Page 114 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

114 An Account of the

made in writing by the Prince of Wales’s Lodge, but without effect. The Chevalier
Ruspini subsequently presented three candlesticks in their place.

The Chevalier’s gift was not confined to the candlesticks, for the minutes of
the Prince of Wales’s Lodge record that on 17 February 1804, “The Chevalier
Ruspini presented to the Lodge the Chairs, Candlesticks, and Paraphernalia lately
belonging to the Lodge of the Nine Muses.”
The action of Bro. Ruspini is not easy to explain.
We have learnt in Chapter Two how he wrote to the Grand Secretary in
October 1805, to the effect that the Lodge of the Nine Muses had not met for
more than four years; that their belongings were still at the Thatched House
Tavern; and that he had paid expenses due to the Tavern to the tune of some £60.
The Chevalier may have thought that having paid the dues to the Tavern he had
acquired a lien on the goods of the Lodge; even then his giving them away seems
distinctly high-handed. Moreover, the Lodge referred to by the Chevalier in 1813
as having been “revived by him” had apparently been meeting continuously since,
at least, December 1805, in which month the Chevalier had signed his name in
the Signature Book of the Lodge. If there is any key to these contradictions it is
now lost.
Here is the story from the other side, as recorded in the minutes of the Nine
Muses.
[25 February 1814] A letter was read from Bro. Stratford Robinson the
Secretary of the Prince of Wales’s lodge dated 11th January 1814 with an extract
of the minutes of the proceedings of the said lodge held the 3rd June 1813 which
letter and extract were ordered to be entered on the minutes as follows viz Dear
Sir “I am sorry you incurred the displeasure of any of the members of your lodge
by having returned me the copies of the resolutions I sent you on the subject of
the candle sticks. It was solely to oblige the late Chevalier Ruspini who had not
seen them, that I requested the return of them. I mentioned to the Princes Lodge
at the last meeting the displeasure exprefsed on acco . of your having returned
t
the papers and your request of having them again, and I was then desired to
send you the inclosed. It is probable otherwise you would have heard no more