LADIES AND FREEMASONEY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2168, 15 December 1875, Page 4

LADIES AND FREEMASONRY.

Lord Donerailc (Lady Aldworth's father) was a Very zealous Mason, and held a warrant in his own hands,- and occasionally opened Lodge at Doneraile House, his sons and some intimate friends in the neighborhood assisting; and it is said that never were the Masonic duties more rigidly performed, or the business of the Graft mere sincerely pursued than by the brethren of No. 150, the number of their warrant. It appears that previous to the initiation of a gentleman to the first steps of Masonry, Mrs Aldsworth, who was then a young girl, happened to be in an apartment adjoining the room usually used as a Lodge-room, this room at the time undergoing some repair or alteration. Amongst other things, the wall was considerably reduced, in one part for the purpose of .making a saloon. Th;e young lady.having distinctly heard the voices, and prompted by the curiosity natural to all to see something of the mystery so long and so secretly locked up from public view, she had the courage with her scissors, to pick a brick from the wall, and actually witnessed the awful and mysterious ceremony through the two first steps. • Curiosity gratified, fear at once took possession of her mind, and those who understand this passage well know what the feelings must be of any person who could have the same opportunity of unlawfully beholding that ceremony. Let them, then, judge what must be the feelings of-a young girl. She saw ho mode of escape except through the room where the concluding part of the second step was performing; and that being at the far end, and the room being a very large one, she had .again resolution to attempt her escape that way, and with light but trembling step, and almost suspended breath, she glided along unobserved by the Lodge, laid her hand on the handle, and soflly opening the door, before her stood a grim, surly Tiler, with a long rusty sword. Her shriek alarmed the Lodge, who, all rushing to the door, and finding from the Tiler she had been in the room during the ceremony, in the first paroxysm of rage and alarm, it is said her death was resolved on, and that from the moving and earnest supplication of her younger brother her life was spared, on condition of her going through the two steps she had already seen. This she agreed to; and they conducted, the beautiful and terrified young creature through those trials which are more than enough for masculine resolution, little thinking they were taking into the bosom of the Craft a member that would afterwards reflect a lustre on the annals of Masonry. .