The Province Of Hertfordshire.

The Province of Hertfordshire .

— ( Continued . )

I ~ y RO . Henry Muggeridge , whose name is well known in ) connection with Masonic working , appears to have taken great interest in the lodge , and acted on one occasion as the Installing Alaster . During some of the earlier part of its career it had some struggles for existence , but these were all overcome by the year 186 9 , when it entered on a course

DUO . CHARLES B . KEYSKIi , H . A ., P . G . D ., PROVINCIAL GRAND WARDEN . of prosperity , which it has well maintained . The lodge now meets in a place of considerable historic interest , the Great House , Cheshunt , to which it moved in October , 1875 . This

was a former palace of Cardinal Wolsey , where he seems frequently to have resided , and his portrait is in the panel of the chimney piece in the Banqueting Hall . The property passed into the hands of the Mayo family , and the Rev . Charles Erskine Mayo was , we believe , the first to grant the

use of an old baronial hall to a Masonic lodge . In September , 1870 , a lodge was consecrated at the Britannia Hotel , Waltham New Town , by Bro . James Terry , who has been for so many years the esteemed Grand Director of Ceremonies of the province . King Harold was interred in

Waltham Abbey , and from him was derived the name of the new lodge . In 188 4 the lodge moved to the Four Swans Hotel , Waltham Cross . The expansion of Masonry in the province now grew apace , and the next settlement , the last under the presidency of R . W . Bro . Stuart , had the same progenitor as the Stortford and the Cecil , i . e ., the Hertford Lodge . Seven members of

that lodge , with live brethren hailing from elsewhere , obtained a warrant to found a lodge at the Red Lion , Barnet , under the title of the Gladsmuir Lodge , No . 1385 , a name which had local associations . It was consecrated by Bro . Hodges , the Provincial Senior Grand Warden of the year , the Provincial Grand Master being at the time in feeble health and

unable to attend . The iirst Master was Bro . J . R . Cocks , the senior Past Master of the mother lodge , in whose year of office a number of residents of this important London suburb were initiated , and the foundation laid of future success . The reign of the well-beloved and much regretted

Provincial Grand Master came to a close shortly afterwards , as he resigned office in 1873 and died in July of the following year . Besides presiding in Provincial Grand Lodge he performed one important public function in laying the foundation-stone of the Corn Exchange in Watford with Masonic ceremonial .

In this building the Watford Lodge was housed , and its banqueting room was adorned with oil paintings of its most distinguished brethren . Two are of life size , that of Bro . William Stuart and the portrait of Bro . Marjoribanks painted by John Linnell . This building was destroyed by lire in 1870 , and the pictures rescued with great difficulty , but

happily without much injury . Bro . Stuart was an officer of Grand Chapter and Supreme Grand Master of the Order of the Temple from i 860 to 18 73 . He was the founder of the first Commander of the Stuart Encampment , thus called after its illustrious chief . It was the special work of this worthy Master not so much to expand as to consolidate and weld the

province into one homogenous whole , and his genial and high reaching character enabled him to . exert the necessary influence . His successor was the Right Honourable Thomas Frederic Halsey , member for the Western Division of Hertfordshire ,

who comes of an ancient lineage in the county of Hertford , and whose seat is Gaddesden Place , near Hemel Hempstead . Bro . Halsey was , as his father before him , an initiate of the Apollo Lodge , the University Lodge of Oxford . He joined the Watford Lodge in 18 33 and the Berkhamstead in 1872

and became Worshipful Master of the former in 1867 , being now the senior Past Master of the lodge . He was installed at Hertford in 18 73 , the function being a highly successful and impressive one , following a service at the parish church whither the brethren went in procession in the full regalia of the Order . Thus was inaugurated the reign which happily

still continues . The period of expansion had now set in , and in the twenty-eight years since R . W . Bro . Halsey took office sixteen lodges have been consecrated and with one exception by the Provincial Grand Alaster in person . The first was the bold adventure of the Gladsmuir Lodge

in once more endeavouring to colonise the city to which St . Alban gave name and existence . The three previous lodges had been lost in the bottomless abyss of ill-starred enterprises . Would this be more successful ? The six members of the Gladsniuir Lodge who had associated with them two other

WALTHAM CROSS .