Annual Festival Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

Pass we next to what , in the days of the Saxon Heptarchy , constituted the northern part of the kingdom of the East Angles , the important agricultural county of NORFOLK , Whose Provincial Grand Master , Lord Suffield , had the honour of being initiated by his Royal Highness the Grand Master in person a few years since , Two lodges , No . 85 , of Harleston , and No . 807 , one of the six that meet in

Norwich , have worthily upheld the fame of the province and its complement of 16 lodges , the amount of Bro . Drury D . C . Hill ' s list for the former being £ 26 5 s ., while the return from the latter is not yet to hand . In February it gave a modest 30 guineas to the Benevolent Institution , and last year was represented at all three festivals , its total slightly exceeding £ 200 , of which the Girls' School received the larger half . Turning to the extreme North of England , we find that

NORTHUMBERLAND Has had the good fortune to be represented by its zealous and indefatigable Prov . Grand Secretary , Bro . B . J . Thompson , of Newcaslle-on-Tyne . For reasons which concern us not , the Boys' School finds especial favour with this province , and amongst them on the present occasion its 21 lodges have contributed £ 1222 13 s ., a most acceptable amount , for which the School o . eculive must , indeed , be very grateful . In 1880 it raised for the same Institution only a little short of £ 640 .

With the calendar for our guide , it becomes expedient that we should break our journey southward for the purpose of paying a flying-visit to the Province of

NORTH WALES AND SHROPSHIRE , Whose eight and twenty lodges pay a willing obedience to R . W . Bro . Sir W . Williams-Wynn , Bart ., M . P ., the senior of our Prov . Grand Masters , who has had charge of this part of England and the principality of Wales for

upwards of 30 years . The number of its Stewards on Wednesday was three , acting for two lodges , the most conspicuous of them being Bro . Spaull , the Prov . Grand Secretary . Up to the time of going to press , however , only one list had been returned for £ 10 ios . In 1882 it raised £ 537 , of which over £ 352 found its way into the coffers of the Girls' School .

In the years that have elapsed since Prince Leopold , Duke of Albany , was installed Provincial Grand Master of

OXFORDSHIRE , That province has taken an active part in all our anniversary celebrations . This is not surprising , when we remember that in 1 S 80 His Royal Highness took the chair at the Girls' School Festival , and that , but for an unfortunate attack of illness , he would have occupied the same position at the Benevolent

Festival of 1877 . This example our Oxfordshire brethren have been quick to follow , and of its 11 lodges , three—the Alfred , No . 340 ; Apollo University , No . 357 ; and Churchill , No . 478 , all of Oxford city—contributed £ 73 17 s . on VVednesday . In February it gave £ 100 to the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution , and over £ 85 to the Girls' School in May . In 1882 it raised a total for the three Institutions of nearly £ 305 .

Directing our steps towards the south-west we reach in due course the province which has for its ruler the Right Hon . the Earl of Carnarvon , Pro Grand Master of England . This , it is needless to say , is

SOMERSETSHIRE , Which , with two out of its 24 lodges represented by Bros . T . Payne Ashley , and F . Elworthy respectively , figures in Wednesday's list for £ 357 10 s . 6 d . It sent up Stewards for moderate amounts both in February and May , and in previous years has seldom missed the opportunity of contributing to one or more of our central charities . The provinces into which the southern half of Wales is divided are next in order in the calendar and in those circumstances must be dealt with next

in this analysis . SOUTH WALES—EASTERN DIVISION , With sixteen lodges had an efficient representative on Wednesday in the person of Bro . Thomas Thomas , Prov . G . Reg ., and a P . M . of lodge No .

1323 , of Swansea , whose list amounted to £ 230 . In May last the province by its representative , Bro . John Budge , of No . 855 , Aberavon , contributed over £ 217 , while last year it raised £ 200 for the Girls' School and over £ 374 for the Boys' . Its immediate neighbour

SOUTH WALES—WESTERN DIVISION , Has only nine lodges on its roll , but Bro . Aaron Stone , a P . P . G . Warden , who acted on its behalf , gave in a list of £ 350 . In 1882 , when Col . Lloyd-Philipps , P . G . M ., gave his services as Chairman at the Benevolent Festival , the total of its subscriptions and donations amounted to £ 360 and a fraction .

I urmng eastward , we make our way into STAFFORDSHIRE , With a complement of 26 lodges . The occasions on which it has been absent from the lists are few and far between . Last year for instance it figured

for £ 616 and upwards , of which the Schools between them engrossed all but 25 guineas . This year it commenced operations by subscribing £ 57 15 s ., to the Benevolent . This it followed up in May with a total of £ 272 for the Girls , and on Wednesday three of the six brethren who took charge of its interests gave in lists amounting in the aggregate to £ 460 gs . Comment is needless .

Continuing our peregrinations in an easterly direction we find ourselves for the second time in East Anglia , but in the southern part of the old Saxon kingdom ; in olher words , in SUFFOLK , Which had already given over £ 166 to the Benevolent and £ 136 to the Girls ' , when on VVednesday twoot four Stewards , acting for as many lodges ,

handed in lists amounting to £ 26 5 13 s . in the aggregate . Considering the province has only 21 lodges , a total of £ 5 68 for a single year cannot be too highly commended . But the figures do not surprise us , when we remember that Lord Waveney is P . G . M ., and the Rev . C . J . Martyn , P . G . C , D . P . G . M ., and Prov . Grand Superintendent of the Royal Arch Degree .

As with Hampshire and the Isle of Wight , so with SURREY , Considering how greatly it distinguished itself at the Benevolent Festival this year , when its Prov . Grand Master , Bro . General Brownrigg , C . B ., presided , and the province supported him with a total of over £ 905 , it would have

been quite excusable had it allowed itself a brief respite lrom this branch of Masonic work . But in May it supplemented its grand effort of February by contributing close on £ 110 to the Girls' School funds , and on Wednesday Bros . F . A . Manning- and S . P . Catterson made up between them £ 08 15 s . the Am ild Lod ^ e , No . 19 82 , of Kast Molesey , which was only consecrated towarcs the close ol last year , having sent up a Steward to all three festivals ,

Annual Festival Of The Royal Masonic Institution For Boys.

Bro . Catterson having acted in this capacity at those of the two Schools . It redounds greatly to the credit of the province and its twenty-six lodges , that it should have raised npwards of £ 1083 in a single year ; and there is still the list of W . R . Grove , S . D . of No . 1872 , to be returned . It needs not that we should make any detour in order to reach the province of

SUSSEX , Which has greatly distinguished by the regularity and liberality of its contribution to all our Charities . What it did for the Boys' School in 1881 , when for the first time—that we are aware of—in the history of Masonic festivals , its anniversary was held at Brighton instead of within the metropolitan area , is still fresh in the memory of our readers . Last year , too , it raised close

on £ 920 , of which some £ 578 were assigned to the Girls . In February it contributed £ 210 to the Benevolent , and in May over £ 363 to the Girls . Its total of £ 3 64 17 s . on Wednesday is , in these circumstances , all the more worthy of commendation . Our task is approaching completion , but our perambulations are as intricate as ever . Having visited the land of the South Saxons with its breezy downs and bold headlands , we make straightway for the land of hardware .

WARWI CKSHI RE With a distinguished chief in Lord Leigh , the term of whose P . G . Mastership is only a few months shorter than that of Sir W . Wynn , has 30 lodges which owe him allegiance and pay it to his lordship with right hearty goodwill , as was shown on a comparatively recent occasion when he presided at a Boys' School Festival and they contributed a round £ 2000 . Last year it gave the Girls' over £ 810 , which , with the £ 188 received by

the Boys' School made , in round figures , £ 1000 . This year it has contented itself with modest contributions to the Benevolent and Girls' School with the obect apparently of making abetter appearance on this occasion . But whatever the object , the 19 Stewards , with Bro . Boddington at their head for the province , and the rest doing duty for lodges Nos . 74 , Birmingham ; 284 , Warwick ; and 395 , Leamington , and Nos . 739 , 938 , 1474 , and 155 1 , all of Birmingham , have thus-far sent in £ 215 5 s ., while theieare several lists which do not appear to have been received in time for the festival .

The contrast , at least numerically , between the province we have just visited and

WILTSHIRE Is great , but the zeal , thanks lo such excellent Masons as Lord Methuen , P . G . M . ; Sir Gabriel Goldney , Bart ., M . P ., & c , is as conspicuous . There are but 10 lodges , yet in 1882 it distributed over £ 300 among our Institutions . In February it raised by lhe hands of Bro . Dep . Sur . Ringer over £ 50 for the Benevolent Institution , and now , with Bro . J . Sparks as Steward for Lodge No . 1271 , it contributes £ 135 gs . The change from Wilts to

WORCESTERSHIRE offers no special feature . We leave behind us a province with 10 lodges to enter one with 11 , but in both there is the same hearty goodwill towards our Institutions and the same desire to illustrate the virtue of charity by the generosity with which the claims of those Institutions on the Craft are met . Again , in 1882 , Worcestershire , like Wilts , gave over £ 300 among our

Charities , the amount in that instance being £ 387 , and this year it has benefited the Benevolent to the extent of £ 219—in round figures—the Girls ' School with £ 217 , and the Boys' School on Wednesday with £ 328 6 s ., making a total for the year of £ 764 6 s . Here again comment is needless . The penultimate stage of our journey through England and Wales brings us to the Province of

N . AND E . YORKSHIRE , York , the capital city of which , is intimately associated with the legendary history of the Craft , while the old time immemorial lodge , now , and lor very many years past , defunct , which met within its walls bore the proud title of " the Grand Lodge of All England , " in contradistinction from that which met in London , and was known only as " the Grand Lodge of England . "

Then this province has the good lortune to be ruled by a brother—the Earl of Zetland—who bears a title that has been a household word in Masonry for over half a century . Bearing in mind also that it enjoys the further good fortune of numbering among its members several brethren of distinction and zeal , such as Bros . J . Pearson Bell , D . P . G . M ., T . B . Whytehead , J . S . Cumberland , and others , it will cause no surprise among , our readers that the

province sent up a dozen Stewards , of whom Bro . Cumberland appears to have had charge of the unrepresented lodges , while the remaining eleven acted as Stewards for eight of its eight-and-twenty lodges . These together raised £ 879 16 s ., which , added to the minor contributions in February and May last make a total for the year of £ g 25 4 s . 6 d . Last year it contributed £ 645 , of which £ 500 went to the Girls' School . The last in the long array of provinces represented is that of

WEST YORKSHIRE , With its 66 lodges . As regards numerical strength , it holds the third rank among the provincial sub-divisions of England , but its support of our Institutions is even more than commensurate with its rank . On this occasion it has sent up an array of 41 Stewards , of whom 37 represent 17 of its lodges , while the general interests of the province appear to have been taken in hand by Sir Henry Edwards , Bart ., P . G . M ., and his worthy Deputy , Bro .

T . W . Tew , G . S . D . The efforts of these representatives are shown by the total they have placed to the credit of the School , namely , £ 1500 . In order to complete the work done by West Yorkshire during the current year , we must add to this £ 450 raised in February and £ 400 in May , making in all £ 2350 . Last year the total was in excess ol £ 1635 . Indeed , in the last nine years it has raised for our Charities £ 18 , 622 . To praise these returns would be as useless as the proverbial attempt to gild refined gold . It remains for us to speak of

J ERSEY , Whose fame could not have been in better hands than those of Col . E . C . Malet de Carteret , its Prov . Grand Master . Its presence at this festival is the more welcome , because from its remoteness it can hardly be said to stand on the same level as regards the charities with the provinces in England . Nevertheless , it has figured on several similar occasions , and on Wednesday Col . de Carteret handed in £ 210 , a very excellent amount , coming as it did from a province with only six lodges on its roll .

OTHER CONTRIBUTORIES . These are five other Stewards , two of whom hail from foreign stations , while three acted on behalf of the Mark Master's Degree . The former two , Bros . A . M . Broadley and H . de Tath . im , M . D ., sent in £ 63 10 s ., and £ 10 ios . respectively ; while the Mark Stewards , Bros . F . Davison , G . T ., 1 " . Cubitt , P . G . S . O ., and George Cooper , G . S . D ., made up a total of £ 218 8 s .