Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/107

 ii s. vi. AUG. 3, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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filling the chair to the satisfaction of all present. He was always an excellent chairman, his fund of humour and anecdote being inexhaustible. He was th'en forty-five years of age, and in the full power of his mental vigour. In that same year, besides other literary work, he published
 * The Antiquary,' ' The Black Dwarf,' and ' Old

Mortality.' Three of Sir Walter's friends, Andrew Crosbie, jun., of Holme, the Rev. George Thomson, and Adam Ormiston, the prototypes of Councillor Paulus Pleydell, Dominie Sampson, and Captain Clutterbuck, held prominent office in the Craft. Brother Crosbie was the first Provincial Grand Master of Dumfriesshire, and first Master of the Lodge of Edinburgh Defensive Band. Bros. Thomson and Ormiston both passed through the chair of Lodge Melrose St. John. The Melrose Lodge possesses two letters written by Sir Walter, apologizing for his inability to attend certain meetings of the Lodge, the one written when he was plain Mr. Scott, and the other in 1825 after he was made a baronet. .. .The latter epistle conveyed his declinature to lay the founda- tion-stone of the chain bridge across the Tweed -at Melrose, which structure he a few years later opened upon its completion. On the 15th August, 1840, Lodge St. David took part in the laying of the foundation-stone of the Scott Monu- ment. It was also present at the inauguration of that splendid structure on 15th August, 1846, to the memory of the most distinguished Brother that it has ever been privileged to receive within its portals.

" The first meetings of St. David were held in the Laigh Coffee House, one of the old taverns situated at the foot of the Canongate. In 1745 the Brethren removed to the Convening House of the Corporation of Hammermen, also situated in the Canongate. The accommodation there proving inadequate, on the 22nd June, 1753, the Lodge rented from the Corporation of Cordiners, or Shoemakers, their Convening House, situated in the Potterrow Port, where the meetings were held up to 1757. In that year the Brethren acquired a Lodge-room of their own in Hyndford's Close, High Street. The locality and surroundings becoming somewhat disreputable, the old Lodge- room in Hyndford Close, High Street, where the Lodge met for over one hundred years, was in 1860 sold. Since then the Lodge has moved from place to place. . . .For the last six or seven years the meetings have been held in the Masonic Hall,

Hill Street The Earl of Dalkeith, who became

Grand Master of Scotland. .. .succeeded his father as fourth Duke of Buccleuch and sixth of Queensberry, in January, 1811. . . .At an early period of Scott's financial difficulties, the duke gave his name as security for a loan of four thousand pounds." -n

EDITOB.

LONDON PROPRIETARY CHAPELS.

THE closing of Belgrave Chapel, East Halkin Street, on Sunday, 7 Aug., 1910, owing to the termination of the lease from the ground landlord, has already been noticed in ' N. & Q.'

Two of the few remaining proprietary chapels, once so numerous in London, have since been closed and demolished.

Wheler Chapel, Spitalfields. latterly known as St. Mary's Church, Spital Square, was erected in 1693 by the Rev-. Sir George Wheler, Knt, (1650-1723), Prebendary of Durham and Rector of Houghton-le-Spring.. for the use of his tenants in Spitalfields This building, having fallen into decay, was taken down in 1756, and a new building, erected in its place. It continued as a proprietary chapel till 1842, when it was consecrated as St. Mary's, Spital Square, and for an ecclesiastical district had assigned to it the two Liberties of Norton Folgate and Old Artillery Ground. It was decided to- close the church because of the changed character of the neighbourhood, where Jews have replaced the Christians.

It is interesting to note that the little church had grea't traditions clustering around it. In the immediate neighbourhood was the site of the hospital founded in 1197 by Walter le Brune, a wealthy London merchant,- and dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title of St. Mary Spital Without, i.e., outside Bishopsgate. From this Spital the name of Spitalfields has been derived. The " Spittle ' * Cross stood near the same spot. This Cross,, with St. Paul's Cross, formed for a long period the two chief pulpits of the kingdom - and many distinguished divines preached there to great congregations, including Royalty and Ministers of State. Here, on, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Easter Week, the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and great Companies of London attended to hear the Spital sermons. During the delivery of the sermons the City authorities sat at the windows of a dwelling near the pulpit, the said dwelling being described by Newcourt, in his ' Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense,' as a " fair-built house of two stories in height."

Wheler Chapel, or the Tabernacle in White Lion Yard, facing Wheler Street in Spital- fields, is thus noticed by the Rev. James Paterson in his ' Pietas Londinensis ; or. The Present Ecclesiastical State of London ' 1714, p. 269 :

" It 's commonly called Wheeler's Chapel. . because it was built by Sir George Wheeler, Pre- bendary of Durham ; and is a private Chapel for the Use and Ease of the inhabitants thereabout, and too remote from the Mother Church of Step- ney. It 's built of Brick, covered with Tile ; it has one Bell to Ring for Prayers, and is a very neat and decent Chapel within.

" Wherein are Morning Prayers only on Wednes- days, Fridays, and Holy Days, at eleven ; and Evening at seven in the Winter, and eight in the Summer.

" And a weekly Lecture every last Wednesday of the Month, at seven in the Evening ; as a