A Visit To The Royal Freemasons' School For Female Children.

our Order ' ) , we owe the design and foundation of this institution . Tho purpose of tho founder was to preserve the female offspring of indigent . Freemasons from the dangers and misfortunes to which a distressed situation might expose them . Our Bro . Ruspini , from his influence with the members . of the royal family , was enabled to interest her late royal hig hness the Duchess of Cumberland , wife to the Grand

Master , his royal hig hness the Duke of Cumberland , who kindly consented to become the patroness , and during whose life tho institution was firmly established , and from her royal highness ' s patronage many of the nobility became interested in the scheme ; but it is to the fraternity , chiefly , that it owes its present proud position . " The Royal Cumberland School for the Daughters of Indigent Freemasons" was

, the title under which the school became established , in the year 178 S . On the 1 st of January ( au appropriate day for commencing a good work 1789 ) , fifteen children were admitted by the trustees , into a house which had been taken at Somcrs Town ; and on various occasions , the number was augmented , until it reached the amount of twenty-eight girls . In 1793 , tho governors , anxious still farther to

extend the benefits of this institution , became the leaseholders of a piece of ground , under tho corporation of London , situated in St . George ' s Fields , Sonthwark , then literally fields , no houses being near it ; on this the ) ' erected a school house , at an outlay of two thousand five hundred pounds . The lestso of this ground expired ia lSul , and could only be

renewed at an increased rent , and a very largo outlay to accommodate tho premises to the wants of the inmates ; and the governors wisely determined to remove the school to some loss populous nei ghbourhood , After some time spent in selecting a site , tho present localit y was secured , upon which has arisen a building that does honour to the Craft , including as it does , every modern appliance for health and

convenience , besides being recognised as an ornament to the nei ghbourhood in which it stands . Pausing a few moments more before we enter its portals , let us for a moment consider the mysterious dispensations of the G . A . O . T . H ., and ask ourselves if there is not " a providence that shapes our ends , rough-how them as we will . " In this very school , by one of those mysterious dispensations of a higher Powerwho does

, all for his own good purposes , the two granddaughters of tho founder , not long since found a shelter and a home . From its commencement , more than seven hundred children have been educated , clothed , unci maintained , within its wal Is , and fitted to take their places as respectable members of society . Returning to our personal experience after tho previous

longdigression—wc approached the house which is built in what wc term , speaking under correction , the domestic Tudor-Gothic style , which presents a bold front flanked at- each extremity by two dwarfed wings , and containing in the centre a bold tower terminated b y a campanile . Passing through tho gate we came upon a neatly kept garden of shrubs , and , as the door in the centre of the tower was stauding open , we read the following inscription : —¦