Mark Coleman Wallace PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

organizational precursor of the agricultural revolution that would transform
agrarian lifestyles and methods of farming throughout Scotland. 157 Another case
in point is the Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English
Language in Scotland, illustrated the preoccupation of literary Scots with the
“problem of form, and that in reaching a solution to that problem they had
resolve, as they had in other fields, to follow the English example.” 158 And the
Select Society, affirming its purpose, maintained that it strove for “the mutual
improvement in the art of speaking of its members.” 159
The formation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the existence of
numerous Scottish lodges reflect the all-purpose aspirations of cultural and
societal development of the aforementioned societies and also exemplify what
Davis McElroy has called “a deep desire among the Scottish people to improve
their nation through voluntary co-operative effort.” 160 Interestingly, as least for
freemasons, such a noble aspiration was unwritten. Although English
freemasons boasted the somewhat rambling and verbose Constitutions,
freemasons in Scotland had no official set of constitutions until 1836. Repeated
attempts, however, were made to establish a formal book of rules, although it
never materialized. In 1740, the Grand Lodge ordered “7 copies of William
Smith’s Small Constitutions anent Masonry Unbound, for use by the Grand
Lodge.” 161 Apparently some collection of rules and regulations existed as of
157 See T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830, (London, 1998), 271-281.
158 McElroy, “Clubs and Societies,” 166.
159 Select Society. Resolutions of the Select Society For The Encouragement of Arts, Sciences,
Manufactures, and Agriculture (Edinburgh, 1755), 2.
160 McElroy, “Clubs and Societies,” 18.
161 Grand Lodge of Scotland Minutes, 6 August 1740.
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