mean, for it would be in Lodge that he could meet, on an equal footing, his more senior Officers, and make his number with them, so to speak. In that list which I looked up I found that no less than 34 Regiments serving in America had Masonic Lodges attached to  them. I confess that I did not know until then the size of the force we deployed against those rebellious Colonials !

The American War of Independence was clearly a busy time for the Islands, and in the autumn of 1776 no less than five gentlemen described as Masters Of Vessels were enrolled in the Lodge. Probably bound for the war laden with stores tor the army. In 1779 six vessels described as Private Ships of War were in Scilly, and the Commanders, Lieutenants and Surgeons of all of them Joined the Order here. Private Ships of War were of course privateers, who were com missioned by Letters of Marque, which meant that they could  prey Oh vessels sailing under the flag of enemies of this country, and of course keep the proceeds. Not a bad idea, and made them a cut above pirates !

Diverting to America for a moment, you might not know that a least a dozen American Presidents have been Masons, including George Washington himself, and Presidents Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Polk, Buchanon, Johnson, Garfield, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman and Ford. The foundation stone of the Capitol in Washinton was laid with full Masonic honours, incidently. I have a dollar bill at home on which the Masonic  All-seeing Eye is clearly shown.  I don't know if this is still shown. My bill dates from the war. Whilst I am talking of notable Masons, I must include all of Napoleon's Marshals, Nelson, Wellington, Garbaldi, Kerensky, Blucher in Germany, and also Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, who gave their names to the two German warships which made that memorable dash through the channel during the last was. Many monarchs, of course, including George IV, William IV, Edward VII, and many well known writers such as Sir Walter Scott, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, Bulwer Lytton, Trollope, Kipling and Oscar Wilde. And the first man on the moon, too. So we are in good company.

Returning to these islands again, I have tried to visualise what it was like to be a mason in those days. We know from the Bye-Laws, which I have read to the Lodge on previous occasions, that the Lodge met in a private house. There were not many very large houses in Scilly in those days, and so in the late