The So-Called Locke Ms.

Hearnefrom Leland ' s MSS ., the first volume appearing in 1710 , aud the ninth in 1712 . llearne also published " Johannis Lelandi , etc ., Collectanea , " in 1715 , but no " Life of Leland . " In 1762 , Mr . Huddesford , keeper of the Ashmolean Library , edited vol . I . ( at any rate ) of " The Lives of those Eminent Antiquaries , John Leland , Thomas Hearne , and Anthony A . AVood . " At p . 67 , vol . I ., of the " Life of Leland , " Huddesford uses these words : " It also

appears that an ancient MS . of Leland has long remained in the Bodleian Library , unnoticed in any account of our author yet published . The tract is entitled ' Certayne Questyons wyth awnsweres to the same , ' concernynge the Mystery of Masonrye . ' The original is said to be the handwriting of King Henry VI ., aud copied by Leland by order of His Highness ( King Henry VIII . ) If the authenticity of this ancient monument of literature remains unquestionedit demands particular

, notice in the present publication , , on account of the singularity of the subject , and no less from clue regard to tho Royal writer , and our author , his transcriber indefatigable in every part of literature . It will also be admitted , acknowledgment is clue to the learned Mr . Locke , who , amidst the closest studies and the most

strict attention to human understanding , could unbend his mind m search of this ancient treatise , ivhich he first brought from obscurity in the year 1096 . This appears by his letter to a noble lord , which , with the treatise itself , will be here printed entire , together with the explanatory notes of that great and eminent philosopher . " Accordingly , at page 90 of tho Appendix , No . VII ., vol . I ., the socalled MS ., taken , however , from the Gentleman ' s Magazine of September , 1753 , as is pointed out in a footnote , appears in full , ivith the glossary , and Mr Locke ' s letter .

There is something so very peculiar in the proseedings of the editor of " Leland's Life" in 1762 , that I must say a few words here with respect to them . In the first place , I cannot blame any of our Masonic scribes , misled by such an apparent confirmation of a fact ; . yet when one comes actually to consider Huddesford ' s statements , and the evidence of the Appendix , how little of verification there is in both ! Though Huddesford was keeper of the Ashmolean Library in the Bodleian , ho

does not seek to verify even the existence of the MS ., but contents himself ivith " it also appears , " that is , from the Gentleman ' s Magazine of 1754 . He surely ouo-ht not to have put in here such a statement , that an ancient MS . of Leland has long remained in the Bodleian without enquiry or collation . Either he knew the fact to be so , as he stated it , or he did not ; but in either case , his carelessness as an editor is to my inind utterly inexcusable . Nothing woidd have been easier than for him to verify an alleged MS . of Leland , being au officer in the very collection in ivhich it was said to

exist . Still , if he did not do so , either the MS . did exist , and he knew it , but did not think well for some reason to be more explicit about it , or he knew nothing at all about it , and , by an inexcusable neglect of his editorial duty , took no pains to ascertain the truth , and simply copied others , by his quasi recognition of a professed MS . of Leland . If John Locke ' s letter were authentic , ivhich Huddesford assumed by his words , a copy of this MS . would remain among B £ r . Locke ' s papers , or . at Wilton

House , and the original MS . probably in the hands of this Mr . Collins , -whoever he was , or in the Bodleian . I have thus given all the historical facts relative to this so-called Locke MS . which are now producible . I should not have written so much about the so-called Locke MS ., but that Oliver , on certainly most uncritical grounds , asserted its genuineness and authenticity in 1861 , and Bro . Port , a most able and conscientious writer , in our last great Masonic

Avorlc , leans to its reality , and accepts it as a veritable document . What it really is , and how far it can be sustained by internal evidence , I leave for a second paper . I do not think , for one , that such enquiries as these , however minute in detail , and perhaps tedious in treatment , are useless , or uninteresting , inasmuch as we are all greatly concerned in the historical truth of our Masonic Annals , and I am always wishful , for one , to repudiate for our order wotthless evidences and manipidated documents , the fraus pia , or the literary forgery .