Truro Cathedral.

Truro Cathedral.

AMONG the many notable ceremonies in which King Edward VII ., as Prince of Wales and Grand Master of English Freemasons , has taken part , none will be more memorable than the laying of the foundation stone of the first cathedral erected in England since the Reformation . It is true there was the rebuilding of St . Paul's by Sir

Christopher Wren after the destruction of old St . Paul's by the great fire in 1666 , and there have been also built in Scotland , Ireland , and the colonies , cathedrals , many of great magnificence , during the last twenty or thirty years , but there has been before this no such event as the erection of a newly founded cathedral in connection with the national church .

TRURO CATHEDRAL .

The laying of the foundation stone took place in May , 1880 , in the presence of a great multitude , and with very imposing Masonic ceremonies . The Grand Master was assisted by the Provincial Grand Master for Cornwall , the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , who was also Lord Lieutenant of

the county ; by the Lord Mayor of London , Sir Francis Wyatt Truscott , Past Grand Warden , himself a native of Truro , and a large number of Grand Officers and Provincial Grand Officers of the Province of Cornwall , the Prince and Princess of Wales , accompanied by Princes Albert Victor

and George , who were received with great state by the civil and other authorities . His Royal Highness was again present some years later at the opening and consecration of that portion of the building which had been completed , but on this occasion it was as the hereditary Duke of Cornwall , and not

m the capacity of Grand Master . It is needless to say that so great an event was the cause of much pride and gratification to Cornish Masons , and more especially to the two Masonic lodges which have existed in the ancient borough of J ruro from the years 1772 and 1810 respectively , and wiiose

even tenor of life was so pleasantly broken by the advent of their Royal Grand Master and his principal officers into their peaceful town . The Craft , however , was equal to the occasion , and the brethren had no reason to be ashamed of the part they , as Freemasons , had taken in a great historic event .

The building being now completed and the leading actors having left the scene , it may perhaps be permitted us to ring down the curtain on those greater events by recording a little episode which may , we think , be fittingly chronicled in this connection . The official on whom , as clerk of the works , so much depends in the construction of a great

building , does not always receive that recognition which his faithful services deserve , but the members of the Fortitude Lodgeappear to have been fully alive to the merits of the brother who had for so many years filled that important position in connection with the Truro Cathedral . Bro . Price , who is about

to leave for Johannesburg , where he has received an appointment associated with church building , was , at the meeting of the lodge on the roth November , presented with a handsome travelling bag with dressing-case combined , as a mark of their esteem and of their appreciation of the splendid services

he had rendered to the lodge . Bro . N . B . Bullen , P . Prov . G . Treas ., who , as the oldest Past Master of the lodge present , introduced Bro . Price , and said that the lodge was proud of having so excellent a Mason as a member of it , and added that he was also held in great estimation by their respected Prov .

Grand Master , the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe , for the great ability he had shown in connection with the building of their beautiful cathedral , which was evidenced by his appointment of Prov . G . Supt . of Works at the last meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge . Other brethren added ( heir hearty testimony to the