Recollections Of The Lodge Of Freemasons At Thornhill.

leave to address your Grace on a subject which is most interesting to us as a constituted body , and in which your Grace is intimately connected . In 1833 this body found themselves denuded of a lodge room , in consequence of the alterations

which were made in the interior of the Queensberry Hotel , in Thornhill , where they formerly lield their meetings . They petitioned your Grace for a site on which to build a Mason hall , which petition was immediately and in the kindest

• manner granted them . That building was opened in 1834 , and from that date till the present time ¦ our lodge has gradually and steadily prospered . We have now upwards of one hundred members ,

and , without vanity , all . respectable men . The truly Masonic manner in which we have conducted ourselves as "brethren of the mystic tie , " aud the ¦ regularity with which we have made our settlements with the Grand Lodge of Scotland have more than

once been acknowledged by them in terms highly laudatory , and pleasing to us as members of the Royal Craft . A few years ago , in connection with Masonry , we formed a brotherly society , constituted in terms of the Acts of Parliament , for

aiding and assisting our members while suffering under distress and the discomforts of old age . This sciety , we are happy to inform your Grace , is also in a flourishing condition , and has done much good .

But while we are thus basking in the sunshine of prosperity , and quietly enjoying in our own hall that occasional retirement from the cares of the world ¦ which the brotherhood so much covet , our noble benefactor is never forgotten . We are proud at

all times to acknowledge your Grace as the grand lever by which we are raised to our present honourable position in society , and to whom we owe all our Masonic independence . At a late general meeting of our lodge it was proposed and

unanimously carried that a deputation be appointed to wait on your Grace and communicate to yon our present comfortable circumstances , the knowledge of which , we fondly hope , will not be . unpleasing to your Grace , and to convey the very

grateful sense we entertain of the many obligations we , as well as the whole inhabitants of Thornhill , are under to your Grace . May it therefore please your Grace to accept the heartfelt expressions of gratitude of the members of St . John ' s Lodge of Freemasons , Thornhill , and your Grace's memorialists will ever pray , & c .

Signed in the name and by authority of the members of St . John ' s Lodge , by PETER DALZIEL , B . W . Master . PETER BROWN , Senior Warden . JOHN KELLOCK , Junior Warden .

WILLIAM BROWN , Secretary . Thornhill , 1 st October , 1851 . It was at first determined that the lodge should in procession proceed to Drumlanrig Castle , there formally to present the foregoing memorial ; but

this idea was very properly abandoned . To solicit any one to become a Mason is quite contrary to the philosophy and general usage of the Order , and lessens its dignity . It is , as Dr . Morris remarks , " of the same sort ; of evil as if a chaste

virgin were to solicit a man to accept her in marriage . " A minuted " vote of thanks " is another mode by which the lodge has at various times marked its sense of special favours conferred on it . We shall note a few of the more prominent of such votes . The first that we find is that accorded

in 1821 to "Mr . James Ross for the honour conferred on his mother lodge by his brotherly and and gentlemanly behaviour . " Bro . Boss was W . M . in 1817 , and removed from Thornhill in 1819 ; but what special benefit accrued to St .

John's from his " brotherly and g-entlemanly behaviour" does not appear . In 1854-5 , Bro . Dr . F . D . M'Gowan was thanked " for his services as Proxy Master of No . 252 , and for the interest he had taken in the lodge . " The vote of thanks to

Dr . Andrew Chalmers , in 1859 , in consideration of his having " examined candidates without fee or reward , " was accompanied by an offer to make him an honorary member—a kindness which the worthy medical adviser of St . John ' s did not

accept till August , I 860 . For "his portrait of the Bev . Edward Dobie , painted gratuitously for the lodge , " Bro . Thomas M'Pherson in 1856 " received the thanks of the brethren , and was also enrolled an honorary member . " In 1864

thanks were voted to the Treasurer and Secretary , Bros . Robert Brown and James Sibbald , for the " excellent manner " in which they had discharged their respective duties in connection with the celebration of tho fiftieth anniversary of the lodge ;

and , for their kindness in allowing the jubilee procession to walk through the garden and grounds of his Grace the Duke of Buccleuch ; Captain Clark , Dabton , and Mr . M'lntosh , Drumlanrig , had a similar compliment paid them by St . John ' s . Again , in 1865 , Bro , John Smith received the