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Eminent Masons At Home.

Eminent Masons at Home .

No . VII . —THE REV . STUDHOLME BROWNRIGG , M . A ., AT THE NATIONAL SOCIETY , WESTMINSTER . MR . PEARSON'S scaffolding still hides the north transept of Westminster Abbey from view , and the little man stands at the door of the north transept with his collection of photographs

and guide-books for the use of country people and foreigners who come to see the tombs of the Abbey for the first time . Along the concrete paths , past the doors of St . Margaret ' s , and round by the Abbey from east to west the good-natured and civil policemen make their beat . So different from the sly and crafty officials who guard

the portals of St . Peter ' s at Rome ; these blue-coated preservers of the peace might have been selected for their unwonted courtesy ; and , if their appreciation of their duties does not extend to a particle of admiration for the beautiful fabric always before them , they at least are very anxious that no lack of

archaeological veneration in their own composition should deter you from admiring the edifice and its priceless contents , so you stay to chat a few moments with your old friend the photograph-vendor , and eventually pass into the sacred precincts of the Abbey Church . What memories—what memories are there ! Another old friend of yours , Verger Coombes , comes to grasp the

hand that you offer in remembrance of days gone by . You remember—and he remembers , too—the happy times when the brush and the pencil were at work as well as the pen . He points out the very window-pane you smashed up in the clearstory of the southern transept when you were making a measured drawing of

the beautiful work that is to-day just as it was then—how many years ago ? Yes ; you remember old Coombes , and his description of the tombs and things of the Abbey . He gives the same descrip-

Eminent Masons At Home.

tions now as he has ever done these twenty years . Nothing about him is changed but his face , which is a trifle more wrinkled than it was , and crowned with white locks instead of grey . But all your memories are not pleasant ones . You can trace a vein of sorrow through the mist of years which have dealt lightly with you ; but these are no times for sorrow nor for looking backward over pages

which are out of print . So you wish the dear old place once more good-bye , and , just as Big-Ben is bellowing out the hour of three , you get again into the ceaseless current of traffic which ebbs and flows like the river running near at hand . Upon the walls of Broad Sanctuary , on the opposite side of the

railed-in garden to that where the ornate drinking-fountain , erected to the memory of Canon Wilberforce by his admirers in the House of Commons , stands to solace the hearts of the thirsty and temperate pedestrians who come over Westminster Bridge on their way westwards , is an original inscription in stone , taken

from the gateway of the old Tothill Fields Prison . It reads thus : — ' ' Here are several sorts of work for the poor of this parish of St . Margaret ' s West , as also the county , according to law , and for such as will beg and live idle in this City and Liberty of Westminster . Anno domini 1655 . " The old stone gateway of the prison itself , withthe lock and key of the original gates , has also been removed , and are erected up against the dismal wall which

overlooks the meagre entrance to " The Incorporated National Society for promoting the education of the Poor in the principles of the Established Church . " Had the National Society endeavored to hide its light under a bushel it could not have found a more secluded spot than that at Westminster whereon

to raise the habitation which has in years become the centre of a vast religious enterprise . When it commenced its work about seventy-seven years ago there were few parishes in the country where the children of the poor had any satisfactory instruction whatever , either religious or secular , and it is owing to the exertions

of the National Society that there now exists in almost every parish in the Kingdom an efficient and well-managed Church School . More than 12 , 000 separate establishments are in union with the Society , which provides religious instruction to about one-half the children who are receiving public elementary education . This vast

Institution has [ cost churchmen thirty-two millions of money , the collection of which goes on silently and increasingly from day to day . Within the dismal walls of the building at the back of the Broad Sanctuary is a vast emporium of educational books , and materials necessary for the religious tuition of the young . The classification

of such materials must , in itself , be a laborious undertaking , for perhaps there are very few institutions in existence possessing such a vast stock of educational accessories as are piled within the walls of the National Society at Westminster .

At the end of a long and bare corridor on the first floor , without even a yard or two of linoleum to hush your footsteps , you enter a small apartment , which is the private room of the Rev . Studholme Brownrigg . You are lucky to have found the organising Secretary of this vast Institution at home , but he sits at his desk mapping out the final details of a Midland tour upon which he starts the following

morning . There is nothing in the room denoting the presence of one of the busiest men in town . The walls are bare , save for one solitary framed photograph of a group of teachers of the Welsh Training School for Girls , at Ashford—the building you remember having passed hundreds of times on your way to Staines , to Datchet , or

many of those up-river haunts the summer months have enticed you to in the boating season . Mr . Brownrigg is Secretary of this School , and it is in a very flourishing condition . How he manages to superintend its every department whilst carrying on his work at the National Society is one of those questions nobody can satisfactorily

answer . His work with the Society consists chiefly of travelling to the different sub-centres and organising their sub-divided branches , keeping everything in touch with the parent body . When districts in course of time become mature and when they are ready to yield a harvest , or the prospects of one , to the glorious purposes of the