The Province Of Hertfordshire.

A ruler without a single lodge to rule over , and no members to appoint as his officers . Bro . Forsteen seems to have been a distinguished member of the Shakespear Lodge , and was indefatigable in the cause of charity . He was particularly identified with the Royal Masonic Institution for Girls , which

he served in various capacities for nineteen years , eventually becoming Treasurer of the Institution . But apparently no effort was made to make his provincial office anything but a barren honour , and he resigned it in 1803 , when he became Junior Grand Warden . The sinecure office was , however ,

THE TOWN HALL , ST . ALBANS—HALSKY LODGE , No . 117 .

still continued , and a member of the same London lodge as the former Provincial Grand Master , Bro . George Daniel Harvey , born in 1777 , received his patent three years after his initiation as Provincial Grand Master . The solitary position occupied by the Craft ruler seems to

have touched the hearts of the authorities , for to render his position more endurable a Provincial Grand Superintendent of Hertfordshire was appointed in 1811 ( Colonel Andrew Dennis O'Kelly ) , though Royal Arch Chapters must have been as non-existent as lodges . We wonder if the two ever met

and mutually consoled each other in their Crusoesque condition .

ST . AL 11 AXS LODGE ROOM .

How long Colonel O'Kelly remained in this position we do not know , but there was no further appointment made until 18 35 . A real Masonic beginning , however , was now about to be made . The establishment of lodges very much resembles the foundation of the Greek Colonies . The settlers are mostly citizens from some overgrown city , who , as

strangers , take up an unoccupied spot , and there proceed to reproduce the buildings , organization , and life of the parent city , and after a time to incorporate among themselves the most eligible of the inhabitants of the district .

In the year 1829 another effort was made to Alasom ' cally colonise Hertfordshire , and this time with success . We may notice , however , in what a chaotic state the rights and duties of Provincial Grand Masters still were , although the appointment to this office had been made a century before , for no reference whatever seems to have been made by the

founders of the first Hertfordshire lodge under the new regime to the R . W . Bro . Harvey . It is of course possible that the settlers were unaware of the existence of a Provincial Grand Master , or it may be that a settlement from London , and from so distinguished a body as the Grand Masters ' Lodge , to which nearly all the founders belonged , looked