Page 51 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 51

as a Roman Catholic he was actually buried elsewhere, and now lies at Ajaccio,
whither his body was removed in 1889 at the request of the Corsican people.
Brief notes will be found in the appendices after the names of those who have
won fame in the arts, the services, or the professions, or have laid the Lodge under
special obligations, while in some cases fuller treatment is accorded in the text.
We have seen that in the early days of its life the Lodge had a considerable
connection with the arts, and a large foreign element, especially Italian. By
1814 both these features had disappeared, and when we take up the consecutive
written history the membership is found to consist in the main of professional
and business men with a sprinkling of the titled, of the leisured, and of the
services. Such it has remained to the present day though a sparse succession of
minor painters, musicians, poets, and architects has maintained down the years a
frail liaison with the Muses. The law and medicine in particular have always been
repre sented. The absence of the clergy has already been remarked; can the pitiable
shade of the Rev. Dr Dodd have exerted a repelling influence?
Of the members bearing Italian titles of nobility, or in the diplomatic service
of the several once-existing Italian states, none seems to have been a man of great
importance.
The Count de Oeiras (1783) was son and heir to the Marquis de Pombal, and
succeeded to the title, one of the most illustrious in Portugal. He was Chamberlain
to the unhappy Queen Maria I of that country, and apparently followed her in
her banishment to Brazil, for he died at Rio de Janeiro in 1812. Of the one
Polish member, Count Seidlecki (1778), nothing seems to be known, except that
he had assumed, or was credited with, a title which was not his. He is described
as Chamberlain to the King of Poland; but as no complete list of Chamberlains
exists it cannot be said whether his claim to this distinction was better founded.
In the arts the list is more impressive, though of the Nine Muses themselves one only,
Euterpe, divinity of music, can show much of a following. Clio has had her devotees it
is true, but neither can be claimed as a Gibbon or a Trevelyan; we have had no tragedian,
no dancer, no astronomer, nor any orator or singer of more than domestic reputation;
our handful of poets are all forgotten; and our one known actor, Charles Bonnor (1805),
forsook the boards to become Deputy Comptroller of the Post Office.