Some Memorials Of The Globe Lodge, No.23, And Of The "Red Apron."

Some Memorials of the Globe Lodge , No . 23 , and of the " Red Apron . "

( BY HENRY SADLER . )

THE Grand Lodge " was considerable on the borrer"in those days , as Mark Twain says , for when either of the lenders called in his loan and the Grand Treasurer had not sufficient cash in hand to meet the claim , the difficulty was easily surmounted by borrowing from some one else . To the credit of the Society , be it noted that the Grand Lodge seldom , if ever , had occasion to go outside the Order to obtain the money required .

WUSIIRIDGH HALL , IN SURREY ' , THE SEAT OF I'HILIl' CARTERET WEIili , ESQ ., M . I ' ., MEMHKR 01 ' THE GLOBE LODGE IN 17 K .

The first Constituted Lodge on the Register of the Grand Lodge of England is the Lodge of Friendship , No . 6 , which the Engraved Lists tell us was Constituted on the 17 th of January , 1721 . Between that date and the Constitution of this Lodge in 1723 , eighteen other Lodges were recorded , so that the Globe Lodge was the 20 th to be formally enrolled

on the Register of the Grand Lodge . Just half of these Lodges have at various periods died out and have been removed from the list ; ten , however , are still flourishing , and long may they continue to llourish ! Of the existing ten , six have united with other Lodges , leaving four only which , so

far as we can learn , have stood alone and unaided through storm and sunshine , from the date of their Constitution , now verging upon 200 years ago , clown to the present time . They are the British Lodge , No . 8 , the Westminster and Keystone Lodge , No . 10 , the Old Dundee Lodge , No . 18 , and the

Globe Lodge , No . 23 . PHILII- CARTERET WKHH , ESQ ., M . P ., F . R . S ., F . S . A . We will now return to Philip Carteret Webb , who was probably the most remarkable member the Globe Lodge ever had on its books ( I mean of the old school , present members are , of course , excepted ) , and , I think , when you have heard what I have to say about him , you will agree

with me that he deserves more than a cursory mention . He is said to have been born at Devizes in the year 1700 , so that he was about 25 years of age when he became a member of the Globe Lodge . I cannot say much for him as a Mason , as his name does not appear in the List of Members returned in 1730 , either from that or any other Lodge . He certainly may have joined another Lodge , but , if so , we have no evidence of it , as only 55 out of 102 Lodges on the

Register sent in the names of their members in the year last mentioned . He was brought up to the legal profession , and at an early period of his career practised as an attorney , first in the Old Jewry , next in Budge Row , and lastly in Great Queen Street . His abilities quickly attracted notice , and he was employed by the Government in the prosecution

of some of those misguided persons who took part in the Scottish Rebellion of 1745 , the last attempt to replace the Stuarts on the Throne of England , when , it is said that by his conspicuous ability he rendered great service to the State .

He was an eminent Antiquary , and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1747 , and a Fellow of the Royal Society two years later . In 1751 he is said to have materially assisted in obtaining a Charter of Incorporation for the first named Society . In 174 8 he purchased an estate

called Busbridge , near Haslemere , in Surrey , and turned his attention to Agriculture , so you see he was " a man of many parts . " In 1754 he was elected Member of Parliament for Haslemere , and continued to represent that Borough till 1768 . I need not remind you that the use of iron for the

purposes of shipbuilding had not come " within measurable distance " in the middle of the 18 th century . It was feared that unless energetic measures were taken we should have to