United Grand Lodge.

UNITED GRAND LODGE .

The proceedings in Grand Lodge on Wednesday were for the most part as we described they would be in our issue of last week . There was , however , one small matter which we omitted to notice and one which came upon many unexpectedly . The former relates to the resolution which was moved by Sir J B .

MONCKTON , P . G . W ., and seconded by the Prov . Grand Master of West Yorkshire , to grant a sum of - £ 500 to place a stained g lass window in the Centenary Hall of the Girls' School , to commemorate the celebration of the 100 th anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall , under the Prince of WALES , M . W . Grand

Master and President of the Institution . It is needless to say this motion was carried by acclamation . The second matter , for which so many were unprepared , was the visit to our Grand Lodge of Bro . RICHARD WALKEM , Q . C , Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada for the Province of Ontario , to whom a

most cordial reception was accorded . In acknowled ging the salute with which he was greeted , Bro . WALKEM not only expressed the pleasure he very naturally felt at the kindness shown him , but he also gave a brief sketch of the position of the Craft in Canada and the beneficent influence it was exercisin- ?

His remarks were most favourably received , a fact which will please him the more , as we believe he has been charged with a friendly mission to establish , if possible , some kind of fraternal relations between the Grand Lodge of England and one of the

Dominion Grand Lodges which need not be specified . What else was done will be found recorded in our report of the Grand Lodge proceedings which appears in another part of bur columns . 4

The New Province Of Berkshire.

THE NEW PROVINCE OF BERKSHIRE .

The announcement to which we gave circulation some time ago that it was the intention of the M . W . Grand Master , acting in accordance with the wishes of the brethren concerned , to sever the Province of Berks and Bucks into two parts , and place one of them—Berkshire—under the government of his son ,

Prince ALBERT VICTOR OF WALES , P . S . G . W . —now the Duke of CLARENCE AND AVONDALE—has at length been verified , and it is reported that towards the end of July the Duke will be installed in office by his father in person . The reason assigned for this division of Berks and Bucks is the great progress which has

been made by the Craft in these two counties , a progress which has been especially noticeable during the last few years . At the present moment the combined counties have a strength of 25 lodges , of which 13 are in Berkshire , and the remaining 12 in Bucks , so that though the former will enjoy the advantage of

having a Prince of the Blood Royal for its Prov . Grand Master , the two Provinces , hitherto for upwards of 40 years , though not always , under the government of one ruler , will start fairly on a level , and will no doubt vie with each other in doing their utmost to maintain and extend the beneficent influence of Freemasonry .

But as regards Berkshire , which more immediately concerns us now , and which was governed before its junction with Bucks by Bros . Colonel J DEAKIN , ARTHUR STANHOPE , Sir J THROGMORTON , Bart ., and J RAMSBOTTOM , M . P ., who for many years was Treasurer of the Girls' School .

In 18 47 the two counties were conjoined as one Province , and placed in charge of the late Bro . the Marquis of DOWNSHIRE , who , in 1868 , was succeeded by the late Sir DANIEL GOOCH , Bart ., the latter remaining in office till his death in 188 9 , and under whose presidency the Province

increased from * n lodges—of which seven were in Berks and the remainder in Bucks—to 25 lodges . Thus the step which has just been taken in placing the two counties under separate chiefs is nothing more than the resolution of the combined Province into its original constituent parts .

The following particulars respecting the lodges that have been or are now located in Berkshire may be interesting to our readers ; they are gathered either from the Appendix to Bro .

The New Province Of Berkshire.

R . F . GOULD ' " Four Old Lodges , " or from Bro . J LANE ' " Masonic Records . " In the very first list in the Appendix to Bro . GOULD ' work we find included among the lodges it contains one described as meeting at the Mitre , Reading , and as this list embraces the period from 1725-1729 , Freemasonry must

have made its way at a very early date into the county of Berks . Where this lodge was constituted , and for how long it existed does not appear , but it does not figure in the lists immediatel y following , which are from 1 730-3 2 and 1736-39 respectively . The next lodge we light upon was located at the Crown ,

Peascodstreet , Windsor . It was warranted on Gth June , 1759 , as No . 244 , became No . 19 8 in 1770 , and disappeared between that year and 17 81 . In 1785 a Lodge of St . George , meeting at the White Hart , New Windsor , was constituted as No . 475 , became No . 385 in 1792 , and was erased in 1813 . These were on the

" Modern " side of the Craft , but the " Ancients " also seem to have had their lodges here , the highest in number being No . 80 , at the Upper Ship , Reading , which was warranted 12 th October , 1759 , but had only a very brief existence . Bro . LANE , however , tells us it was included in "Ahiman Rezon" for 1804 and

1813 , and it will be so found in the latter as given in Bro . GOULD ' " Atholl Lodges , " its place of meeting , however , being "The Ship . " No . 122 , originally founded in the Second Division of Marines , Portsmouth , on 14 th October , 1763 , turns up on the nth March , 1808 , at the Swan , Reading , and

later in the same year at the Upper Ship . In 1814 , when it was named the Lodge of Virtue , it was renumbered as No . 147 , and was erased in 1827 , the last payment having been made six years previously . No . 209 was originally founded in 1779 in the 4 th Battalion R . A ., Gibraltar , but the warrant was granted in 1803

to the Kings Own Staffordshire Militia—which two years previously had obtained warrant No . 327 from the Cambridgeshire Militia—and met at Windsor and other places successively . In 1814 it was numbered No . 262 , and erased in 1827 . No . 26 9 , warranted on gth November , 1791 , and met at the Prince of Wales and other inns in Windsor . It was christened the St .

John ' s Lodge in 1813 , became after the Union No . 340 , was re-christened the St . George ' s Lodge in 1818 , had its number altered to No . 239 in 18 32 , and was erased in 18 3 8 . The last of the " Ancient" lodges still survives . It had granted to it on 13 th July , 1813 , warrant No . 284 , originally assigned on 29 th May ,

1794 , to the 9 th Dragoons , Macclesfield . In 1814 it became •No . 359 ; in 18 32 , No . 252 ; and in 186 3 it obtained its present number , No . 209 . Its first meeting place was the Crown and Cushion , Eton , Bucks , but in 1816 it transferred itself to Windsor and has remained there ever since .

After the Union there was constituted at the King ' s Arms , Newbury , in 1815 , the Royal Sussex Lodge . In 1819 it moved to the Globe Inn in the same borough , but it did not enjoy a long existence , and was erased on the 5 th March , 1828 . The remaining 12 lodges , which with the Etonian , No . 209 , will constitute

the new Province to be presided over by H . R . H . the Duke of CLARENCE , are as follow : The Union , Reading , founded as No . 597 in 18 33 , and altered to No . 414 in 1863 ; the Loyal Berkshire Lodge of Hope , founded at Newbury in 18 50 as No . 8 39 , and altered in 186 3 to No . 574 ; . the Windsor Castle

Lodge and the St . John's Lodge , Maidenhead , both founded as 1073 an ( -- * - I 0 97 respectively in 1859 , and altered the former to No . 771 and the latter to No . 795 in 1863 ; the Abbey Lodge ,

Abingdon , founded in 1863 as No . 1247 , and altered the same year to No . 945 , and the Greyfriars Lodge , No . 1101 , Reading , in 1866 . These constituted the Berkshire section of the Province of Berks and Bucks at the date of Bro . Sir DANIEL

GOOCH'S installation . Since then there have been constituted the following , namely : the Ellington , No . 1566 , Maidenhead , in 18 75 ; the Vale of the White Horse , No . 1770 , Faringdon ,

in 18 7 8 ; the St . Hilda , No . 188 7 , Wallingford , in 1880 ; the Wellesley , No . 1899 , Sandhurst , in 1881 ; the Kendrick , No . 2043 , Reading , in 1884 ; and the Dene , No . 2228 , Cookham , in 188 7 . These certainly constitute a worthy band of lodges