Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

association as a device for furthering these national aspirations and for
promoting the wider acceptance of the English models. 154
For instance, the Edinburgh Society for the Reformation of Manners was
based on a similar society in London, and the Society in Scotland for the
Propagation of Christian Knowledge mirrored the structure of the English
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Much like these organizations, the
creation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland was facilitated by the creation of the
Grand Lodge of England. As we have seen, “the union and incorporation of the
Scottish Lodges into one organized body was due rather to the influence which
the erection and successful career of a kindred institution in England would
naturally have upon its northern neighbours.” 155 The term improvement,
therefore, “was much more than an economic slogan, for it represented a
national attitude of mind which recognized Scotland’s true situation and
embodied, in that recognition, the resolve to equal, if not to exceed, the
accomplishments of her more prosperous and more productive neighbours.” 156
The inclusion of the term “improvement” in the title of clubs and
societies and in mission statements also evinced this national attitude of cultural
and economic advancement. A good example of one such society is The
Honourable the Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland, an
154 Ibid, 15. See Clark, British Clubs, 86-87: “In the case of Ireland and Scottish masonry, the
London grand lodge had a decisive effect on their evolution during the 1720s and 1730s,
promoting the creation of similar central structures.”
155 Lyon, Mary’s Chapel, 181. Lyon further states that the influence was “rendered all the more
potent by the fact that more than one Scottish noble had been called to preside in the Grand
Lodge of England.” Clark echoes this statement: “Whatever the background, there can be no
question that after 1717 the London grand lodge performed a key role in promoting the advance
and organization of English freemasonry, setting a pattern quickly copied in Ireland and
Scotland through the establishment of their own grand lodges,” British Clubs, 311.
156 McElroy, “Clubs and Societies,” 23.
52