Page 139 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 139

LODGE OF FREE MASONS IN ENGLAND”; in the centre, “TO THE LODGE
OF THE NINE MUSES IN GRATEFUL TESTIMONY OF A LIBERAL
SUBSCRIPTION TOWARD COMPLETING THEIR HALL.” Authentic
examples of this medal are to be seen in the Museum at Freemasons’ Hall.
According to Bro. Sadler eighty-one individual Masons also subscribed to
the fund and received the medal, and at least nine of them were members of the
Lodge – Bros. Hull, Lord Effingham, Lord Ferrers, Lord Tamworth, Wm. Ward,
Nugent, Bottomley, Francis Franco, and the Chevalier Ruspini.
A Hall Medal was also presented to Bartolozzi for his services in engraving the
title-page of the Book of Constitutions, which Cipriani had designed in collaboration
with Bro. Thomas Sandby, R.A., the architect of the Hall. Cipriani died before the
engraving was finished, or he would no doubt have had the medal too.
The medal is delivered with the 1922 Hall Stone medal into the keeping of
the Master during the installation ceremony, and is hung round his neck with
a sky-blue ribbon. It is not now commonly worn at other times, except on
occasions of high ceremony.
The fine Hall survived until 1934, when it was pulled down, but it had been
reconstructed after a disastrous fire in 1883, and of the original building little
remained but the walls. It had been altered at various times by different hands. A
large coloured drawing showing the Hall as recast early in the nineteenth century
by Bro. Sir John Soane, and set out for a meeting of the Grand Lodge, is to be seen
51
in the Soane Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. When the Peace Memorial Hall
was built it was intended to incorporate the old Hall in the new building, but
this was found for structural reasons to be impossible; a part of one of Sandby’s
walls, however, is said to be imbedded in a wall of the new Connaught Rooms,
which cover the site.
In November 1938 the Lodge received from Lady Dawson and her sons the
gift of a number of jewels awarded to the late Bro. Sir Philip Dawson during his
long life as a Mason. Among them are some curious American examples.
It is suggested that these jewels should be provided with a case suitable for
their exhibition in the ante-room of the Lodge, and that they might form the
nucleus of a further collection. 52

51 This is the present building wherein are the Grand Temple, the administrative offices of
Grand Lodge, Metropolitan Grand Lodge, Library, Museum and Offices of the four Charities.
52 The whereabouts of these is now is unknown, perhaps they were lost with the firing glasses
during WWII.