Grand Masters of Scotland - Onondaga and Oswego Masonic ...

which became a reality after the draining of the Nor’ Loch and the commencement of the North Bridge, for which he laid the
foundation stone in 1763. [Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland, p. 248]
http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Lord_Provost_George_Drummond,_1687-1766-
A_Story_of_the_Life_and_Times_of_George_/0907692079/
Lord Provost George Drummond, 1687-1766: A Story of the Life and Times of George Drummon by University of Edinburgh
ISBN: 0-907692-07-9 / 0907692079
Title:
Lord Provost George Drummond, 1687-1766: A Story of the Life and Times of George Drummon
Author: University of Edinburgh
Publisher: Scotland's Cultural Heritage Unit, University of Edinburgh
http://www.freejokes.ca/Anecdotes/Provost-Drummond.html
About the middle of last century, George Drummond was
provost or chief magistrate of Edinburgh, and renowned for his humane disposition. He was one day coming into the town by the
suburb called the West Port, when he saw a funeral procession leaving the door of a humble dwelling, and setting out for the
churchyard. The only persons composing the funeral company were four poor-looking old men, seemingly common beggars, one at
each end of a pole carrying the coffin, and none to relieve them; there was not a single attendant. The provost at once saw that it
must be a beggar's funeral, and he went forward to the old men, saying to them, "Since this poor creature now deceased has no
friends to follow his remains to the grave, I will perform that melancholy office myself." He then took his place at the head of the
coffin. They had not gone far, till they met two gentlemen who were acquainted with the provost, and they asked him what he was
doing there. He told them that he was going to the interment of a poor friendless mendicant, as there were none else to do it; so
they turned and accompanied him. Others joined in the same manner, and at last there was a respectable company at the grave.
"Now," said the kind-hearted provost, "I will lay the old man's head in the grave," which he accordingly did, and afterwards saw the
burial completed in a decent manner. When the solemnity was over, he asked if the deceased had left a wife or family, and learned
that he had left a wife, an old woman, in a state of perfect destitution. "Well, then, gentlemen," said the provost, addressing those
around him, "we met in rather a singular manner, and we cannot part without doing something creditable for the benefit of the
helpless widow; let each give a trifle, and I will take it upon me to see it administered to the best advantage." All immediately
contributed some money, which made up a respectable sum, and was afterwards given in a fitting way to the poor woman; the
provost also afterwards placed her in an industrious occupation, by which she was able to support herself without depending on
public relief.
Sir Philip Sidney was a gallant soldier, a poet, and the most accomplished gentleman of his time. At the battle of Zutphen, in the
Netherlands, after having two horses killed under him, he received a wound while in the act of mounting a third, and was carried
bleeding, faint, and thirsty to the camp. A small quantity of water was brought to allay the thirst of Sir Philip; but as he was raising it
to his lips, he observed that a poor wounded soldier, who was carried past at the moment, looked at the cup with wistful eyes. The
generous Sidney instantly withdrew it untasted from his mouth, and gave it to the soldier, saying, "Thy necessity is yet greater than
mine." He died of his wound, aged only thirty-three; but his kindness to the poor soldier has caused his name to be remembered
ever since with admiration, and it will probably never be forgotten while humane and generous actions are appreciated among men.
The Life of George Drummond
GRAND MASTER MASON OF SCOTLAND, 1752-53
by BROTHER REV. F. ROUTLEDGE BELL, J.P., F.S.A.Scot., Past Senior Grand Chaplain
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:AfGTNEotUuoJ:www.grandlodgescotland.com/glos/Literature/Articles/George_Drummond.ht
m+%22Provost%22+%22George+Drummond%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=14
George Drummond was born on 27th June 1687 at Newton Castle, Blairgowrie. A Cadet of the Drummonds of Stobhall and Cargill,
it was his grandfather who received from Charles I the charter which erected Blairgowrie into a Burgh of Barony. This family claims
descent from a Hungarian noble who came to Scotland with Edgar Atheling and his sister Margaret, subsequently Malcolm
Canmore's saintly Queen.
Walter, the thirteenth Drummond chief, was knighted by James II, and one of his grandsons, George, purchased Newton of Blair
about 1550. He did not enjoy his new possessions long because both he and his son William, while playing bowls near the Kirk of
Blair, in the kirkyard it is said, were "slauchtered" by the Laird of Drumlochy and his men. George was the eldest son of a younger
Drummond, John by name, who inherited Newton on the death of his elder brother, and appears to have been an estate factor in
Edinburgh. George Drummond was educated locally till about fourteen when he was sent to Edinburgh to complete his education.
He showed great promise as a student of arithmetic and mathematics, and when he was but eighteen he was employed in seeking
some form of accommodation in the rating and valuation of Scotland during the preparations for the Union of 1707. Sir John Clerk of
Penicuik, in his report to the Scottish Parliament, pays tribute to George Drummond "his amanuensis".
Such was his reputation for good work and sound work, Drummond was appointed Accountant General of the Excise, a new and
very unpopular post with the Scots. From his office close to the Nether Bow Port on the north side of the High Street, he must often
have found occasion to use that skill and tact for which he became noted in later years.
George Drummond was a man of deep religious feeling, in politics a Whig and in faith a Protestant. Though in his early years there
had been much feeling against the Stuarts, by the time of Queen Anne this had gone. It was replaced by antipathy to the Union and
a dislike of the English that became nationwide, fanned by an economic depression which afflicted both nations equally. The Scots,
however, could only see and lament the plight of Scotland. The first half of the eighteenth century found Edinburgh an urban
desolation George Drummond was to change all this.
It is not easy to visualise the city in those days with many houses abandoned and derelict, and neither improvement or rebuilding
anywhere.
"O Canongate, poor eldrich hole, What loss, what crosses thou dost thole, London and death gar thee look droll, And hing thy head.
. . . .
25