AT the corner of Ice House Street and Zetland Street once stood the most beautiful classical building in Hong Kong. It was called Zetland Hall and was named after Thomas Dundas, Earl of Zetland, a Grand Master of the British freemasons.
It was built on the site of a small bungalow known as Tarantula Cottage, the home of William Tarrant, the venomous editor of The Friend of China newspaper.
In February 1853, His Highness Prince William of Hesse was in Hong Kong on a visit. Even in the last century royalty were expected to do useful things like planting trees and kissing babies.
The freemasons would have liked Prince William to lay the foundation stone of Zetland Hall; but the Grand Master of British Masons in China had already been asked to perform this ceremony.
Tarrant's The Friend of China devoted a full page to the event. There was a splendid procession which included the bands of the Fifty-Ninth Regiment and the US Steam Frigate Susquehanna.
Brother Tarrant features rather prominently in the article (which he wrote himself) although he only performed the humble role of reading out the inscription on the foundation stone, before it was well and truly laid by the Grand Master. During the ceremony Prince William was entered as an apprentice.