The True History Of Freemasonry In England.

under the great Alfred , by the introduction of foreign masons ; and again , at the Norman Conquest , by the bringing of masons from Gaul . We have been blamed , as Masons , for claiming among our founders and patrons St . Alban and St . Athelstan , and Edwin . And yet , after all , these traditions are probably quite correct , when looked at in connection with the operative guilds . We have evidence that Albanus , or St . Alban , went to Rome , and brought hack masons , and built the

town of St . Albans . Hence the early Masonic tradition , quoted hy Preston , from one of our old charges , still extant , is probably quite trim , and easily accounted for . My learned friend Mr . Walbrow , the Editor of the " Chartularies of Fountains Abbey , '' pointed out to me years ago that St . Athelstan was the donor of most of the charters to the guilds of the north of England , and that he probably gave , as our traditions say , a charter to the early operative lodges .

Edwin , who is said to have got a charter for the Masons at York , though not his son , as he had none , and not likely , as his brother , who was early drowned at sea , to have been connected with the Craft—is , probably , as Mr . Walbrow suggests , the Edwin , King of Northumberland , who lived at Auldby , said to be the residence of the other Edwin , and who was baptized by Pauiinus , and helped to build York Minster , Beverly Minster , and other places .

Traditionary statements like these , we must remember , connect themselves with a general system ; and though in the main correct , yet it is easy to understand that particular events and passages require always to be carefully considered . That such a body as the operative Masons existed in this country , with their own customs and forms and secrets , may be proved , I think , in a variety of ways . We have first the evidence of non-Masonic writers . Mr . Hope , to whose admirable Essay on Architecture I have already alluded , treats it as a matter of fact ; and so does Mr . Poole , in his History

of Church Architecture . Thus , too , Mr . Smirke , in the "Archaeologia , " alludes as a fact to the incorporation of Masons in the 13 th century . In the 15 th vol . of " Archasologia" there is a communication respecting the budder of part of the Abbey Church of Romsey , and the inscription is said to refer to the Consul or Warden for the year of that set or company of Masons who planned and built the monastery;—for it is to be observed , the writer goes on to say , that all the buildings of any consequence erected in those days were undertaken hy a set of regular Masons , bred up in that mystery or artfor the Society of Free Masons then existed .

Mr . Whittington , in his Essay , observes that from the first use of Gothic Architecture in the 32 th to its completion in the 15 th century , the improvements are owing to the munificence of the Church and the vast abilities of the Free Masons in tho Middle Ages ; while Mr . Gunn , in his work on Gothic Architecture , distinctly says : — " These immense works produced a host of artificers , cut of whom , in imitation of the confraternities which for various purposes-had existed from ancient times , compmies weie formed

and schools erected . An oath of secrecy was administ . Ted to the novices—a veil w mystery pervaded their meetings , which , in an age when many were ignorant , conferred importance . " And Mr . Dallaway , in his "History of Architecture , " states that there were in the early part of the 12 th century colleges of Masons at Strasburg and Cologne . In these conventions , he says , regulations were formed which were reli giously Preserved under the strong sanction of good faith and secrecy . All communications

were oral . The Craft or mystery of Architects and operative Masons was involved hi secrecy , by which a knowledge of their practice was carefully excluded from the acquirement of all who were not enrolled in their fraternity . While Mr . Gilbert Scott , in his Gleanings from Westminster Abbey , " alludes to . -the existence of a body or brotherhood , whether Royal Masons or Cathedral Masons , who worked together as a guild or ° ™ er , and carried on all the buildings in this country . We have also authentic evidence the

° ' existence of this operative body in the publication of the Fabric rolls of York nnster and of other great Cathedrals , as Westminster and Durham . ( To be Continued . )