No study of Freemasonry would be complete without some reference to the Old Taverns in which for over one hundred years the early lodges of Freemasonry held their meetings.

It has often been said that the English are distinctly a home-loving people. However true this may be it is noticeable that in them, the social instinct has been paramount to all other emotions and therefore, it is most natural that they should have sought the tavern as a community center where the craving for companionship might be gratified. Thornburg has declared the characteristic of the Elizabethan Age to have been its sociability. The principal places of meeting were St. Pauls, the theatre, and the tavern. Family intercourse was almost unknown. Women played little or no part in society. The men gathered at the tavern to drink, talk and enjoy themselves. One writer states that the festive bowl circulated freely, even more so than in Denmark which passed for a toper's paradise.

The taverns were the favorite places of rendezvous of Court gallants, while fast young men would bring their mistresses and after supper gambling became the eveing pastime. At the tavern writers and poets met in good fellowship and engaged each other in wordy wars and battles of wit. The object of these oracular contests being to vanquish an adversary.

It was to these old taverns that the tradesmen, merchants and landowners and the people generally congregated to sip their brew, smoke their pipes and to discuss the affairs of the nation and the community. Here elbows were rubbed with tradesmen residing in foreign parts and from the conversation of these itinerants and the information which they imparted the opinions of the people were more or less moulded.

Even in this country at this late day the tendency of families is to gravitate toward the large hotels and apartment houses where not only are the household burdens lessened but where there is found that fellowship which man is ever seeking and which has been responsible for the evolution of Freemasonry. The large number of taverns, inns, and coffee-houses; scattered throughout England during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries is evidence of the fact that the tavern occupied a very prominent part in the social life of the people of those days. It was not merely rest and refreshment which they sought in these old retreats but they frequented them as a place for social intercourse and the discussion of the problems of the day.

It must be understood that during this early period there was no telephone, no telegraph and no daily newspaper to bring the news of the world scarcely an hour old. It was - most natural then that people should frequent the taverns in order to learn what was going on, and to acquire the latest gossip of the day. It was to these places of refuge that the traveler came, and imparted the information which he acquired in his journey across the country. It is not surprising that the tavern of the town became the civic center from which radiated much of the social and intellectual life of the community.

It was most natural that the old lodges of two hundred years ago should have selected the, tavern as their place of meeting not because of the absence of suitable halls, but the society being more or less convivial in character, the tavern was chosen where ready access to the pantry, kitchen and bar might be had. And even in this day, not only in England but America the tavern or hotel, contributes a large part toward the gastronomic features of every Masonic lodge.

Many of the old English taverns will be forever immortalized by having linked with them the names of some of the greatest literary geniuses the world has produced. With them will ever be associated such illustrious men as Chaucer, Johnson, Boswell, Dryden, Addison, Shakespeare, Steele and many others of Masonic fame.

No small number of books have been written in England, concerning the old taverns, in which the early operative and speculative Masons held their meetings and indulged their appetites. The rooms in these old taverns where the first lodges met would be uninviting to the Mason of the Twentieth Century. The walls were generally covered with whitewash or crude wall paper. The floor-covering was for the most part a sprinkling of sand or sawdust, while the furniture consisted of wooden chairs and a long table which not only served the uses of the lodge but was utilized for the purposes of dining.

Four of these taverns, however, are of particular interest to Masons because they were the meeting places of the four lodges which originally united to form the Grand Lodge of England, the mother Grand Lodge of all the world.

The Apple Tree Tavern where one of the old lodges met was located in Charles Street, London. at Covent Garden. It is said that it was in a lodge meeting held in this tavern that the first suggestion was made of instituting means to resuscitate the then dying lodges of Masons. The house was at one time kept by a man named Tophal, who was frequently designated as the "strong man." His performances were quite unusual, so much so that he attracted the attention of Dr. Desagulliers, who mentions him in one of his works on Philosophy. The sign of this tavern represented a tree, loaded with apples, it being the custom to select for these old taverns some name of peculiar character, and the apple and pear tree were favorite signs for many public houses.

In Parker's Lane near Drury Lane was another noted place where English lodges met. On the north side of this lane, now called Parker's Street, was a popular tavern known as the Crown, because of the insignia of the crown which swung over the door. The sign being an emblem of royalty, it is supposed that this old tavern attracted people from aristocratic circles and it is said to have been at one time a rendezvous of Oliver Cromwell. It was here that another one of the lodges met which united in the formation of the Grand Lodge of England. As the London directory makes no mention of this tavern in 1754 it is assumed that it was demolished prior to that date.

Another tavern which the early Masonic records mention as a meeting place for Masonic lodges was the "Rummer and Grapes" in Channel Row, Westminster. The house had no particular distinction and was considered as an ordinary public house of the period. It is presumed that this tavern took its name from a drinking glass called "the Rummer," which was of large proportions and when amply filled the drinker enjoyed himself in company with a long clay pipe. It was here that another one of the lodges uniting to form the Grand Lodge of England found a home.

Most naturally the interest of every Mason, centers in the tavern known as the Goose and Gridiron, for it was here in the year 1717, that there was born into the world the modern society of Freemasonry an institution destined to become a potent force in the progress of the world. This old tavern is said to date back before the Great London fire of 1666. Prior to this, there stood upon the site a public house, called the Mitre, which is said to have been the first music house in London. Its landlord, Robert Hubert, was a collector of curios. These he kept on exhibition for the benefit of the public generally, thus maintaining a sort of combination tavern, music-house, and museum. Following the great London fire, the Goose and Gridiron tavern was built. It was first known under the name of the Lyre from the fact that a musical society held its meetings in the place whose coat of arms was the lyre of Apollo, having for its crest, a swan. Later on, the place was given the name of the Goose and Gridiron.

A rather interesting bit of information concerning this old tavern is given by the Tatler. Immediately after the fire, the place ceased to be a music house, and the landlord who took it had no particular love for music and selected as his sign, a goose striking the bars of a gridiron with its foot. The purpose of this rather curious device was to cast ridicule upon musical societies, which were using the swan and harp as one of their principal signs.

J. Ross Robertson of Canada, in the year 1897 visited the Goose and Gridiron Tavern just before its demolition. In his history of Freemasonry in Canada he gives the following description of this masonic meeting place: "It was four stories in height. The ground floor had a doorway and three windows to the west, while each of the upper stories had four windows each. The sign of the Goose and Gridiron was directly over the doorway. During the day the odd-looking figure whose form did not improve with age, was a curiosity to passers-by, and many a tourist patronized the bar, not so much from a longing to satisfy his thirst, but rather to have a word of explanation as to why a bird popular at Christmastide should grace the front of a London `pub.' At night a bright gas jet over the door illuminated the yard, and kept visible the sign that today is unhonored as an ornament in a greenhouse, somewhere on the south side of the Thames." Since the visit of Robertson to this old tavern, its sign has been recovered and can now be found in the Guild Hall Museum.

The Goose and Gridiron Tavern had an odd panelled bar and a very narrow winding staircase which led upstairs to a dining room of considerable dimensions. It was without doubt in this room that there assembled those early fathers in Masonry to lay the foundation of their brotherhood. Of this room Robertson says: "And in this room, where was held the Festival of St. John the Baptist in the third year of the first of the Georges, Mr. Anthony Sayer, Gentlemen, was placed at the head of the Craft as Grand Master. Standing in this room one can scarcely realize that in so ordinary a place, with such unpretentious surroundings an institution which has today its triumph, in a world of good accomplished, with members in every clime and under every sky, should have had its commencement."

So popular did the Goose and Gridiron Tavern become that it was celebrated in verse for in the year 1713 one Ned Ward who kept a public in Moorfields published a book entitled "A Vade Mecum for Malt Worms or a Guide to Good Fellows, with a hint on the props or principal Customers of each House, in a Method so plain that any thirsty per son (of the meanest capacity) may easily find the nearest way from one House to another. Dedicated to the Brewers."

In this work the Goose and Gridiron Tavern received the attention of the Author, who sounded its praises in verse. Much of which being in the language of the period, can not be printed in this volume. However, two lines are mentioned:

"Dutch carvers from St. Paul's adjacent dome,
Hither to wet their whistles daily come."

This dissertation on the Goose and Gridiron Tavern exploits its rareities as being- "1. The old Sign; 2. The pillar which supports the chimney; 3. The skittle-ground upon the top of the house; 4. The watercourse running through the chimney; and 5. The handsome maid, Hannah."

In 1786 the Old Goose and Gridiron tavern was remodeled and made to conform to the architecture of the period. The building was finally demolished at which time some of the workmen who were cleaning out the old cellar found two copper coins bearing the date of 1717-19 together with a couple of Indian coins furnishing substantial proof of the use of this old building as a public tavern in the early days of the Eighteenth Century.

It is a matter of sincere regret that some means could not have been made for the preservation of the old Goose and Gridiron tavern as it would have furnished a shrine in which Masons of the world would have taken a peculiar interest.

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