Early lodge room discovered?

The BBC is reporting about a secret room, shut for 400 years, that some think might have been a Masonic lodge room.

The entrance to the secret room was found inside a cupboard in a panelled room

A secret chamber, hidden for 400 years and with possible links to early freemasonry, has been discovered.

The entrance to the room, which has plastered walls, was found inside a cupboard at the National Trust-owned house Canons Ashby, near Daventry.
It is a panelled room with walls showing crests of local families and enigmatic symbols.
Laura Malpas, of the trust, said there was "speculation" the room had been an early masonic lodge.
Ms Malpas, community manager for the trust, said it was "a fascinating and puzzling space" with walls that include "frankly odd Latin texts".

The room's panelled walls include enigmatic symbols which may relate to freemasonry

"[They] tell the reader things such as 'Do not eat of those things with a black tail' or 'Check your tongue, your belly and your lust, the best thing is to enjoy someone else's madness'."
She said the house manager was Edward Bartlett made the discovery after deciding to investigate the cupboard while locking up for the night.
"With a torch he discovered an entrance to a small concealed chamber, hidden in the panelling of the room," she said.
"Clearly not a natural void left during the building process, this tiny chamber is floor boarded and the walls have been plastered from the inside to create a space that could hide a person and a sizeable amount of objects the owner of the house might want to keep hidden away from public view."
"It is believed the Dryden family may well have been part of a society that evolved into what we now recognise as the freemasons."
She added: "There has been speculation that this room was used as an early form of Masonic lodge before Freemasonry was established in England some 130 years later in 1717."
It would not have been a hole to hide priests as the Dryden family were puritans, she said.
The room is about 6ft (1.82m) high with 6ft (1.82m) by 5ft (1.52m) floor space.

Anderson's Constitutions

This copy of Anderson's Constituions is going under the hammer at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on February 28.

It is inscribed in the upper part of the cover: "The Gift of the Brethern of the Prestonian Lodge of Friendship to Br. John Coverdale as a Testimony of their Fraternal Regard Decr. 18 1798."

The pre-sale estimate is £350-£450.

The catalogue description reads: "Masonic Binding.- Anderson (James) Constitutions of the Antient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, engraved frontispiece and arms to head of dedication, `Explanation of the Frontispiece` f., frontispiece stained and laid down, title stained, K2&3 trimmed or ?from another copy, some spotting, hinges neatly strengthened with thick tape, contemporary lightly diced calf with Masonic motifs and a gift inscription from the Prestonian Lodge, spine in compartments with a black morocco label (slightly chipped) and richly decorated with gilt masonic motifs, covers with border of masonic motifs within an outer scrolling border, spine chipped and repaired, corners worn, rubbed, 4to, J.Rozea, 1784. sold as a binding and not subject to return."

Globes go for £10K

This handsome pair of late Geroge III terrestrial and celestial globes by the well-known maker Cary sold at Dukes of Dorchester for £10,000.

They used the best information of the day including new discoveries made by Captain Cook. 

Gold for sale

These gold items including the Masonic jewel stamped "18ct" are going under the hammer at Bonhams auction house in Oxford.

There is no estimate attached to the lot, but it is being sold on behalf of Heart Research UK.

The other items are a signet ring stamped '18ct', two 22ct gold wedding bands, a further band ring, a single stone setting, a half sovereign and an ingot pendant. The total gross weight is 56.4gm.

The sale is on February 20.

Taylors workings...

This box - displaying the date 1670 - is to go under the hammer at Taylors Auction House in Montrose, Scotland.

And the pre-sale estimate is just £40-£60. Made from yew, it comes with two drawers and the lid is inlaid with a square and compass. It is 40.5 cm high and 77.5 cm long.

The sale is on Feb 9.

Surely there must be a lodge that could do with it.

The illiterate enemy

One illiterate and ignorant opponent of The Craft has started a petition to rid all the public sector of Freemasons. The link is below.



http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-u-k-government-make-freemasonry-illegal-within-positions-of-public-services-2?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign

Well known Freemason hits headlines again

From the Daily Mail...

Lord Spencer Northampton has reached a divorce settlement worth around £17million with his soon-to-be fifth ex-wife Lady PamelaA truce has been called on an acrimonious divorce battle that was set to become one of the most expensive in English legal history.

The 7th Marquess of Northampton has struck a deal worth around £17million with his soon-to-be ex-wife and spared them both a divorce trial which was expected to cost £2m and start in the High Court tomorrow.

Married for 20 years, the couple is said to have called it quits after Spencer Northampton - one of Britain's wealthiest aristocrats - discovered Lady Pamela had been having an affair with a wealthy Romanian.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lady Northampton, 61, will receive a £4m apartment in Pimlico, central London, as well as cash and possessions worth £13m. She had originally demanded £25m.

The vast majority of the Eton-educated peer's fortune - estimated at £120m - which includes two stately homes, land, valuable paintings, furniture and a disputed Roman treasure hoard, will remain intact.

Confidentiality clauses prevent both parties from speaking about the failure of their 20-year marriage, but details of the acrimonious divorce first began to surface during the summer.

At a pre-trial hearing, Lady Northampton's lover was named as Dr Dan Stoicescu, who made his fortune in the pharmaceutical industry.

The couple were also embroiled in a separate privacy action, which has now ended, over the emergence of secretly-taped phone conversations between Lady Pamela and her 87-year-old father, Jim Haworth.

The recordings were made by Lady Pamela's stepmother, a hairdresser from Staines, Middlesex, and passed on to the 66-year-old peer, prompting him to throw his wife out of their country estate at Compton Wynyates, Middlesex.

Known affectionately as 'Spenny' to his friends, Lord Northampton had already been married four times before he met Pamela Kyprios, who was born into a working class family from Lancashire. 

They shared a mutual interest in spiritualism after her second divorce from a wealthy Greek-American shipping financier.

She had been planning to open a holistic healing centre when the pair were introduced by friends. He later claimed that she turned up on his London doorstep demanding to talk to him about her project and never left. 

Wealthy: Lord Northampton has an estimated £120 million fortune, owns two stately homes and is regarded as one of Britain's richest aristocrats

They married in December 1990 at Stratford-Upon-Avon register office, with the marquess speaking movingly of his love for her.

'She is the centre of my life. I call her “stregissima” — great white witch,' he said at the time. 'She is a healer, very good at relaxing me.'

And tucked away in the romantic surroundings of Compton Wynyates for the past two decades, the couple seemed blissfully happy.

Affair: Dr Dan Stoicescu was named as Lady Pamela's lover during a pre-trial hearing

Then came the couple's ill-fated 2006 meeting with Dr Dan Stoicescu at a Freemasonry convention in Cyprus.

At first it seemed that Lord Northampton, once dubbed 'the Mystic Marquess' for his preoccupation with spirituality, Freemasonry and alternative religions, had much in common with the fabulously rich Dr Stoicescu, 60, who describes himself as a 'transhumanist' with a deep-seated interest in immortality and anti-ageing therapies.

Described as 'charming' and 'self-effacing', the divorced scientist became only the second person ever to have his human genome mapped.

The procedure, which can reveal genetic diseases which could help you take action to delay their development, cost him £220,000.

He later forked out double that sum to pay for both the marquess and Lady Pamela to undergo the same process at a US clinic. 

In the weeks and months that followed their first meeting, divorced father-of-one Stoicescu became a firm family friend and a regular guest at Compton Wynyates. 

Stoicescu also lavished gifts upon Lady Pamela — in addition to a Cartier necklace, which came with matching earrings, he bought her a diamond-encrusted watch.

He has homes in Switzerland, Cyprus, Finland, the US and Australia, and was equally generous to her relatives. Her father Jim was presented with a £1,300 bottle of wine from Harrods and a Rolex watch, and taken to dinner at Claridge's.

Stoicescu's huge fortune was first built on a business selling cancer-care products, and he even paid for private treatment for Jim when he had bowel cancer.

But by 2009, Lady Northampton had begun working for Stoicescu, telling her husband that she had been made president of one of his biopharmaceutical companies, Asterion.

This new role meant frequent trips to the US and lengthy absences from Compton Wynyates, where Lord Northampton was left alone and increasingly suspicious about his wife's behaviour.

A friend of the Marquess told The Sunday Telegraph: 'Spenny feels betrayed by Dan Stoicescu, whom he once regarded as one of his closest friends. 

'Stoicescu's role in the end of his marriage was a complete and utter shock.'

A friend of Lady Northampton defended her: 'Spenny has had a chequered past and Pamela has had to put up with a great deal. It's fair to say...the marriage was already faltering a considerable time before the relationship began with Dan.'

She added that Lady Pamela resented the claim that she was a gold-digger and deserved a fair settlement for her many years of marriage with Lord Northampton.

As English divorce law largely protects inherited wealth, his two stately homes, Compton Wynyates and Castle Ashby will remain in the family and passed on to his heir. 

His other assets include the Sevso Treasure, which comprises 14 large decorated silver vessels and platters. But these cannot be sold due to a long-running dispute over their provenance.

It is thought a painting of Mary I, dating back to 1554 and worth around £6m, may be auctioned to help pay for the divorce settlement.

Divorce deal: As the fifth wife of Lord Northampton, Lady Pamela will receive a settlement worth around £17million

Happier times: Lord Spencer Northampton met Lady Pamela in the late Eighties