Presentation To A Grand Officer.

PRESENTATION TO A GRAND OFFICER .

AT a regular meeting of the Star Lodge , No . 1275 , held at the Ship Hotel , Greenwich , on Friday , 14 th inst ., Bro . Wm . Kipps , the senior member of the Lodge , was presented with the clothing ( both full and undress ) appertaining to his new appointment by the M . W . G . M . H . R . H . the Duke of

Connaught , as Assistant Grand Pursuivant of England . In making the presentation in the name of the Lodge the W . M . Bro . William Bore referred to the long association ( upwards of thirty years ) of Bro . Kipps with them , and to his untiring energy and interest in everything connected with the Lodge .

Their present very prosperous condition was in no small measure due to that Brother ' s care and experience . Brother Major Woolmer Williams P . M . and Secretary was delighted to endorse the remarks of the W . M ., and in wishing Brother Kipps many years of life and health knew he was expressing

a sentiment shared by all . This was the first occasion upon which Grand honours had been conferred upon a member of the Lodge , and he felt assured that every member would agree with him that no more fitting representative could have been selected by the M . W . G . M .

In thanking the Lodge for their thoughtful and valuable addition to his Masonic clothing Bro . Kipps said the kindly and flattering remarks of both the W . M . and Bro . Major Woolmer Williams made it especially difficult for him to give expression to his feelings of appreciation . But it was another

evidence that his work in the grand Institution of Freemasonry had not been time expended and energy lost , and he begged the members of the Lodge to remember the words of Bro . Woolmer Williams—that the honour was conferred not only up'on him , as one of them , but upon the Lodge itself .

Owing to the lamented death of Lord Wantage Prov . Grand Master , and of Bro . Edwin Head , of Thatcham , the

special Lodge and complimentary banquet , which had been arranged for Wednesday last , at Newbury , in honour of Past Master Major Ricardo , on his return from active service in South Africa , will be held at a later date .

********** The members of the Loyal Cambrian Lodge , No . no , paid an excursion visit to Barry on Thursday , 13 th inst ., and sat down to . dinner at the Marine Hotel , Barry Island .

In the afternoon they were taken for a cruise through the docks in a Barry Company ' s steam launch , and subsequently they were the guests of the local Lodge at the Barry Hotel .

********** Bro . James Taylor jun . S . P . G . M . presided on Tuesday at a meeting of the Special Committee appointed to consider the suggested Masonic Day at the International Exhibition

at Glasgow . I he probable cost 01 the arrangements were estimated at a high figure , and this had the effect intended by those who were not it favour of the turnout . The " Masonic Day ' is therefore abandoned .

********** The Concord Lodge held a soiree at the Runnavleave Hall , Ilfracombe , on Tuesday evening , 28 th ult . The proceedings commenced with a concert , conducted by Dr . J . T .

Gardner , Miss Emily Foxcroft , the well-known contralto , contributing three songs to the programme . Supper was served in the hotel dining room , and was followed by a dance , which was well patronised , and kept up until two o ' clock .

********** The Plome and Colonial School Society has , owing to the Board of Education requiring it to provide new premises , arranged to acquire the fine pile of buildings belonging to the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys at Wood Green , at

a cost of ^ 45 , 000 , for the purposes of its training college for women teachers in elementary schools . The Masonic Institution is removing in June 1 903 to Bushey , when the Home and Colonial School Society will take over the property , with its thirteen acres of ground . In the new building there

will be accommodation for 200 resident students . At leas ! £ 30 , 000 will be required to enable the Society to carry out the scheme , and subscriptions should be sent to the Treasurer , Mr . J . F . W . Deacon , 20 Birchin Lane ; or to the Hon . Sec , Mr . T . Robertson , or the Rev . D . J . Thomas , the Principal , at the College , Gray ' s Inn Road , — " Standard , "

Books Of The Day.

BOOKS OF THE DAY .

Books , Xuile , fte . lntendad for rsvlev , should bt KddrtiMd t * th « Kdltar •( kh « rreimMos ' i Chronicle , at FUit Wcrki , ¦ ¦ Bftrnat . — : : — The Redemption of David Corson . B y Charles Frederick Goss ( 6 s ) . —Methuen and Co . AMERICAN books are a potent factor in the literary world just now . They are coming across to us not as single spies but in whole

battalions . We give- them a hearty welcome ; not merely for the sake of fraternity and politeness , but because , on the whole , their authors deserve well at our hands . Mr . Goss , as one of our contemporaries has put it , has very nearly given us " a really great book . " We ought , indeed , to get a great book sometimes , for those who are trying to provide us with such are , like Abraham's progeny ,

as the sand by the sea-shore for multitude . Mr . Goss might say , like Byron , that description is his '' forte" ; many of his purely descriptive passages are of such deft workmanship that they would go far towards atoning for a weak story . Mr . Goss has given us a strong one . David Corson , brought up among Quaker associates , is a character worthy the attention of a Bunyan or a

Swedenborg , and might fill a fresh chapter in Mr . Baring Gould's " Freaks of Fanaticism . " He doubts not that he has received a call to preach the Word . But he has to learn by experience something of the difficulties of belief , and the passages in which Mr . Goss shows these difficulties at their height have several times strongly reminded us of Bunyan's " Grace Abounding . " Then we have Pepita , the gipsy girl , whom a quack doctor has married by stealth .

How the doctor engages the services of David to cry up the merits of his wares and how David's preaching brings him in the end a reward which he hardly deserves must be left for readers to learn for themselves . We are fond of sorting novelists into classes , and usually endeavour to point out wherein they resemble or differ from one another ; but Mr . Goss is hardly a good subject for comparative criticism . He stands by himself .

Harrow . By J . Fischer Williams , M . A ., sometime Fellow of New College , Oxford , and Scholar of Harrow School . With forty-eight illustrations from photographs , old engravings , and water-colour drawings ( 3 s 6 d ) . —George Bell and Sons . AVE have before expressed our appreciation of " The Great Public Schools , " a series of excellent handbooks now in course of

publication by Messrs . Bell . The volume before us is as good as that upon Eton , already reviewed in these- columns , and . readers acquainted with that book will agree with us that in saying so much we say a great deal . Extremes always meet , and after centuries of Greek and Latin we are now being told that the " dead languages " might safely be ignored altogether . We are partial to specialistic

opinion and are willing to believe that at Harrow , as elsewhere , the masters understand the education of youth very well indeed and have proved as much by the eminent scholars which they from time to time have produced . Mr . Fischer Williams has depicted life at Harrow School with a fulness of detail which is rare enough in books of this order : he is a writer of such broad sympathies and so wide

an outlook that all phases of his subject receive adequate treatment . Hence we have an excellent account of the daily routine at Harrowthe studies , the sports , the fagging , the rewards , the punishments . 'Tis a long story , for the school was first authorised by royal charter in 1571 and has been a busy institution ever since , but the whole subject is compressed into a small volume without any serious

omissions , and if readers cannot learn the story of Harrow School from Mr . Fischer Williams's volume they will hardly learn it elsewhere . There are nearly fifty illustrations , and appendices showing the curriculum of the different forms ; so the requirements of all classes of readers are abundantly satisfied . This series will in course of time become invaluable to the historian . We hope it is selling well .

New Century Library ( 2 s net per vol . ) . —T . Nelson and Sons . The Works of SIR WALTER SCOTT , BART . Vol . vi ., A Legend of Montrose and Tho Black Dwarf . . "SIR WALTER reigned before me" wrote Byron , in "Don Juan . " A twentieth century wag might pencil in the margin of his copy of

that interminable poem " and after . " For , despite the ill-concealed sneers of a few critics touching the fame of " dear Sir Walter " there is no sign of any shrinkage in the demand for the works of Scott . The two short novels contained in the volume before us have never been regarded as ranking among the great novelist's very best work ; but they are both so excellent in many ways that we , at least , are disposed very kindly towards them . Of the two ,

we prefer " The Black Dwarf , ' but merely on grounds of personal tastes : and we should be the last to deny that there are many passages in " The Legend of Montrose" of much pathos and power . There are few volumes by Scott which lack a woman whom , as Ruskin insisted , we are all better and nobler for knowing , and the sooner young folk can introduce themselves to such ladies as Grace Armstrong and Isabel Vere the better . They will be in good company .

A Wild Proxy . By Mrs . W . K . Clifford ( 6 d ) . —George Newnes . MESSRS . NEWNES are steadily adding to their list of sixpenny reprints , and they will do the public a great service if they can from time to time reprint the novels of writers so able as Mrs .

Clifford . " A Wild Proxy" is the work of one who -regards life in a truly philosophic spirit and from a broad , a cosmopolitan standpoint . Much of the dialogue in these pages is inordinately clever , so clever that we think the book among the best of its kind that has appeared during the last two or three years . Many readers will