Recollections Of The Lodge Of Freemasons At Thornhill.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LODGE OF FREEMASONS AT THORNHILL .

LONDON , SATURDAY , APRIL 28 , 1866 .

By "D . MUEKAY LYON , one of the Grand Stewards in the Grand Lodge of Scotland . « - ( Continued from page 306 . ) No . IV . .... Besides paying tlie tyler , an allowance

is made by No . 252 to its Treasurer and Secretary ; and in this the brethren follow an ancient custom of the Mother Lodge , whose "Clark's " fees were once regulated by " ancient statutte ;" although the salaries in question are more of a

nominal character than adequate compensation for the labour incurred in the discharge of duties , ordinary and extraordinary . But while apparently parsimonious in then . ' payment of those of their officials whom they regard entitled to wages , the brethren of Thornhill have on several occasions

and in divers manners given tangible expression to their feelings of gratitude for special services rendered to the lodge . To their first Proxy Master , Bro . John Maitland , accountant , who for twenty-seven years

represented them in the Grand Lodge of Scotland , they in 1822 presented a sash ancl jewel , for his " attention to the interests of the lodge . " In November , 1853 , Bro . Robert Brown , a worthy Past Master of the lodge , and an occasional

lecturer to the brethren on the principles of the Order , was the recipient of a " handsome silver patent lever watch and appendages , " donated by the lodge , " in token of esteem for him , " and in

acknowledgment of his long-continued , varied , and highly important labours in furthering its interests . Bro . the Rev . Edward Dobie was in 1857 presented " with a portrait of himself similar to the one in the loclge room , " the artist being

Bro . Thos . M'Pherson , an Honorary Member of St . John ' s . After ten years' service as Treasurer of the lodge , Bro . William Brown was in January , 1862 , rewarded by the gift of " a very superb time-piece , surmounted by a bronze figure of a

crusader on horseback ; " so satisfied were the brethren with the zealous and straightforward manner in which the respected keeper of their purse-strings had managed the financial affairs of St . John ' s . And from a consideration that the scrupulous attention he had ever given to the calls

of the lodge had , perhaps , too often deprived his wife of the enjoyment of her husband's society in the privacy of domestic life , but without attempting to compensate for the sacrifice Mrs . Brown had thus been called upon to make , the lodge ,

through Bro . Brown , begged her acceptance of a " very handsome silver-gilt teapot , in token of the esteem in which she was held by the brethren of St . John ' s . " Again , in September , 1864 , do we find the Lodge of Thornhill decorating the breast

of Bro . the Rev . George Dudgeon , an honorary member of No . 252 , with " one of the most beautiful chaplain's jewels ever issued from the hands of the Grand Jeweller ( Bro . Hay ) , in acknowledgment of important services rendered to the lodge on the

occasion of its recent jubileeic demonstration .. " . . . . While the lodge has been thus liberal in the bestowal of substantial honours , it has also been the recipient of remembrancers of fraternal consideration . The presentation of a gold jewel

to the lodge by the P . G . M . has already been noted . Bro . William Gordon , of Kilmarnock , donated to his mother lodge a hiram for its Master

and a column for eaeli of its rrcarAona . A . trowel and chisel was the gift of Bro . Robert Brown . Bro . Schink , of Edinburgh , presented a plate of the Duke of Athole . A box to hold the lodge jewels came from Bro . Charles Howitt . Bro . John

Thomson sent a g-ood book of Masonic songs , "for which the lodge ( it is recorded ) paid him the compliment of drinking his health ; " and as the book was " meant to members of the lodge solely , " it was arranged that each member should

have four days' use of it . But all these gifts sink into insignificance when compared with the munificent one made to the lodge by his grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry . It is recorded of the Kilwinning Fraternity , that out of

gratitude to Alexander Earl of Eglinton , for having granted , at a nominal rent , a site for their hall , they elected the noble donor Master of the mother loclge for life ; and it was from a similar feeling that the brethren of St . John ' s , Thornhill ,

unanimously ag ' reed " respectfully to offer" the right of initiation to his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch , and to present him with the following , in some respects extravagantly written , address : —

The Memorial of the Right Worshipful Masters , Wardens , and Brethren of St . John ' s Lodge of Freemasons , Thornhill . My Lord Duke , —We , tho memorialists , beg