . As Bro . Devonshire , W . M ., remarked in proposing the toast of his lordship ' s health , it was an event of the very rarest occurrence for a London lodge to have the pleasure of welcoming so

distinguished an officer of Grand Lodge , and it is evident from his reply that Lord Amherst appreciated the compliment paid him by one of the surviving Time Immemorial lodges which in 1717 established the Grand Lodge of England . * * *

But his lordship did something more than thank the lodge for the cordiality of its welcome .. After contrasting the present state of the Craft with what it was when the Prince of Wales was installed in office as M . W . Grand Master in 18 75 , and more particularly

the amount of support then and now annually given to our Institutions , the Pro Grand Master went on to caution his hearers against the ever-increasing number of invitations that are addressed to them by the outside world to support all and sundry the institutions and projects of merely local interest , and to Jay the

foundation or memorial stones of buildings of local utility . Such support as they desired to give in such cises should be given by them as private individuals , not as Masons , who have their own Institutions , which need some . 650 , 000 annually , to provide for , and are also ready at all times loyally to satisfy all claims of r . atj onai importance that are made upon them .

Masonic Notes.

Yet another lodge has been added to the roll of the London Craft—the Asylums Board Lodge , No . 2842 —which was consecrated on Monday , and , as far as we are able to judge , has every prospect of a successful career . The ceremony was , as usual , performed by the Grand Secretary , with the assistance of sundry of

the Grand Officers , and the only drawback as regards the success of the proceed ings was the absence , through illness , of Bro . G . S . Elliott , the W . M . designate , with whom the idea of forming the lodge originated , and whose installation was necessarily deferred . The

Wardens designate , however , were invested by the Grand Secretnry , and Bro . E . White , S . W ., was warmly commended by Bro . Letchworth for the admirable manner in which he discharged the duties of Acting Master . We wish the Asylums Board Lodge a long and prosperous career .

* * * We mention elsewhere that we recently received copy of reprint of a pamphlet which our late Bro . Speth compiled some years since and published under the title of " A Masonic Curriculum , " or " A Guide to a course of study in Freemasonry , " and which has just

been issued in a revised and up-to-date form by the Palestine Bulletin of Detroit , Michigan , U . S . A . There must be many among our readers who will but too gladly avail themselves of the advice of so safe and experienced a counsellor as to what they should

read , mark , learn , and avoid in entering upon a course of Masonic study , and hence it is with a certain mournful pleasure that we give them the benefit of that advice . * # *

Bro . Spcth ' s first suggestion is that intending students should commence their course of study by reading Hro . R . F . Gould ' s " History of Freemasonry . " It is , undoubtedly , a formidable work for a commencement , but it is beyond question the most trustworthy of all the histories of the Craft that have been

published . But , having regard to the magnitude of the work , he suggests that it should be " perused carefully , but not too minutely at first , our object , " as he very justly points out , being "simply to gain general impressions , not to acquire settled convictions . " It is because this important work is so

comprehensive , and also because some years have passed since it was published , that we shall gladly welcome the appearance of that compendium to the early issue of which we had occasion to refer a few weeks since in these Notes . When this is issued

the student will have our Bro . Gould's History in a moderate compass , and all the discoveries of the last 12 years incorporated with it , and fully weighed and considered . * * *

Bro . Speth ' s next advice is that the student having obtained a good general idea of Freemasonry from Bro . Gould , should make himself familiar with th e contents of Toulmin Smith ' s " English Gilds , " Henry T . Riley ' s " Liber Albus , " Edward Conder , jun . ' s , " Records of the Hole Crafte and Fellowship of

Masons , and other works by well-known writers of a similar character . He also mentions as likely to prove helpful his own two papers— " Free and Freemason " in A . Q . C ., Vol . X ., and " Leicester Masonry , 1103—1327 , " in A . Q . C ., Vol . XII ., and those works

which treat of the Old Charges of Masonry , but more especially those of Bro . W . J . Hughan ; Vols . I . to VI . of the " Quatuor Coronatorum Antigrapha , " Bro . Dr . Begemann ' s "Attempt to Classify the Old Charges of British Masons , " in A . Q . C . I . ; and Wyatt Papworth ' s " Naymus Gr . ecus , " Ibid III .

» * » Among other works that are subsequently recommended are Dr . George F . Fort ' s " The Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry " and " The Cathedral Builders—The Story of a Great Guild "—Leader Scott , published by Sampson Low and Co ., 1899 !

many of the Papers which are to be found in A . Q . C . From 1717 onwards , the authors to be consulted are Bro . Gould , Dr . Anderson , Bro . Henry Sadler" Masonic Facts and Fictions , " in reference to the "Antient" or" Athol" Masons—and Bros . Hughan and Whytehead , in respect of Masonry in the City of Yorki

Bro . Dr . Chetwode Crawley ' s " C . umentaria Hibernica , ' * , for eaily Irish Freemasonry ; Bro . D . Murray Lyon ' s " History of the Lodge of Edinburgh ( Mary ' s Chapel ) , No . 1 , " for Scottish Masonry are also recommended ; while on the subjects of Rites , Symbolism , the works of Bro . Hughan and other writers are suggested .

* * That the course proposed by our late brother in his useful and interesting treatise is one that should be followed in its principal , if not in all its , recommendations , will be readily admitted by all who have given

any serious attention to the study of Freemasonry . Our chief fear is that the field of research he suggests is too extensive for the average Masonic student , who , if he his the will , has probably not the leisure to devote to such a " A Masonic Curriculum . "