Freemasons' Hall— Thenew Wing.

Grand Master , as also rooms for the Grand Officers , and the second floor is devoted to a lodge-room with ante-room . This second floor is reached by means of a broad and handsomely-constructed stone staircase , and we note that the windows which light the corridor are decorated with the arms of the Grand Master and the Deputy Grand Master

, respectively . A communication has been formed between the new and the old building by an opening under the main staircase in Freemasons' Hall , and in the corridor on the first floor .

Tin : SI-II-LIIIUAKUX : W . liliO . II . SADLER .

In leaving the building , it will be noticed that the elevation is practically a repetition of Freemasons' Tavern , and forms a corresponding wing in red brick and Portland stone , the stone block of Freemasons' Hall forming the central feature . For the curious in these matters , it will be

found , on reference to the report of the September Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge , that the entire cost of the new wing is ^ 14 , 500 , which includes the expenditure on the installation of the electric light and fittings , the oak bookcases and show-cases for the Library and fittings , and the furniture for all the new roomsincluding the new lodge-room .

, As I have already suggested , it cannot but happen that the palatial character of the present building will turn our thoughts to the different conditions which prevailed in the days of long ago , and it will be permissible to re-state a few facts concerning previous places of meeting .

The sources of origin of the Grand Lodges of England and their old meeting-places form an interesting phase of Masonic history , from the constitution of the first Grand

Lodge in 1717 throughout a chapter of incidents , down to the present year , which has been marked by the handsome additions to which this brief sketch has been devoted .

We shall find , as well as in Bro . Hughan ' s " Origin of the English Kite of Freemasonry , " no mean account of the history of Grand Lodge in Bro . Ross

Robertson ' s " History of Freemasonry , " from which a few facts may be quoted . Prior to 1 730 the Grand Lodge met at various taverns for the transaction of ordinary

business , and the Annual Festival was invariably held at one of the halls of the City Companies , the Merchant Taylors apparently being given the preference .

The Apple Tree Tavern , where the revival was inaugurated , was a noted publicljou . se located in Charles Street , Covent Garden , and so called out of compliment to our

evergreen monarch , Charles I . It was not until 18 44 that it was renamed Upper Wellington Street .

The feast of St . John in 1717 was held at the Goose and Gridiron public-house in London House Yard , on the north side of St . Paul ' s Churchyard . This old hostelry was built after the great fire in London in 1663 , although before that date there was a house on this site with the sign of the Mitre . It is claimed by some ,

remarks Bro . Robertson , that the sculptured mitre still to be seen in the wall of the present house , was the actual sign , but he adds that this is incorrect , for the mitre means that this property , as , indeed , nearly all the property in the immediate neighbourhood , belonged to the See of London . The Mitre public-house was the first music house in London ,

and the proprietor—one Robert Hubert , alias Farges—was a collector of curios , which were " daily to be seen at the place called the Music House , at the Mitre , near the west end of St . Paul's Church , 1664 . " Some years after the fire the Goose and Gridiron Tavern was built on this site .

The sign was a peculiar one , and those who have made a study of the subject have given an explanation of what seems to be a queer combination . The " Tatler " says : — " When the house ceased to be a music-house , the succeeding landlord , to ridicule its former destiny , chose for his sign a goose striking the bars of a gridiron with its foot ,

thus making fun of the Swan and Harp , which was a common sign of the early music houses . Hotten and Harwood , in their history of signboards , say that it was a homely rendering of the change in the coat of arms of the Company of Musicians , namely , a swan with his wings expanded , within a double treasure county llory , and that the double treasure suggested

a gridiron to the passers by . From Chambers' ' Book of Days ' it would appear that the house was the headquarters of a musical society , whose arms were the lyre of Apollo , with a swan as the crest , that this device was appropriated as the new sign when the house was rebuilt after the fire , and that it was nicknamed by vulgar and unsophisticated persons , the Goose and Gridiron , the nickname sticking fast as nicknames will . " The Tavern is now known as No . 8 , London House Yard .

As the historian from whom I am quoting , adds very justly , whatever interest may cling to the outer walls of this historic Masonic resting place , the interior has charms for all who have read the early work of the Craft from the days of the Apple Tree Tavern and Goose and Gridiron down to the advent of the "Palace in Stone" as Bro . Robertson

describes it , in Great Queen Street , now the central home of British Masonry . The Crown Ale House in Parker ' s Lane , near Drury Lane , was a third noted meeting-place for the English Lodges at the time of the revival and possibly before . Parker ' s Lane ,

( IRANI ) OFFICERS' ROOM .