Masonic Notes.

It will probably be remarked by those who are fond of noting coincidences that the infant prince was born on the anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather , the Prince Consort , and of his great-aunt , the Princess Alice of Great Britain , Grand Duchess of Hesse Darmstadt . It is 34 years since the Queen had taken from her , after only a few days' illness , him who was the joy and mainstay

of her life , her most intimate and trusted counsellor , her ; dearest and best friend , while 17 years have elapsed since she lost her much loved daughter who , with such filial piety , had watched over her father in his dying moments . May we hope

that the birth of the little prince , who was ushered into existence on the anniversary of these terrible bereavements , may serve in some slight measure as an alleviation of these and the many other griefs which her Majesty has sustained during the long and prosperous years of her reign .

Our Folkestone brethren in particular , and the brethren of Kent generally , jnust be highly gratified with the proceedings which took place in the Masonic Hall , Folkestone , on Wednesday , the nth instant , when the Radnor Lodge , No . 2587 , was formally consecrated by the Provincial Grand Master of Kent , and started upon its career under the auspices of the distinguished brother from whom it derives its title , with every prospect of a long , useful , and prosperous future .

The Radnor " is the 62 nd lodge on the roll of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Kent , and it will be judged from the very full report we publish elsewhere that the Committee in charge of the arrangements for the day—which , we are informed , consisted of Bros . Lieut .-Col . W . K . Westropp , Lieut .-Col . Hamilton , the Rev . J . E . Player , E . T . Ward , Dr . de Butts , and some others —must have

exerted themselves to good purpose , when everything passed off so splendidly Nothing in the nature of a hitch appears to have occurred throughout the whole proceedings , while the genial and generous feeling which seems to have animated the whole body of assembled brethren speaks volumes in behalf of Freemasonry as it is practised in the "garden of England . "

The consecration went well , and very naturally . The Radnor is the 44 th that has been placed on the Kentish roll of lodges since Bro . Earl Amherst was appointed Provincial Grand Master , and , though he may not have consecrated the whole of them , it is within our knowledge that he has presided at this particular function in the case of the majority of the 44 . As for the installation of

Lord Radnor by the Grand Secretary , every one who has had the good fortune to be present at the solemn ceremony when conducted by Bro . Letchworth will be able to form his own opinion as to the manner in which it was done . Lord

Radnor , too , was in his happiest vein , and in the appointment and investiture of his officers was the very personification of geniality and kindness . The speeches were brief , but to the point , as after-dinner speeches should be , while last , but not least , the dinner was a good one and well-served .

As for the lodge which has been thus brilliantly inaugurated , it starts with an array of 24 members , of whom a large proportion are brethren of standing in the Craft , while we are assured that recruits will be forthcoming in considerable numbers from the officers of the Dover Garrison , of the Canterbury Depot , and

the Camp at Shorncliffe , as well as from the members of the East Kent , Dover , and other Kentish Clubs which interchange visits with the Radnor Club of Folkesstone . Indeed , it rarely happens that a new lodge enters upon its career with such ample promise of new blood being infused into it from time to time as the Radnor Lodge , No . 2587 . We sincerely trust these brilliant anticipati ons may be realised .

By the way , there are two things we have omitted to mention . In the first place , Bro . the Rev . J . E . Player , as Prov . Grand Chaplain of Kent , delivered an effective oration on the Nature and Purposes ol Freemasonry . In the next place ,

Bro . Horatio Ward , of Canterbury , Past G . Std . Br . of England , did the lodge good service by lending his beautiful set of consecration vessels , but more especially by the admirable manner in which he discharged the duties of Director of Ceremonies during the greater part of the proceedings .

We beg to acknowledge receipt of Volume VI . of "Quatuor Coronatorum Antigraphia , " edited by Bro . G . W . Speth , P . M ., Secretary No . 2076 . The Reprints contained in this volume are ( I . ) Facsimile of the " Inigo Jones MS . ; " ( 11 . ) " Facsimile of the " Wood MS . ; "' and ( III . ) " Facsimile of the Lechmere

MS . " An introduction by the editor is furnished in the case of each MS ., while in that of the Lechmere there is also a transcript . We purpose giving in our next issue , or , at latest , in the first number for the New Year , a review of these important additions to the long array of Reprints , for which we are indebted to the Quatuor Coronati Lodge .

General regret will be felt at the announcement of the death of Bro . Thomas Cubitt , P . G . P ., who , till within the last few years of his life , took a very active part in Masonry . Bro . Cubitt , who was 7 6 years of age , was appointed Asst . G .

Pursuivant in 1873 and was advanced to the Grand Pursuivancy the year following . At the close of his term of office he received the usual permission of the M . W . Grand Master to take his place on the dais . Our deceased brother was very highly respected , and we offer our respectful sympathy to his family in their bereavement .

Correspondence.

Correspondence .

We do not hold ourseh'es responsible tor the opinions expressed by our correspondents , but we wish , in a spirit of fair play to all , to permit—within certain necessary limits—free discussion . !

"SITTING TOASTS . " To the Editor of the "Freemason . " Dear Sii and Brother , Will any o ( your readers experienced in Masonic etiquette kindly give their opinion re " sitting toasts . "

There is a custom in the neighbourhood of the lodge of which I am a member when toasting . 1 brother below the rank of W . M . to give the firing in a sitting posture . I have had the pleasure of visiting many London lodges , also lodges in various provinces , but have no recollection of having seen this custom . —Yours fraternally , December 16 th . p M .

Reviews.

Reviews .

HISTORY OF ST . J OHN THE BAPTIST LODGE , EXETER , No . 39 , of the Anttent Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons . By Andrew Hope , W . M ., with introduction by William James Hughan , Past S . G . D . of Eng ., & c , Exeter : Printed by R . H . Besley , 89 , South-street . —It is to be regretted that Bro . Hope has been unable to write a continuous history from the year 1732 of this venerable lodge . Unfortunately those entrusted with the care of lodge minute books in former days—and even in the present day likewise—appear to have been exceedingly negligent in the fulfilment of their duty . but it

They looked after the books while they were in their charge , never seems to have occurred to them that in the course of time they would be succeeded by other custodians and that it would be incumbent on them to make arrangements for the transfer of the records to their successors . The result is that except in the case of a small number of lodges , the minutes of our oldest lodges have long since disappeared , nor is there , we fear , the slightest hope of their ever being recovered . This Lodge of St . John the Baptist is a case in point . It was

constituted at Exeter in 1732 and is thus the oldest purely provincial lodge in existence . Its minutes , if they had been preserved , would be invaluable , but beyond a few stray items of information obtained from other sources there are no memoranda—rif we except that priceless treasure , the original charter of the lodge , dated the nth July , 1732—relating to this lodge anterior to 1777 . And the official memoranda when they do begin , describe the doings , not of the lodge in its entirety , but only when it met as a Master Mason ' s lodge , that is , for the transaction of business

in the Third Degree . However , the year 1777 belongs to a fairly remote past , and if the minutes had been regularly continued from that time forward , we should probably have been the richer for much valuable information relating to a critical period in the history of our Society , a period when the strife between " Ancients " and " Moderns "_ raged very furiously , and occurrences may have taken place of which we know nothing , or about which we have been able to glean but little information . Unfortunately , there is a break in the continuity of these minutes , nothing bsing recorded during the iS years

that elapsed between 17 S 5 and 1803 . Then they are renewed , and after one or two entries there is a further break , but happily of onlv about 18 months instead of iS years , This brings us to 1 S 05 , and from that time the minutes , though at the outset vouchsafing only the most meagre informition , are continued . _ From this account of the materials to which Bro . Hope has been able to obtain access , it will be seen that he has had small chance of doing himself justice . It is evident that he knows how to go about a work of this kind . He seems to have consulted all the best works of reference ,

and to have betaken himself to those general store-houses of information , the records and registers of Grand Lodge and the local press , in the hope that he might be able to glean Irom them something of importance to compensate him for the absence of the lodge minutes . But his efforts do not appear to have been attended with results commensurate with the labour they must have entailed , some lists of members from the Grand Lodge Registers being the most important of the scraps of information he was successful in obtaining . But in spite of the shortcomings

by which he has been hampered , he has compiled a very interesting record of our Lodge No . 39 . He has reproduced the original charter , already referred to , as bearing date the 1 ith July , 1732 . This valuable document contains the signatures of Viscount Montague , the Grand Master who granted it , and of Bros . Thomas Batson , D . G . M . ; George Rooke and James Smythe , Grand Wardens ; and William Reid , Grand Secretary ; the names of the brethren mentioned in the body of the document being John Bury , Esq ., and Mr . Thomas Jeffreys . There is also a facsimile of the portion ot the

1734 list of lodges , published some years ago by Bro . Hughan , which contains the entry of the lodge , and from this it appears that in that list it figured as No . 97 , meeting at the New Inn , while , in addition , there is a " . transcript from G . L . minutes of the 27 th December , 1736 , in which it is recorded that " Bro . Revis "—the then Grand Secretary — " offered to the Quarterly Communication the By-Laws of the Lodge at Exeter , which they directed should be read , which was done accordingly to the satisfaction of the Society . " Bro . Hope has also . discovered that in 1769 , in the list of subscribers to

Calcott ' s " Candid Disquisitions , " are included the names of Bros . William Gardiner and Joseph Johnson , W . M . and S . W . respectively of the St . John ' s Lodge—as it had then come to be named—Exeter . This is all , however , that he has been able to tell us concerning the lodge prior to 1777 . As regards the minutes of the " Master ' s Lodge , " from that year to i 7 S 5 , and renewed after an interval of 18 years , in 1 S 03 , an elaborate account had already been published by Bro . Hughan in the transactions of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , and Bro . Hope has done well to obtain the sanction of that brother for

the publication of his account in the lodge history . The reader who may not have seen this article will have no difficulty in picturing to himself that Bro . Hughan has accurately described these minutes , and has supplemented the desc ription with many valuable comments of hisown . Thus Bro . Hope ' s work as recorder does not properly begin till we reach the year 1805 , when the minutes begin to be fairly regular . In his treatment of these he seems to have exercised much judgment . It is , of course , an open question whether in describing lodge minutes the better plan is to select the principal

incidents recorded and note them in the order of their occurrence with as much or as little in the way of commentary as may seem necessary or desirable ; or , to give a more or less continuous narrative of events under each successive Master . Bro . Hope has adopted the . former of these alternatives , and gives us particulars only of those occurrences and Masters and members of the lodge which , in his opinion , deserve such prominence . But he has done this well without entering too much into detail and in a stvle which for its easy and regular fluency cannot fail to create a

favourable impression on the minds of his readers . He has also been fortunate enough to give illustrations of the three Chairs , which are the special pride of the lodge , and which , to judge from his description of them , are more than usually elaborate , both as to their build , and in the ornamentation with which they are overlaid ; and of the beautifully engraved plate of the old Lodge Summons , dating back to 1764 , if not earlier still , which was discovered among some loose papers in 1882 . There is also a facsimile of the centenary war / ant granted by the Earl of Zetland , M . W . G . M ., in 1 S 64 , and full particulars as to the various numbers borne by the lodge , and the the is of

various places at which it has held its meetings . In short , though history necessity wanting as to detail in earlier years , it is sufficiently ample and well connected during the present century , and if ever the missing minute books should turn up , there would be no difficulty in incorporating a resume of their contents in Bro . Hope s work , and making of the two a complete history of the lodge , from its constitution onwards . It only remains for us to say that the work is dedicated to Viscount Ebrington , Prov . G . M . of Devonshire , and has the advantage of being prefaced by an introduction from the pen of Bro . Hughan , and saying this , we offer our very hearty congratulations to Bro . Hope on the admirable manner in which , considering the difficulties he has encountered through lack of the official records , he has done his work of compilation .

* ' WESTMINSTER . " By Walter Besant , M . A ., F . S . A ., author of " London , " Sic With an etching by Francis S . Walker , R . P . E ., and 130 illustrations by William Patten and others . Londjn : ChaHo and Windits , Piccadilly , 1895 . —This is a remarkable work by Sir Walter Besant , Treasurer of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , No . 2076 , London , & c , and though it is intended to be the successor to " London , " it is by far the more interesting of these two most readable books . Indeed , si happily and entertainingly has the worthy knight written " Westminster , " that to not a few this

handsome volume will be preferred to any of his others which have appeared from time to time ; the last being thus the best , there are 10 chapters of absorbing interest , the first two being devoted to " the Beginnings" and " the King's Palace of Westminster , " the three that follow concern the Historic Abbey , the sixth the Sanctuary , the seventh " At the Sign of the Red Hale , " and the ninth relates to " The City . " Hie concluding chapter concerns " The Streets and the People . " There is also an appendix in reference to " The Court of Charles II . " and a very useful index . It has been Sir Walter Besant's object to prove that , contrary to the general opinion , the Isl p i all

Bramble ( Thorney Island ) was a busy place of trade long before London existed at . He has sought to restore the vanished Palaces of Westminster and Wmtehall , and has portrayed "the life of the Abbey , with its Services , its Rule , its Anchorites , and its Sanctuary , " and , moreover , has graphically exhibited " the connection of Westminster with the lirst of English Printers , " concluding with an artistic description of " the p Uce as a town and borough , with its streets and its people . " This is pretty much tor a volume of some 300 pages , and a task , or an achievement , quite impossible for ordinary mortals , but in the hands of this gifted writer , he has fully accomplished these high and extensive aims , the result being a work of sustained interest from first to last .