‘[Graham] was employed as a journeyman house-painter in London. He returned to Orkney in poor circumstances, but Mason-mad.’
Graeme was an Orkneyar, at least, his father was. It is interesting that he was a “house-painter”, but that is something else from a painter of art. Since we don’t know exactly when or where the scroll was painted, it is hard to find out who did.
It is a nice suggestion that it was Graeme himself. He visited the Kirkwall lodge, that could have had some higher degrees that were already likely worked in the lodge that appears to have been involved in the founding of the Kirkwall lodge. Graeme returned home from Kirkwall inspired (“Mason-mad”), painted (or had painted) the scroll and returned seven months later to present it to his new lodge.
Seven months? How much time did it take him to receive the degrees (if he indeed received them in Kirkwall?) How much time did it take to travel from Kirkwall to London and back in these days? How long would it take to create the scroll? Seven months sound a bit short for all that.
Could Graeme really be the painter?