Page 140 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE BOOKS AND PICTURES

RO. B1GGIN, one of our founders, who presented the jewels in 1777,
also “offered to furnish a Bible”. In April 1 1822 “Bro. Petch having
Boffered to present to the Lodge the Sacred Volume of the Holy Law
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Bro . S . W . Rawlins moved that such offer be accepted which was moved and
carried unanimously”, and in the January following “The W M [Bro. Propert]
presented to the Lodge an ancient Bible (date 1634) and a set of working
tools”, for which “splendid present” the Lodge voted its thanks.
Bro. Propert’s Bible is still in regular use. It is a quarto, about 8 inches by 6 inches,
and is printed mainly in black letter. The elaborately engraved pictorial title-page
has the imprint “LONDON/ Printed by Robert Barker/Printer to the King’s
most excellent/Majestie, and by the Affignee(s)/of John Bill. 1634.”
The binding is in calf, gold-tooled, and bears on a panel the words “Lodge of the
Nine Muses / Presented by / Br: Propert / W.M. / Jan. 14th/1823.”
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The Bibles presented by Bros. Biggin and Petch have disappeared along with
Bro. Propert’s tools; and another, bought in 1873, at a cost of £2. 10s., to replace
one damaged through Mr Bacon’s carelessness, has mysteriously gone the same way.
The 1776 List of Lodges has already been referred to in Chapter Two, but as these
books are rare the copy belonging to the Lodge may be worth a full description.
It is a slender little production, 4 inches wide by 7 inches high, handsomely
bound in crimson morocco. The place of a title is taken by a list of the Grand
Lodge Officers, of whom there were then only seven beside the Grand Master,
namely, the Deputy Grand Master, Senior and Junior Wardens, Treasurer, Secretary,
Chaplain, and Swordbearer. Opposite, by way of frontispiece, is an elaborate
“achievement” of arms, showing the family coat of the M.W. Grand Master,
Lord Petre (Gules, a bend Or, between two escallop shells Argent), with helmet,
coronet, crest and supporters, and his Lordship’s name and titles beneath.
Then follow four pages of Present Acting Provincial Grand Masters, including,
beside the English ones, those of Armenia, America, Canada, the Austrian Netherlands,