Masonic And Anti-Masonic Processions, Caricatures, Etc.

nothing on the picture to indicate Masonry ; besides which , the Gormagons probably collapsed soon after 1730 . There is certainly no mention made of their being advertised after the above year . Why , then , should Hogarth have engraved a Gormagon caricature in 1742 ? It is my opinion , therefore , that the plate was originally designed as a Gormagon caricature in 1730 , or thereabouts ; thatafter the disappearance of the Gormagonsthe plate naturally

, , became dead property ; but when a rage was created in 1742 for anti-Masonic . caricatures , the insciuption under the plate and the poetry were added . In short , this Masonising of the Gormagon caricature ( if my theory should be right ) may in future be numbered among the " tricks in trade . " I shall onl y add that the editors admit that the plate had been tinkered ; that in the earlier plate was mentioned the name of Sayers , for whom it was engraved , and in

the later copies that name was omitted . The plate seems also to have changed owners , all which tends to strengthen my suspicion that the MasonisaMon of the caricature was an afterthought . Until I saw the edition of Hogarth before me , I knew of but two anti-Masonic caricatures . One of these was designated as a " Geomatrical Procession of the Grand Miserable Masonsas they were drawn up over against

, the Somerset House , in the Strand , on the 27 th of April , 1742 . Engraved by A . Benoist . " The other ( a copy of which can be seen in Hone ' s Every Day Book , vol . ii ., ) has the following- inscription .- — " The solemn and stately procession of the Scald Miserable Masons , as it was martialled on Tuesday , the 18 th of this instant , -A pril . " Mr . Hone remarked that the year when the above late was published was

p unascertainable , but certain pecularities in the mode of printing , etc ., led him to suppose that it was printed some years before 1742 . I have , however , ascertained that in 1745 the 18 th of A pril was on Thursday , and that on that day the Grand Lodge had its last public procession . * The inference thereof is , that the above plate commemorates a procession of the miserable Masons in 1745 .

From this edition of Hogarth I learn that the public newspapers noticed some of those processions , and the dates correspond with the elates of the Masonic feasts and processions , as stated in Masonic constitutions . Thus the Masons turned out on the 19 th of March , 1741 , and the London Daily Post of the 20 th has the followin g notice : — " Yesterday some mock Freemasons marched through Pall Mall and the Strand as far as Temple Bar in procession . Firstwent fellows on jackasses

, , with cowhorns in their hands ; then a kettle-drummer on a jackass , having two butter firkins for kettle drums . Then followed two carts , drawn by jackasses , having in them the stewards with several badges of their Order . Then came a mourning coach , drawn b y six horses , each of a different colour and size , in which were seated the Grand Master and Wardens , the whole attended by a vast mob . They stayed without Temple Bar till the Masons

came by , and paid their compliments to them , who returned the same with agreeable humour that possibly disappointed the witty contriver of the mock scene . " Again"April 28 th , 1742 . Yesterday being the annual feast of the ancient and honorable society of Freemasons , they made a grand procession—from Brook Street to Haberdasher ' s Hall—where an elegant entertainment was provided

, and the evening was concluded with that harmony and decency peculiar to that society . But some time before the society began their cavalcade a number of shoe blacks , chimney sweeps , etc ., on foot and in carts , with ridiculous pageants carried before them , went in ju'ocession to Temple Bar b y way of jest to the Freemasons , at the expense , as we learn , of one hundred pound sterling , which occasioned a great deal of diversion . " And still again—