Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

development. Necessary to the achievement of this national improvement was a
continual emphasis on camaraderie and the integration of common aspects of
institutional life, such as songs and music, into clubs and societies. Songs and
music were central features of masonic meetings, the culminating elements of a
night spent with mirth and jollity. Combining toasts and music, Roman Eagle
Lodge No. 160 in Edinburgh, “what with eating and drinking and appropriate
conversation…passed the time with much good humour and sparkling wit till
past eight o’clock in the evening; Finally, after several songs in Latin, French,
Italian, English, and Gaelic, the Lodge was closed in the usual manner.” 97
Embracing a penchant for the flamboyant, Roman Eagle hosted a lavish masonic
Ball at the Kings Arms Tavern,
108
where a brilliant numerous and respectable company attended,
amounting to Fifty Brethren attired in full Dress, and their proper
Insignia…the Band in the 4 th North British Militia favoured the
Company with several German and Polish Airs upon the Piano Forte, the
Lodge’s Military and violin Bands performed this evening. Brother
Gardner performed many fine Scots Airs upon the flute, which were well
receiv’d – upon the whole a finer sight or more happy company could
not be, the room was lighted with 149 wax lights – the company retired
into a small side room where an elegant cold collation was prepared,
with all sorts of wines and spirits [and] fruits and the company broke up
at 4 oclock A.M. 98
Not confining their convivial and celebratory tendencies to the lodges,
and in some ways helping to moderate suspicion from some quarters about their
covert and supposedly conspiratorial activities, freemasons frequently
participated openly in public events. Manifesting the popularity, pageantry, and
spectacle of freemasonry, Peter Clark notes that “masonic processions tended to
97 No. 160 Roman Eagle Lodge Minutes, 1 August 1785.
98 Ibid, 27 February 1801.