Page 76 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

76 An Account of the

In February 1875 Bro. E. H. Hewett joined the Lodge and was at once
appointed Secretary, though still only in the first degree. He was passed in March
and raised in April.
Reading between the lines the conclusion is reached that the Lodge was in the
hands of a small clique of wealthy men who kept it to themselves until it was in
actual danger of expiring for lack of new blood.
Happily this state of scanty membership and irregularity began to mend soon
after 1870; the membership steadily increased for the next two decades, and has
since remained at a number sufficient to prevent any chance of a recurrence of
the regrettable deficiencies and undignified expedients which have had to be
chronicled above, and the minutes cease to show anything but the regular routine
of a well-organised Society. For this revival the late Bro. Walter Webb was largely
responsible.
When the Lodge was first begun meetings seem to have been frequent, perhaps
monthly, as between 1777 and 1802 during every month except September new
members are recorded in the books of the Grand Lodge.
In 1814, when the minutes begin, the Lodge was meeting seven times a year,
in January, February, March, April, May, October and November.
In November 1823 the January meeting was, by resolution, altered to
December, which gave an eighth meeting in that year.
After 1824 the October meeting was dropped, and only six meetings were held,
in February, March, April, May, November and December, and this arrangement
continued with occasional irregularities until 1874, after which the April meeting
was dropped, to be resumed in 1882.
After 1906 the May meeting disappeared and the number of meetings in the
year was reduced to five; and in 1925 the October meeting was revived and the
December meeting given up. After 1919 the April meeting, though summonses
were still issued, lapsed for want of support, with an exception in 1927, and was
finally abandoned in 1937, after the Lodge had moved to its present quarters at
the Grosvenor Hotel in October 1936.
According to the Freemasons’ Magazine for February 1796, the Lodge then met
on the second Friday in the month.