Notable Lodge Meetings.

NOTABLE LODGE MEETINGS .

III . —THE MANSION HOUSE .

Freemasonry has always been held in high favour in the City of London , and though it is only of late years that so much prominence has been given to the fact of some of its Chief Magisstrates and leading citizens being members of our Society , a reference to any Masonic history will show that from a few years

after the establishment of our Grand Lodge in 1717 down to the erection of Freemasons' Hall , the ceremony of installing a new Grand Master was almost invariably performed in the hall of one of the great City Companies . Latterly , however , it has happened on more than one occasion that the Lord Mayor for the

time being , having already rendered good service to the Craft in various ways , has been appointed to high office in Grand Lodge , and in token , as it were , of the honour thus conferred upon him , he has generally contrived to include among the events which he

is expected or invited to take part in , or preside at , in his official capacity , some Masonic function or banquet . Thus Bro . Lord ¦ Mayor Stone , who , in April , 18 75 , had the honour of being appointed Junior Grand Warden by the Prince of Wales

imme-THE LODGE ROOM .

diately after his installation as M . W . G . M ., presided a few weeks later at the Festival of the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls . Bro . Lord Mayor Sir F . W . Truscott , J . G . W ., in 1880 , as W . M . of the Grand Master ' s Lodge , No . 1 , entertained the Prince of Wales and the Grand Officers , Present and Past , at a grand

banquet at the Mansion House , while Bros . Sir J . W . Ellis and SirR . N . Fowler gave each a similar entertainment , and also presided each as Chairman at a Boys' School Festival . But to Bro . Sir Henry A . Isaacs belongs the honour of having , by special

dispensation from the Grand Master , been installed in office as Worshipful Master under the hospitable roof of the Mansion House , the circumstances attending this memorable meeting being of so unique a character as to justify us in including-it in our series of " Notable Lodge Meetings . "

Firstly , as regards the lodge which has thus been permitted to meet at the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London . Though its career has lasted only four years , the Drury Lane

Lodge , No . 2127 , has from the very day of its constitution taken a conspicuous place in the front rank of our leading London lodges . It was started with the idea of providing a special Masonic home of their own for members of the dramatic pro-

Notable Lodge Meetings.

fession , as well as for brethren who were patrons of the drama , or were directly or indirectly associated or brought into contact with it in the fields of artistic and literary labour . Its principal founder was none other than Bro . Augustus Harris , lessee of Drury Lane Theatre , who considerately permitted that its

meetings should be held in the Grand Saloon of that theatre ; its first Master was Bro . the Earl of Londesborough , a highly distinguished Mason , and a known patron of the arts generally . Bro . Augustus Druriolanus himself was the second Worshipful Master , and the third and fourth were Bros . Sir

J . E . Gorst , Q . C , M . P ., and Admiral Sir E . A . Inglefield respectively , the former of whom ranks high in the political world , and is a distinguished member of the legal profession , while the latter has a world-wide reputation as an Arctic explorer , and has proved himself on all occasions a gallant and

capable sailor . The fifth m order of succession is Bro . Alderman Sir H . A . Isaacs , Lord Mayor of London , who was installed in the chair last week , and who for many years past has enjoyed the

reputation of being a perfect master of our ritual , as well as an able and genial ruler . Under such rulers as the brethren we have enumerated , and with the support and assistance of such an energetic worker as Bro . J . C . Parkinson and others ,

and lastly , with so numerous an array of sterling brethren on whom to rely for future Masters and officers , it is not to be wondered at that the Drury Lane Lodge should have attained , so early in its career , a position of such prominence , or that its installation meeting , wherever held , should have been , and seems likely to be , one of the principal events in our Masonic career .

But this is not new to our readers , who have read with pleasure the report we published last week of this memorable gathering . The novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in its history , two of the principal apartments in the Mansion House were used for Masonic , not for Civic , purposes , and what

is still more rare , perhaps , m the history of our Order , that a veteran and expert Craftsman , who in his civil capacity had risen to be the Chief Magistrate of the City , was installed in office as W . M . of his lodge under his own roof . Lodges have

before now been held at the house of a member , and more than one palace has been the scene of the initiation of a Royal personage , but never before , so far as we have read or heard , has there been such a combination of unusual circumstances as happened on this occasion , on Tuesday of last week , when the Lord Mayor of London was installed at a meeting held in his