The Prov. Grand Lodge Of Cumberland And Westmorland.

TEMPLE OF THE SUN AM ) SECTOR LODGE , No . Dill ' , WORKINGTON .

Vicissitudes have been the lot of the Sun , Square , and Compasses Lodge . No minutes have ever been discovered prior to 1804 , and a couple of years later the warrant was withdrawn for a cause that cannot be traced . In three months , however , the warrant was restored . The suspension ,

short as it was , was sufficient to lead the late Bro . Lane to class the restoration of the warrant as the foundation of a new lodge , and , shortly after the centenary warrant had been granted in 1885 , a wordy warfare on paper was evolved between the members of the lodge and the Union Lodge

( Modern ) , No . 129 , in Kendal ( the oldest lodge in the province ) , as to the claims of the Whitehaven lodge to be considered as of centenary origin . All the same the possession of the centenary warrant settled everything on that head . The minutes of the Sun , Square , and Compasses

Lodge , from 1804 to some years later , are full of interest , the more so that some light is thrown on the trouble that brought about the suspension . A single extract must suffice . The date is July 5 , 1807 , and the occasion was a meeting of emergency , " to try" sixteen brethren , against whom no speciiic charge is mentioned . One of the brethren , however ,

is recorded to have been " silenced for ninety-nine years , " and others for less periods , whilst another was ordered to perform the Tyler's duties , " without pay , and pay his clues to the lodge . " From the Union in 1813 to 18 50 the minutes are missing , and during several years it required the

selfdenying and pecuniary efforts of two old Past Alasters to keep the lodge in good standing ; but the turn in the tide at length arrived , and ever since the Sun , Square , and Compasses Lodge , No . 119 , has nourished .

I have very little space to detail historical scraps of other old lodges in Cumberland , one of which is the Union , No . 310 , in the ancient city of Carlisle , which celebrated its centenary three years ago . This lodge was warranted by the " Moderns" in 179 6 , but there is a very singular incident connected with the foundation of the Union Lodge as an

English lodge , and that is the fact that for ten years it had been working under a Scotch warrant , and under the same name . This , by the way , is not the first instance of a Scotch warrant crossing the Borders , for in 1823 the then Prov . G . AI . of Cumberland granted permission for the Operative Lodge

at Dumfries , a number of the members of which were at that time employed in the erection of the county prison , to hold meetings in Carlisle . There have existed in the " Alerrie Citie" half-a-dozen lodges , the first of which

was warranted in 1760 by the " Aloderns . " The two lodges in Carlisle , by-the-bye , now meet in a hall of their own , as will be observed . The only other old lodges now working in Cumberland that may be incidentally mentioned are the St . John ' s , at Wigton , instituted by the "Aloderns" in 1809 , with a transferred warrant from

MASONIC TEMI'LE , WANS FELL CHAPTER , No . 271 > , AMIILESIDE . M'hntn f . Tni / lor , AuMnhlr ) Swansea , and the Lodge of Unanimity , No . 339 , Penrith , the charter of which bears the unique distinction of being the last warranted by the premier Grand Lodge . There was