Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

Historians have asserted that “one of the most engaging qualities of
Scottish social life during the eighteenth century is its lack of the rigid rules of
decorum that we still very much take for granted.” 109 Freemasons did invoke
rules and regulations, although these largely applied to general behaviour during
lodge meetings, attendance policies, and the payment of subscription fees and
other monies. However, convivial diversions often precluded the need for such
restrictions, as the tempers of masons at their feasts and celebrations were
improved so as to enhance “that quality of effervescent participation in the
social frolic which is a genuine mark of the eighteenth-century social
demeanor.” 110 Ultimately, men of letters and the social elite of eighteenth-
century Scotland were drawn to the cordial and delightful masonic receptions,
for they made “the literati less captious and pedantic then they were
elsewhere…[and] improved the members more by free conversation.” 111
The Impact of Masonic Charity
Despite the attractions of music, drinking, and song, Clark asserts that
freemasonry had its greatest impact “in the area of philanthropy.” 112 A
fundamental purpose of lodge funds, charitable activities were multivarious.
Although as Clark has asserted lodge charity is difficult to quantify, it is clearly
evident from minutes and records that a substantial proportion of lodge funds
went towards the relief of the poor and indigent.
109
McElroy, “Clubs and Societies,” 494.
110
Ibid.
111
Ibid, 496.
112
Clark, British Clubs, 337.
113