Bath—The City Of Mineral Springs.

Bath — The City of Mineral Springs .

Some Masonic ( Associations .

AMONG the thousands of visitors racked with gout and rheumatism who ( lock to Bath year after year in search of- that relief which nature ' s mysterious bounty—the healing springs—has so freely bestowed during succeeding centuries , it is not unnatural to assume that the Masonic Brotherhood has its share of representation . It is not that

assumption alone , however , that is pleaded in justification of the present article , for with such a wealth of historic associations as the ancient city possesses it would be singular indeed if the illustrious Order held no other place or rank . During that important epoch in the history of the city , when Bath claimed as its citizens all the brighter ornaments in the

world of science , art , and literature , it is interesting to find that Freemasonry flourished and that the Order to-day ranks as one of the oldest , if not the oldest , of Bath's secular institutions . The Royal Cumberland Lodge , No . 41 , has existed without breach of continuity from the year 1732 , and the late Mr . R . E . M . Peachthe well-known Bath historian

, , in a volume written a few years before his death on the subject of " Craft Masonry , " says he has little doubt that the Royal Cumberland was the earliest lodge of the Fraternity established under the constitutions of the Craft , drawn up with a history by Desaguliers and Anderson , and promulgated in that year by the supreme authority of the Grand Lodge of

England . Desaguliers , that remarkable man to whom Bath and the whole body of English Masons owe so much , became identified with the city about the year 1719 , and continued to visit it every year until the one preceding his death in 1 744 , his visits being often of long duration . There can be no doubt , says Air . Peach , that to his prescience and vast

knowledge and acquaintance with Masonic lore , the revival of Masonry was mainly due , for although Anderson revised as early as 1721 the old Gothic and rude constitutions by

which the lodges of the 16 th and 17 th centuries were governed , it was not until Desaguliers , in 1732 , re-edited and re-cast Anderson ' s work , that the code of laws and constitutions assumed the wise and practical working character under which the great Society has since flourished . With perhaps the single exception of Herschel , who made his

great astronomical discovery at Bath , Desaguliers was the most eminent man in science and literature that graced Bath annals in a degenerate age , and it is singular to find that so remarkable a man , much of whose time was passed in the city , should have been practically altogether disregarded by local historians . Holding the highest dignity in the Crafthe

, constantly presided over the local lodge , and it would be difficult to over estimate the effects of Masonry upon the social habits of Bath during the latter half of the last century . It is not the intention of the present article to trace the progress of the Order from that early period to the present , though it is gratifying to find the greatest zeal and discretion

still observed in the working of the lodges to-day , and the same ardent desire of the Brotherhood to keep alive its illustrious traditions . The accompanying illustration represents the interior of the present Masonic Hall at Bath , a building which itself has an eventful history , and which has been the home of

Freemasonry in the city since sometime in the sixties . During the greater part of the last century , the Bear Inn was the great fashionable hostelry of the city , and from 1733 until its demolition in 1784 , the trysting-place of the Masonic Fraternity . It is made famous by that humorous description of it and its " yard" by Smollett in Humphrey Clinker .

There were various subsequent meeting places , the Duke of Sussex presiding in 1819 at a memorable ceremonial at the dedication of the hall which preceded the present one , a

TIIK MASONIC HALL , JJATJI .