What we were Reading in 1817.

Here is an interesting catalogue from the rear of a 1817 copy of Dr. Johnson's Rasselas, detailing Classics published by Walker and Edwards of London. How many should be rediscovered, we wonder.

Thomson's Seasons and Castle of Indolence.
Hawkesworth's Telemachus.
Pope's Homer's Iliad.
Ditto Odyssey.
Junius' Letters.
Ossian's Poems.
Young's Night Thoughts.
Rasselas by Dr Johnson.
Ovid's Metamorphoses.
Dryden's Virgil.
Robinson Crusoe.
Chapone, Gregory and Pennington.
Francis' Horace.
Ovid's Epistles.
Roderick Random.
Death of Abel.
Falconer's Shipwreck.
Gray's Poems.
Tales of the Genii.
Milton's Poetical Works.
Vicar of Wakefield.
Cotton's Visions, and Moore's Fables.
Seven Champions of Christendom.
Hervey's Meditations.
Pope's Poetical Works.
Old English Baron & Castle of Otranto.
Spiritual Quixote.
Zimmerman on Solitude.
Sturm's Reflections.
Humphrey Clinker.
Sandford and Merton.
Gulliver's Travels.
Don Quixote.
Gil Blas.
Watts on the Mind.
Tom Jones.
Persian and Turkish Tales.
Pilgrim's Progress.
Hudibras.
Peter Pindar's Works.
Lord Chesterfield's Letters.
Joseph Andrews.
Bucaniers of America.
Goldsmith's Essays, Poems and Plays.
Marmontel's Plays.
Beauties of Sterne.
Belisarius, and Numa Pompilius.
Messiah.
Leonidas.
Locke on Understanding and Bacon's Essays.
Chesterfield's Principles of Politeness &c.
Paul and Virginia, and Elizabeth.
Nourjahad; and Almoran and Hamet.
Cowper's Poems
Devil on two sticks.
Peregerine Pickle.
Doddridge's Rise.
King Arthur.
Mackenzie's Works.
Dodd's Beauties of Shakespeare.
Tales of the Castle.
Atala; Indian Cottage; Gressner's Idyls, and First Navigator.
Tristram Shandy.
Mason on Self Knowledge; Economy of Human Life; and Melmoth's Great Importance.
Fairy Tales.
Sterne's Journey.
Voltaire's Charles the 12th, and Peter the Great.
Chinese and Oriental Tales.

Ephemera - Trust Houses

Again a little ephemera found in an old book, the full text reading as follows: "Trust Houses, Ltd. / Registered Office: SHORTS' GARDENS, DRURY LANE, W.C.2 Telephone: TEMple bar 7741 / Date......19... / B.K.T. 1/54 Ref. Bin 34 / Breakfasts / Luncheons / Dinners / Teas / Coffee / Suppers / / / Ale and Stout / Wines / Spirits / Liqueurs / Minerals / Cigars / TOTAL / CU 54377 Waiter's Initials / No. of Persons.

A basic Google search gives no results of consequence for "Trust Houses" and "Drury Lane", the latter of course needing no introduction. It would be interesting to hear what these Trust Houses were, if anyone has any idea. The two leads of possible significance are the Graves Trust Houses in Sheffield, which appear to have been some sort of social bed and breakfast arrangement; and, the following line, "and inns in Great Britain under the control of Trust Houses Limited" that I am unable to reference. Again any help on this front would be much appreciated.

ABR - Masonic Music

Recently we received a pile of Masonic songbooks, which may be of historical value, so I take the liberty of quoting from it here.

The full title page of the first item reads as follows: "Respectfull dedicated to The Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Master of the Province of North Wales, Bro. Colonel Henry Platt, C.B. (P.J.B. Deacon Eng.) / A Masonic Musical Service Book for the Three Degrees of Craft Freemasonry / Being a selection of appropriate Psalms (newly appointed); Hymns; Kyries, etc.; with settings of teh E.A.'s song; the Masonic Honours ("Prosper the Art"; "Worthy Mason He"); and New setting of Burns's song of "Farewell to Tarbolton Lodge" by Bro. E FARNALL, P.M. 2375, P.P.G.O With new Chants and Hymn Tunes expecially composed for this work / The whole compiled and edited for the Service at the Lodge of St. Trilo, 2569, Colwyn Bay. by Bro T J Linekar ORGANIST (1907-10) Copyright by William Reeves, MCMXI / ondon: William Reeves / 83 Charing Cross Road, W.C.2 / Second Edition Revised."

Oddly the Contents page has been both typed and handwritten. It begins with "Duly open for the purposes of F.M. first degree", opening hymns by Cautlett and Linekar himself and on the following page is a "Closing Hymn". Then begins a section on some "Ceremony of Initiation", with a refrain to be sung if the candidate is a "Fit and proper person to be made a Mason." The candidate is instructed to "advance to ...in due form" to music by Turle, and to Kramer is written the instruction "You will S... it with........ on the V.S.L." After music by Mendelssohn, TJL and P Humphries, candidates are told "I delegate you to ......Badge of a Mason". There is a song of readmission, possibly after some form of excommunication and an "Entered Apprentice's Song", which is worth quoting in full:

"Come let us prepare We brother that are,
Here met on this merry occasion.
We'll quaff and we'll sing, Be he peasant of King
Here's a health to an accepted Mason.

"The world tries in vain Our secrets to gain,
And still let them wonder and guess on;
They ne'er can divine A word or a sign
Of a Free and Accepted Mason.

"'Tis the and 'tis that They cannot tell what,
Why the great men of every Nation,
Should put aprons on, And make themselves one
With a Free and an Accepted Mason.

"Great Kings, Dukes, and Lords Have laid by their swords,
Our Myst'ries to put a good grace on;
And have not been ashamed To hear themselves named
As a Free and an Accepted Mason.

"Antiquity's pride We have on our side,
As we keep up our old reputation:
There's nought but what's good To be understood
By a Free and an Accepted Mason.

"We're true and sincere, We're just to the Fair;
They'll trust us on any occasion;
No more mortal can more The Ladies adore
Than a Free and an Accepted Mason.

(All rise and join hands.)
"The join in hand in hand, To each other firm stand
Let's be merry and put a bright face on:
No Order can boast So noble a toast
As a Free and an Accepted Mason.

(Repeat.)
"No Order can boast So noble a toast
As a Free and an Accepted Mason."

The emphasis on accpetance, or popularity, is one of the anachrnonistic features of the song that perhaps rings a little discordant in twenty-first century ears. Also, am I correct in thinking that to quaff is to sup a drink?