Grand
Mark Master. There were upwards of 1000 Grand, Past, and Provincial
Grand Officers present, including many distinguished representatives
from India and the Colonies, as well as from all parts of the United
Kingdom. The Earl of Kintore, Grand Master, presided at the ceremony.

When the Prince entered the Grand Lodge, which had been opened by Lord
Kintore, he was accompanied by a large and representative body of Mark
Masons deputed to conduct His Royal Highness to the throne. He then
took the customary obligation, having been proclaimed and saluted on the
throne, to which he was conducted by Lord Kintore. Addressing the
Prince, Lord Kintore expressed the feelings of loyal devotion felt by
every Mark Mason in Great Britain, and in the Greater Britain beyond the
seas, at the step which the Prince was pleased to take that day. He then
gave a few statistics to show the progress of Mark Masonry. In 1876
there were but 5 time-immemorial lodges, and 18 Provincial Grand Lodges.
In 1886 there were 13 time-immemorial lodges, and 375 warranted lodges,
divided into 44 Provincial Grand Lodges, including those in New Zealand,
South Africa, Australia, India, and other parts of the globe. The
consent of the Prince of Wales to be Grand Mark Master was proof of his
zealous personal efforts to unite the Colonies and Dependencies of the
empire with the mother country. The Prince, in his reply, said that--

He thanked the Past Grand Master most heartily and sincerely for
the address he had just delivered. He feared that Lord Kintore
had referred to him in terms far too kind and flattering. He
assured the brethren he considered it a high honour and
compliment which had been paid him that day, and he accepted the
distinguished position of Grand Master of Mark Master Masons
with a deep feeling of gratitude, and as a high honour to
himself. He assured the brethren that anything he could do to
further the interest and welfare of the Mark Degree would be
done with sincere pleasure. He was most thankful and grateful
for the kind feeling the brethren had manifested towards him,
and he appreciated very highly the compliment which had been
paid by the Mark Masons who had attended from distant parts of
the kingdom. Lord Kintore had spoken in kind and feeling terms
of his beloved mother the Queen. It would afford Her Majesty
sincere gratification to know the kind terms in which her na