Page 7 - The Early History of The Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. UGLE

INTRODUCTION

ESPITE THE BITTER RIVALRY between the two English Grand
Lodges in the second half of the 18th century and before their eventual
Dunion in 1813, there must have been a number of infl uential Freemasons in
both the ‘Moderns’, under the Premier Grand Lodge, and the ‘Antients’ who detested
that situation. Had there not been so, the Union could not have come about when
it did.
This account sheds further light upon the affairs of the time, and it may well be
that the Lodge of the Nine Muses performed a key role in the events which led up
to the Union.
Due credit must be given to the late W.Bro. Allen Foxley, who was the un-named
author of “An Account of the Lodge of the Nine Muses, No. 235, 1777-1939”,
printed at the University Press, Cambridge, in 1940. He was a close personal friend of
the author of this booklet who was privileged to collaborate with Bro. Foxley in the
collecting of information for his book. It was unfortunate that the advent of World
War II made publication imperative, if it was to be done at all, and several interesting
leads had to be curtailed in the rush.
The general impression gained by a reader of this book must be that the Lodge
was founded by the Chevalier Ruspini, that the infamous Rev. Dr. William Dodd
would have been a founder had he not been hanged for forgery and that a few well
1
known artists and musicians were amongst its early members. As a consequence of
this, the Lodge still possesses some beautiful candlesticks and jewels, about which
there are some rather shady stories.

1 AQC. 19. “Notes on the Grand Chaplains of England.” Rev. Canon M. W. Horsley.