Freemasonry In England.

and to strengthen their Lodges , A . D . 710 . To this their Eoyal brother ,. Martel , willingly agreed , and sent some expert masons to teach the Saxons those laws and usages of the craft that had been preserved from the ravages of the Goths . The clergy now studied geometry and architecture , and in then * monasteries the Lodges were usually held . Owing to the , piratical incursions of the Danes , nothing remarkable appears in masonn ;

till the reign of Edward the elder , who left masonry to the care first a ? Ethred , Earl of Mercia , and next , the king put his learned brother ,, Ethelward , at the head of the fraternity , and" founded the university of Cambridge , that had been long a nursery of the learned . This king died A . B . 924 . Athelstan , his eldest son , ' succeeded , and at first left the ? care of the craft to his brother Edwin ; for in all the old constitutions it .

is recited , "That though the ancient records of the brotherhood of England were mostly destroyed in the wars with the Danes , who burnt tho monasteries where the records were kept , yet King Athelstan ( the grandson of King Alfred ) , the first anointed King of England , who translated the Holy Bible into the Saxon language , when he had brought the land , into rest and peace , built many great works , and encouraged many masons from Prance and elsewhere , whom lie appointed overseers thereof ; they brought with them the charges and regulations of the foreign Lodges , and

prevailed with the king to increase the wages . That Prince Edwin , ther king ' s brother , being taught geometry and masonry , for the love he had to the said craft , and to the honourable principles whereon it is grounded , purchased a free charter of King Athelstan , his brother , for Freemasons , to have among themselves a correction , or a power of freedom to regulate themselves , and to hold a yearly communication in a general assembly .

That accordingly , Prince Edwin summoned all free and accepted Masons , in the realm to meet him in a congregation at York , who came and formed ' the Grand Lodge under him as then * Grand Master , A . D . 926 . That they , brought with them many old writings and records of the Craft—some iu-Greek , some in Latin , and some in French and other languages ; and from , the contents thereof they framed the constitutions of the English Lodges

* and made a law for themselves to preserve and observe the same in all time , coming . " But this good Prince Edwin died ( A . D . 938 ) before the king , to . the great grief of the fraternity , by whom his memory is revered in the . Lodges , and honourably menf ioned in the old constitutions . King Athelstan . built many castles in Nortlmmbria , the famous abbey of St . John , at Beverley , in Yorkshire ; Melton Abbeyin Dorsetshire ; and rebuilt the city ,

, of Exeter . . Prom his death , A . D . 940 , to the coming of William the Conqueror , A . D . 1066 , many cities , churches , and p ious houses were built ,., but nothing appears of the proceedings of the brethren , save that SL . Dunstan presided as Grand Master from about A . D . 941 . ( To be continued . ) -