Page 27 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 27

Bell and Angel survive in name, but a frequenter of 1780 would not recognise them.
The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Edmonton, by William Robinson,
Gent., F.S.A., published in 1819, describes Edmonton as “a long straggling village
on the high road from London to Hertford and Ware, about seven miles north of
Shoreditch Church”, and gives the population in 1801 as 5098; it is now round
about 108,000.
What inducement a Lodge meeting in Edmonton can have had to amalgamate
with another meeting in St James’s it is hard to see, but a hint may be obtained
from a letter preserved at the Grand Lodge. This was addressed by Bro. the
Chevalier Ruspini to Bro. James Heseltine, then Grand Secretary:

Chevalier Ruspini presents his most respectful Compliments to Mr. Heseltine and
should think himself particularly obliged by being favored with a dispensation for his
Second Son George, who is about 20 years of age, and wishes to become a Mason.
The Lodge of Rural Friendship, meets on Saturday the 11th inst and as his son
particularly wishes to be initiated, he should be much obliged by a dispensation
before that day.
Pall Mall, Wednesday Evin.

There was, then, a Ruspini family connection with the Lodge of Rural
Friendship; George Ruspini’s name will be seen in the list of members as having
been initiated in that Lodge on 11 July 1789, so his father’s letter, which is
undated, must have been written in that month and year.
Bro. George Ruspini followed his father’s profession, and helped him with his
practice.
It is not impossible that the Lodge had already gravitated to London before the
amalgamation with the Nine Muses. Nearly all the known addresses of the members
are in the west and central parts of London, and among the papers of the Girls’
Institution is a letter dated 21 January 1796, three months before the Grand Lodge’s
order for the union, which refers to a meeting with the Chevalier Ruspini which had
taken place “at the Lodge of Rural Friendship, held at the Thatched House Tavern”.
But this may be a mistake, and there is no direct evidence of such a move.