The Ancient Lodge Of Scoon And Perth.

THE ANCIENT LODGE OF SCOON AND PERTH .

FEEEMASONEY in Scotland has not been without its historians . The Mother Lodge , Kilwinning , the Lodges of Edinburgh and the Canongate , and Freemasonry as it existed and still survives in Eoxburgh , Peebles , Selkirk , Dumfries , and Inverness , have all had their records explored , and their growth and development chronicled . It was , therefore , not unreasonable

that " The Ancient Masonic Lodge of Scoon and Perth , No . 3 , which claims to be one of the oldest in existence , should have its story related ; and the Brethren of the Mystic Tie in Perth and the vicinity are to be congratulated upon having that task so efficiently accomplished by D . Crawford Smith , P . S . A . Scot .

His position as Secretary of the Lodge has afforded special facilities for this purpose ; and the goodly volume on the subject which he has written will be prized not only in the district to which it specially belongs , but by Freemasons everywhere . The preparation of this work , he states , has occupied his leisure for

more than eight years , but he has the satisfaction of knowing that his labours will be highly appreciated , and that he is not unworthy of the compliment which Bro . W . J . Hughan ( himself a Past Master in Masonry and Masonic literature ) pays to him as being " in the front rank as a Scottish Masonic Historian . "

The oldest document in possession of the Lodge is dated 1658 , but as a passage in this so-called charter refers to the Lodge as having been in existence " four hundred threescore and five years or thereby , " this seems to fix the date of the foundation of the Lodge Scoon and Perth at somewhere near 1193 .

Taking this as a marginal date , Mr . Crawford Smith reasonably concludes that the Lodge would be instituted probably at the time when the Abbey of Scone was founded in 1115 by Alexander I ., or at least during the reign of his successor David I ., of pious memory , who is credited with the rebuilding of the

Church of St . John , m Perth . Mr . Smith acutely reasons that the Lodge must have been named at the time when Scone was a Eoyal residence , before Perth became the capital of Scotland ; for it is not likely that the title of " Scoon and Perth " would be given when the former place had decreased in dignity . Like all

the ancient Lodges in Scotland and England , this Lodge has no very early records ; indeed , it is doubtful if regular records were kept in the period before the fifteenth century . During the reign of David I . Freemasonry must have flourished in Scotland ,

for that " soir Sanct for the Croun" was an inveterate builder of Churches and Monasteries , and these testify in silent but unmistakable language to the prevalence of the Mason Craft . Of written documents relating to this time there are few extant that bear upon the historv of Masonry .

It is not until the close of the fifteenth century is reached that any definite information as to the Lodge Scoon and Perth is obtainable . The earliest name mentioned in connection with the Lodge is that of John Mylne , Master Mason to James III ., who seems to have been Master of the Lodge in 1481 , and who was

the progenitor of a family famous in the annals of Scottisb Masonry and Architecture . Mr . Crawford Smith has devoted a lengthy chapter to the history of the Mylues , founded upon the volume entitled " The Master Masons to the Crown of Scotland , " recently published by the Eev . Eobert Scott Mylne , who is lineally

descended from John Mylne , Master of the Lodge Scoon and Perth . This John Mylne died about 1513 . His eldest son was Alexander Mylne , Abbot of Cambuskenneth , first President of the Court of Session , and Master Mason to James "V . ; while his second son , Eobert , was Provost of Dundee in 1544-47 . Thomas Mylne ,

youngest son of the Provost , was Master Mason to Queen Mary ; John , son of Thomas , held the same office under James VI ., and was Master of the Lodge Scoon ; and the office of Eoyal Master Mason was administered by his son and grandson at the Courts of Charles I . and Charles II . There was thus a regular succession of Mylnes in the highest position in architectual science , from 1481 till 1710 .

The documentary history of the Lodge Scoon begins with the charter of 1658 already referi ed to ; and Mr . Smith has published a very tine fac-simile of this interesting paper , giving a transliteration in type . The regular Minute books of the Lodge date from 1725 to the present day ; and from these Mr . Smith has

made copious extracts which give the annals of the Lodge in chronological order . Many of the entries are quaintly expressed , and give curious glimpses of the economical customs that prevailed last century . The following quotation , taking at random , is a fair example of the careful administration of affairs under John Higginson , of Dundee , then Master of the Lodge Scoon : —

1 st January 1745 . —The Lodge , takeing it to consideration that their officer is a poor man , and attends the Lodge frequently with torn Cloaths , for remedyieing whereof they have unanimously agreed andimpowered their Thesaurer to buy him , the Officer , Cloath for making him a new Coat , both outside and inside , and to cause a Taylor to make the same for him , and to advance the whole expence of the Coat , which they agree shall be allowed him in his accounts , and recommend it to him to be as frugall of their stock as possible in procuring this new Coat and furniture thereof . In tracing the history of the Lodge from the Minute books

The Ancient Lodge Of Scoon And Perth.

Mr . Crawford Smith supplies many interesting biographical notices of memorable Masters of the Lodge Scoon . The frontispiece consists of a lithograph portrait of John Mylne ( 1621-57 ) , who was the third Master of the Lodge bearing that

name ; and there are fine process portraits of Alexander D . Glyne the present Master , and " of D . Crawford Smith Secretary , the author of this very interesting volume . So far as typography and binding are concerned the book is worthy of its subject . ( Perth : Cowan and Co ., Ltd . 10 s 6 d . )— " Dundee Advertiser . "

Naming New Lodges.

NAMING NEW LODGES .

npHE veteran Brother Edwin A . Sherman , of California , _ i _ criticising the choosing of a name for a new Masonic Lodge , has the following , which we clip from the " Freemason , "

or Los Angeles : Some of our Lodges has very queer names ; for instance , the last I shall have to write about is ' Covina' ( under dispensation ) , a most ridiculous combination of Spanish and English , neither due to one nor the other , but a mongrel of both .

Why should not a new Lodge take the name of an eminent deceased Past Grand Master , Past Master or some Brother Mason , who though dead may have rendered eminent services to his country ?

You have another town in Los Angeles county with a name which is worse than Covina , but to give it to a Masonic Lodge was un-Masonic and entirely out of place—Azusa , which is the Spanish for the setting on of dogs to bite people or animals . If the Lodge had been called ' Lazarus , ' where the dogs were kind

and came and licked his sores , it might have been better , for it would have reminded the Brethren of the fact , and they could have held it up as an example and a lesson of character even to be learned from dogs . The name of this Lodge should be changed .

While I have been a Spanish scholar for over fifty-two years , and can read and write that language nearly as good as I can English , yet I can see nothing in the language or people that should cause a Spanish name to be adopted for a Masonic Lodge by an English-speaking people .

There are not twenty-live . Masons of Spanish blood on the entire roll of the Grand Lodge of California . The names of no saints excepting the Saints John have any business in being given to any Masonic Lodge . Take the name of Santa Barbara , for instance , the patron saint of arsenals and powder magazines . Sainte Barbe is the powder-room in a French [ ship-of-war and

was so called from St . Barbary , the patron saint of artillery . Her father delivered her up to Martian , Governor of Nicomedia , for being a Christian . After she had been subjected to cruel tortures her unnatural father was about to strike off her head when a lightning stroke laid him dead at her feet ; such is the legend . Hence those who invoke saints select St . Barbary or Santa Barbaro in thunder storms .

Spanish names are given by Americans to Masonic Lodges without reflection or knowledge as to then- origin or meaning , and to go ( to the papal calendar for saints to name their Lodges by , when if those same saints were alive and had the power , they would exterminate every Mason on earth , is a melancholy exhibit of ignorance , lack of sense , and lack of Masonic propriety .

Sentiment.

SENTIMENT .

THE Eev . Dr . Lorimer 33 ° , Boston , in an address before the Knights of Malta , voiced the following timely truths : The question is often asked : Why do men gather themselves together in Orders of this kind ? For my part , I am convinced that that which lies back of all these Orders is a pronounced religious sentiment ; for men and women , equally , have a certain

religious sentimentality which seeks some outward expression . Examples of the supremacy of religious sentiment meet us on every side . We find it dominating the various fraternal organisations ; it controls them ; they meet and are reverent . Were you to remove this religious sentiment from them , I am convinced that they would gradually disintegrate and disappear .

There is , however , a peril that we must guard against : It is that we may allow the sentiment to take the place of the religion itself . This peril confronts every church , every organisation , every person . We may exhaust ourselves in praising the right , and so have no strength for its performance . Without really

intending insincerity , men and parties may protest so frequently against wrong as to imagine themselves incorruptible and blameless . Like those volatile substances which exposure destroys and dissipates , they may air their virtues so excessively as to imperil them . We all know that there are many persons who express ennobling thoughts who perform ignoble deeds . They seem to