Round And About.

through Bro . Muggeridge , and which contained a cheque for ten guineas . If ever the Association attains success , we shall look upon that gift with gratitude . " We need not trouble ourselves much , nor exercise our

intellect in discovering how this can be , for the better half of the Craft know , but it nevertheless is a disgraceful trait of English Freemasonry that it possesses very little decency and less gentility . There is far too much tinsel and beer in the composition of an ordinary Lodge . The whole basis

upon which they are worked is a fraud upon the doctrines of Freemasonry , and nothing , it is certain , but a firm and determined voice proclaiming aloud the sacrilegious humbug which has infused itself into the minds of those gentlemen who compound the true ranks of the Craft , can shield it

from any further abuse from anti-Masonic profligacy . This is a task perchance for one of those creatures who venture to rush where angels fear to tread , but the time is ripe for crushing the humbug , and if it can be done without at all diving into scandalous and personal matters , it should be done at once .

Mr . Sears , the Traffic Superintendent of the South-Eastern Railway Company , has carved his own way into notice by sheer dogged determination , and application to the enormous ramifications of such a service as his Company boasts . He is here , there , and everywhere , but lives at Sevenoaks , where

he takes a deal of interest in local Masonic affairs . Perhaps there is no railway official connected with any of the London Companies who possesses in such a marked degree as he the perfect respect of the whole of his employers , and his long connection with the South-Eastern ; and his great personal acquaintance with the details of every department

of traffic management , enables him to be so successful in his efforts for the welfare of his men . Only the other day he arranged an entertainment for the bandsmen of the Company , and aided by the ladies of the family , entertained them at the Palace Hotel , at Hastings , where in the course

of one week he thought out and established a local railway office for the comfort of the passengers of the South-Eastern . He hopes to see in the near future a line of Continental steamers starting from Hastings , in connection with the " line " he has devoted so many years to improve .

'if- -: c- .. ';¦ For the past ten years I have been trying to find time and opportunity to go to Greenwich , and at last I have managed it . Ten years is a long time to wait before a simple wish

like this is gratified ; but the intense satisfaction one gets from accomplishing it is worth all the waiting , and a bit more . We were a happy party on board the penny boat . I had somehow sauntered through the beautiful Temple Gardens , across the Embankment , and on to Temple Pier

before any very definite idea as to what I was doing got into my head ; but once on board , and seated beside Mary Jane—evidently taking her father ' s dinner to Blackwallone gets a fine opportunity to study the exterior characteristics of the minor orders of " all sorts and conditions of

men . " All change at London Bridge . On an old wooden hulk that ought to know the river well enough to steer itself along it we settled down for the voyage , and felt very inquisitive over the sketch-book of Alfred Hardy , who happened to be making some studies of the lazy craft swinging round on their moorings and setting their dirty brown sheets to catch the favouring breeze .

* « * Alfred Hardy proved to be a cousin of Bro . T . B . Hardy , of Sheffield , the beautiful marine and river watercolour painter , and what more natural that we should

discuss the lovely " bits " as we steamed quickly past the m , wrangle generally about art and all its disappointments , or discuss some of the outrageous canvases which lately hung upon the walls of Burlington House ? It is so easy to criticise , you know , far easier than painting ; so whilst he

sketched I criticised , and drew in my mind's-eye a lot of social pictures of the extraordinary beings on board . Lunch at the "Ship , " a stroll through Greenwich Hospital and chapel , where I very indignantly informed Constable No . 2 7 that he had no right to wear his helmet in a house of God , and I

had to leave my new-found friend to the glories of a little balcony overlooking the river , from which he was painting a charming scene with the care of a past master of his art . I shall certainly go to Greenwich again , and ramble through it Masonically .

I hope to have something interesting to tell about the renowned Quatuor Coronati Lodge , which is the representative literary Masonic Lodge of the Empire , someday . We have not yet estimated the value or the necessity of a regular Masonic library , but Bro . '" Mallet , " of Glasgow , has

sounded a hope in furtherance of a universal scheme for making collections of Masonic literature for the use of members of the craft . He says : —