Page 161 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 161

It is not recorded whether the Lodge complied.
11 December 1827. Bro. Thomas Harper resigned owing, as he said, to
advanced years and the consequent decline in my health. The W.M. feelingly
exprefsed his regret that, advanced age and increasing infirmities had compelled
our Venerable Friend to retire, but the Lodge would of course bow to his decision,
much as they must lament being deprived of his Society.
Bro. Harper was then elected an Honorary Member. He was over ninety, and
his health may have been failing for some years, for we read on 4 December
1822, that he was “labouring under a severe indisposition at Brighton and was
not sufficiently recovered to risk a journey to London”. He died in 1832. Earlier
chapters hold many references to him.
[12 May 1829] Brother Quieros, initiated in the year 1819, and who had until
lately resided in the East Indies, underwent examination, and having satisfactorily
replied to the questions proposed from the Chair, was afterwards introduced ...
and advanced to the Rank of Fellow Craft.
A Brother in the “East Indies” would hardly have to wait ten years now for
his second degree.
[11 February 1834] A letter from Bro. Arthur T. Thiselton 7 Millbank S . t
addrefsed to the W.M. was read. It notified the death of Bro. Peter Gilkes and that
it was proposed to erect a tablet to his memory in St James Church & consecrate
the grave by masonry & called upon the Lodge to aid the proposition.
The Emulation Lodge of Improvement had been founded in 1823 to
consolidate and teach an agreed ritual, and Bro. Gilkes, at the head of it from 1825
to the time of his death, was generally recognised as “the most perfect exponent
of the Ceremonies and Ritual of the Craft”.
Bro. Peter Gilkes’s neat marble memorial tablet may be seen to-day in St.
James’s Church, Piccadilly, but as to whether the Lodge had any hand in its
provision or dedication the minutes are silent. This is often the case where
appeals are mentioned; it need not necessarily be concluded that the Lodge was
indifferent to them.
[11 November 1835] The Lodge of emergency was held pursuant to the
resolution of the last Lodge [held on the previous evening] Br Hardy having been