They and some other old Brothers met at the said _Apple-Tree_, and having put into the chair the _oldest Master Mason_ (now the _Master_ of a _Lodge_) they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in _Due Form_, and forthwith revived the Quarterly _Communication_ of the _Officers_ of Lodges (call'd the GRAND LODGE) resolv'd to hold the _Annual_ Assembly _and Feast_, and then to chuse a Grand Master from among themselves, till they should have the Honor of a Noble Brother at their Head. Accordingly, on _St. John's Baptist's_ Day, in the 3d year of King George I, A.D. 1717, the ASSEMBLY and _Feast_ of the _Free and Accepted Masons_ was held at the foresaid _Goose_ and _Gridiron_ Ale-house. Before Dinner, the _oldest Master_ Mason (now the _Master_ of a _Lodge_) in the Chair, proposed a List of proper Candidates; and the Brethren by a majority of Hands elected Mr. Anthony Sayer, _Gentleman_, _Grand Master of Masons_ (Mr. _Jacob Lamball_, Carpenter, Capt. _Joseph Elliot_, Grand Wardens) who being forthwith invested with the Badges of Office and Power by the said _oldest Master_, and install'd, was duly congratulated by the Assembly who paid him the Homage. Sayer, _Grand Master_, commanded the _Masters_ and _Wardens_ of Lodges to meet the _Grand_ Officers every _Quarter_ in _Communication_, at the Place that he should appoint in the Summons sent by the _Tyler_. #/ So reads the only record that has come down to us of the founding of the Grand Lodge of England. Preston and others have had no other authority than this passage for their descriptions of the scene, albeit when Preston wrote, such facts as he added may have been learned from men still living. Who were present, beyond the three officers named, has so far eluded all research, and the only variation in the accounts is found in a rare old book called _Multa Paucis_, which asserts that six Lodges, not four, were represented. Looking at this record in the light of what we know of the Masonry of that period, a number of things are suggested: First, so far from being a revolution, the organization of the Grand Lodge was a revival of the old quarterly and annual Assembly, born, doubtless, of a felt need of community of action for the welfare of the Craft. There was no idea of innovation, but, as Anderson states in a note, "it should meet Quarterly _according to ancient Usage_," tradition having by this time become authoritative in such matters. Hints of what the old usages were are given in the observance of St. John's Day[117] as a feast, in the democracy of the order and its manner of voting by a show of hands, in its deference to the oldest Master Mason, its use of badges of office,[118] its ceremony of installation, all in a lodge duly tyled.