Masonic Notes And Queries.

mother living with him , and at her death she was interred in the churchyard . One after another of Gilbert's family followed or preceded their grandmother to the grave , till five of the younger generation , all taken away in the bloom of life , lay beside her along with a daughter , the younger sister of the poet . To mark the spotGilbert erected a neat headstone , on

, which are inscribed the names of those who lie beneath . In due time his own was added to the rest , and the warm-hearted but sagacious elder brother of Burns now sleeps quietly with his kindred in the churchyard of Bolton , far away from the pleasant murmuring of the Boon , with which he was familiar

in the days of his youth . The burying-place of the Burns family is now surrounded by a chaste but substantial iron railing . Tbe headstone and railing have been repainted , the grass within the enclosure and around it is tidily trimmed , and everything done

which could denote that the dead were not forgotten by tbe living . Tbe survivors of Burns are not unmindful of the place which Agnes Brown holds in tbe affectionate regard of Scotchmen . But for her , the " Cottar ' s Saturday Night" might never have been written ; and it cannot be uninteresting to the dwellers in East Lothian to know that her remains lie

buried in one of the quietest and most peaceful of our country churchyards , where the trees which cast their morning shadows over the graves are reflected in the sweet waters of the Coalston streamlet as it Bows eastward to the Tyne . The surviving son of Gilbert Burnsnow or formerly one of the leading merchants

, in Dublin , occasionally pays a visit to the scenes of his infancy , audit was ou a recent visit to Bolton that he gave directions for tho renovation of the headstone , & c , which it will be satisfactory to him to learn have been so well attended to .

STEASBUBG CATHEDRAL ( pp . 209 , 210 ) . Englishmen do not require to go to Strasburg , or any part of Germany to view fine specimens of Gothic architecture , for they have these at home . In the twelfth arid thirteenth centuries England was far ahead of Germany in this matter ; and what Germany

got in the thirteenth century was borrowed from France , and , as Mr . Ferguson says , "In all the higher elements of beauty the German pointed Gothic cathedrals are immeasurably inferior to the French . They are no longer the expressions of the devotional feelings of tbe clergy and people ; they are totally devoid

of the highest order of architectural beauty . " Such being the case , the manifest absurdity of German architects coming to England in the thirteenth century to leach the English is surely most transparent , the idea only shows the ignorance of its supporters and propagators . I can excuse the Abbe Graudidier for

saying that ' _ ' the Cathedral of Strasburg , and , above all , its tower , is a masterpiece of Gothic architecture . " But there is no excuse for an officer of the Grand Lodge of England , without any true foundation , perpetually praising German architecture at the expense of English . As to the " masterpiece ' ' ire of

sp Strasburg , which appears to me to be of the mongrel type , Mr . Ferguson says , " The octagonal part is tall , weak in outline , the spire ungraceful in form , and covered with an unmeaning and constructively useless system ot tracery . " When treating upon Freemasonry I have gladly recommended Bro . Findel ' s work ;

Masonic Notes And Queries.

hut when treating upon architecture I feel bound to say that one copy of such a work as Mr . Ferguson ' s " illustrated Handbook of Architecture" is worth a shi pload of the former . English pointed Gothic architecture is unequalled by German—far less , thereforecan it be surpassed . Curious specimens of

stone-, cutting may please the vulgar , but it requires something more to the production of a first-class specimen of architecture . I respectfully trust the foregoing remarks will be taken in the spirit they are given . — W . P . B .

Masonic Sayings And Doings Abroad.

MASONIC SAYINGS AND DOINGS ABROAD .

A TOUGH YARN . —As a good set-off to the extravagant ideas of some ritualists about rigidity of work , read the following , which is said to have actually occurred : —

" A town m Indiana had a lodge that had a W . M . who had an exaggerated notion of discipline . One ni ght be bad met his lodge in called meeting , not a member absent , to instruct them in the work . Teaching them the use ofthe gavel , he had just called them up with three knocks , when he leaned too far back ,

fell against the window that was behind him , fell through to the ground—four stories , and broke his neck . Picked up next morning , he was buried decently , but not a Mason came to the funeral . More strange still , not a Mason appeared any more in that

village . It was inexplicable . Forty women left widows , 217 children left orphans , 84 merchants left in the lurch with unpaid bills . " Twenty years after that somebody went up in the lodge room , broke open the door , and beheld the

lodge—a lodge of skeletons ! Strange , but true , they had rigidly obeyed the orders of the W . M ., and while waiting for the knock to seat them , had starved to death . Each was standing in an attitude of respectful attention , looking to the east ; and had not the

pitying citizens taken them down and tenderly removed them , they would have been standing there yet . Such is life .

Bro . Francesco di Zubirie , formerly Grand Master of New Granada , and representative of the Grand Orient of Italy at that Grand Lodge , died recently in Paris . From the "Eevista della Massoneria Italiana , " we

learn that a National Committee has been formed for the relief of the victims of the war , without respect to nationality . Amongst the contributions already received are from Lodge ' ' Fratellanza Universale , " Florence , 200 lire ; "Concordia , " at Florence , 100 lire ; "TArena , " at Yerona , 60 lire ; and Goffredi " Marreli , " at Sapari , 40 lire .