Old Records Of The Lodge Of Peebles.

shillings sterling payable St John ' s day last , one on Robert Harper for eighteen shillings ancl sevenpence , halfpenny sterling payable twenty-sixth of Janry currint , and one on Thomas Tod all members of this Lodge for ten shillings ancl sixpence sterling payable the twenty-sixth day of December next ancl ordains the Master to sign this minute . JAMES GROZABT , Mr . Peebles 21 st Feby . 1781 .

The Meeting Mett this day according to last appointment when compeared Thomas Paterson ancl paid in four shillings sterling to the Box Master as bis arrears , and thereafter the Meeting adjurned to Saturday the twenty-fourth curent in order to receive more arrears from some members that are in Deficensies . JAMES GROZART . 27 th Decr . 1781 .

William Syminton a member of this Lodge being found guilty . of a transgression in talking in an improper place , tbe Lodge found him Lyball to a repremand which he got by the master accordingly . JAMES GROZART . At Peebles 27 th Day of Decr . 1781 . ( Minute same as previous St . John ' s Day meetings . List of thirty-six members of whom nineteen are marked paid . At the end of this minute we

have the folloAving . —R . S . ) We tbe members of tbe said Lodge agree and authorise Thomas Tweedale to sumrnand in the persons AVIIO stand Refractrey and will not pay in there RespeetiA'e payments immediately . . Signed by tbe Master .

The Quarterly Communications.

THE QUARTERLY COMMUNICATIONS .

BY BRO . ALBERT G . MACKEY , M . D . IN the early history of tbe premier Grand Lodge of the world , a question presents itself which , so far as I am aware , has not been distinctly met and treated by any of our Masonic scholars . They all seem to have taken it

for granted , on the naked authority of Anderson and Preston , that tbe Quarterly Communications were coeval with the organization of the Grand Lodge in tbe year 1717 . Is this an historical fact ? I confess that over this subject a shadow of doubt has been cast that obstructs tbe clearness of my vision . We who are across the Atlantic labour under many disadvantages in our search after

historical truth in Freemasonry . Our English brethren bave opportunities that are denied to us . Original documents are accessible to tbem , which Ave can only reach , if at all , at second band . My object in asking a place for this little essay in the A'aluable pages of tbe Masonic Magazine is not so much to ventilate my own views as to present my doubts , in tbe hope that such scholars as Bros . Hughan , Woodford , Gould ,

and a host of others who have' made a study of tbe early history of Freemasonry in England may be induced either to confirm them or to remove them b y the production of authorities which I haA'e not seen . Dr . Anderson says , and Preston repeats tbe statement , that at tbe preliminary meeting in February , 1717 , at the . Apple Tree Tavern , it was resolved " to revive the Quarterly Communications . "