Page 94 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

CHAPTER NINE

BENEVOLENCE

ASES of hardship and distress come from time to time before all Lodges;
the Nine Muses has many such on its records and has dealt with each
Cas best it could in accordance with the principles of the Craft. Of these
cases it would be indecent to say more.
But some account must be given of the response of the Lodge to the larger
demands which have been made on it by the permanent Masonic charities, and
on special occasions, not in any complacent spirit, but rather to recall to present
members what their predecessors have done in this way, and move them to consider
how far it may be their duty and their privilege to emulate or improve upon it.
In Chapter Twelve, on the Jewels, will be found an account of how the new
Lodge and its members gave their help towards the cost of the first Freemasons’
Hall, built in 1775.
The founding in 1788 of the Institution for Girls by Bro. the Chevalier Ruspini,
one of the founders also of the Nine Muses, was not of course the venture of the
Lodge; but the Lodge was closely associated with the Institution in its early days,
and many of our Brethren served it in different capacities. Bro. James Bottomley was
present at the preliminary meeting at which the foundation was finally decided on,
and both he and Bro. John Hull were on the first Committee. Bro. Thomas Harper
also served on the General and House Committees. We have seen also how Bro.
Francis Crew was Secretary for many years to both Lodge and Institution together.
There hangs in the Grand Lodge Museum a touching little painting by Bro.
Thomas Stothard, R.A., showing the gently-smiling Chevalier, hand in hand
with two of the youngest girls, leading a long “crocodile” down the centre of the
old Freemasons’ Hall, between ranks of distinguished Masons. In the foreground
are the Prince of Wales, the Dukes of York and of Clarence, the Prince of Orange,
and other notabilities, among them Bros. John Hull, our first R.W.M. and Lord
Rancliffe, R. W.M. in 1799. Bartolozzi made an engraving from the painting in
1802, of which copies are by no means rare.