Page 28 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

28 An Account of the Lodge of Nine Muses

We have seen that the Lodge of the Nine Muses, according to the Freemasons’
Magazine, was meeting, in February 1796, “numerously and respectably”. Yet only
a few years later it apparently ceased its activities altogether for several years. The
authority for this is another holograph letter from Bro. Ruspini which chances
to have been preserved at the Grand Lodge. The letter is addressed to “William
White. Esq./G.S./Free Masons Tavern/Great Queen Street,” and runs thus:

Bro. Ruspini presents his Compliments to Brother White & begs to inform
him that the Lodge of the Nine Muses held at the Thatched House have not
met for above four years, the Constitution and the Paraphernalia &c. are at the
Thatched House. Brother Ruspini has paid every expence due to the House ever
since the difsolution of the Lodge the amount of which are about Sixty Pounds.

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Pall Mall Oct 9 1805.
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Bro. Ruspini writes here of the “dissolution” of the Lodge, as if it had been
brought to an end, and in 1804 he had gone so far as to present the candlesticks
and other furniture belonging to the Nine Muses to the Prince of Wales’s Lodge;
for the diverting sequel readers are referred to Chapter Eleven.
If the list in Appendix A be consulted, it will be seen that no new members are
entered as having been admitted between 16 November 1802 and 14 December
1805; this supports the Chevalier’s statement, except that the gap is three years,
not “above four” as he says. Why a flourishing Lodge should have subsided so
rapidly into a state of suspended animation can only be conjectured; but the times
were anxious and there were similar cases. A possible explanation is discussed
in Chapter Five. The Lodge, however, was far from dead and was soon at work
again and, except for a brief period in the sixties of the last century when the
membership dwindled to eight, it has never looked back, and has continued to
meet, if not always very “numerously,” it is believed at least “respectably.”
Nothing more is definitely known of the history of the Lodge till with the
beginning of the regular minutes in January 1814 we get at last on to solid
ground. This calls for a fresh chapter.