Military Lodges.—Ii.

mirable organisation which set its mark for all timo on the history of tho Craft , by virtually dictating tho terms of Union in 1813 * Before parting with the general subject , nnd having asked in my previous article for the names of American Grand Lodge histories , I desire to state that I havo seen those relating to New York , Penn . sylvania , Vermont , Kentucky , and Virginia . Referring also to a former

note , suggesting a search on the register of the Prov . G . L . of Lower Canada for a record of local Military Charters—in Downes' list 1801 I find the following entry : —English 274 [ Prov . G . L , Upper Canada ] No . 3 [ local '} " 1 st American Regiment York . " What corps is thus designated ? And were other Military warrants issued by this P . G . L . either before or after 1804 ? May I commend these queries to Ihe

attention of Canadian brethren ? It seems to me not improbable , that one or other of the Lodges at St . John ' s . Newfonndland , must have derived its existence from an " offshoot" of No . 213 , now Albion Lodge , Quebec [ See footnote ante ' ] . In an enclosure in Vol . VIII ., Letter H ., fol . 48 , G . L . Register " Ancients , " appears a roll of Members with the following singular

heading : — " List of Members of Lodge 213 Junior , held in Major Willm . Archer Huddlestone ' s Company Fourth Battalion , Royal Re . giment of Artillery , under a dispensation . St . John ' s , Newfoundland , 27 th Dec . 1785 . " Major Huddlestono , who by tho way was J . W . of tho Lodge , was no doubt detached with his Company at Newfonndland , and according to the practice of that ora , a dispensation to hold

a Lodge must have been granted by actual No . 213 . This cnstom prevailed until far into the present century , and in India was by no means uncommon until a comparatively recent date . Indeed , it is on record that Lodge 26 Irish , in the " Cameronians , " whilst on service in Bengal , excused itself from granting a dispensation of thia character , on the ground that it had already issued one to certain brethren to

work under the English Constitution , and entertained grave doubts as to the legality of tho act ! Reverting to the subject of Army Masonry in Newfonndland , No . 249 " Ancients " was held " in the Town or Garrison of St . John ' s , " the date of Constitution being 31 March 1788 . I cannot but think that the archives of the P . G . L . of Newfonndland wonld yield mnch valuable information in regard to Masonry in the services ?

Bleanings From Old Ebronicles, &C.

Bleanings From Old Ebronicles , & c .

STOW , in speaking of the Sword-hearer of the City of London says , his place " is honourable ; inasmuch as the sword is needful to be borne before Head Officers of Burroughs or other Corporate Towns , to represent the State and Princely office of the King ' s mosfc excellent Majesty , the chief Governor . To the right bearing of which sword , in the Chamber of London , this observation is to be made according

to an ancient writer of Armoury : ' Thafc the bearer most carry it upright , the Hilt being holdon nnder his bulk , and the Blade directly up the midst of his Breast , and so forth between tho Sword-bearer's brows . This in distinction from bearing the sword in any town for a Dnke , or an Earl , or a Baron . If for a Dnke , the blade thereof

must lean from the head between the neck and the Right Shoulder nearer to the Head than the Shoulder . And for an Earl the Bearer must carry the same between the point of the shoulder and the elbow . And so there is another different bearing of the sword for a Baron . '"

It may not be generally known that in the year 1683 a foot post , commonly called the Penny Post , was started by a private individual . It was found to be of such service to the public and , as a consequence , was considered so detrimental to the interests of James , Dnke of York , afterwards James II ., to whom his brother Charles II . had assigned the revenues of the General or King ' s Post Office thafc

it wns very speedily established as a branch of the latter . By this post all letters' and parcels , nofc exceeding a pound in weight , and also any sum of money not above £ 10 or parcel of £ 10 value , were earned to all parts of the City and suburbs , and only a penny more ( on delivery ) was demanded for conveying letters or parcels to most towns within ten miles of London , ancl to some towns at a further distance .

The following curious recipe is from a work entitled " The Customs of London , " otherwise called "Arnold ' s Chronicle , " tho first edition of which was published about 1502 , and the second about 1520 . It prescribes how " to make Percely [ parsley ] to growe in an onr space , " and reads thus : — "Take a quantity of erthe , and pnt

tfierto lyes [ lees ] of swete wyne that is dried and medell [ mix ] the erthe and that togedir and than sowe thy percely and medell the seed and ye erthe togedir and wete [ wet ] it wt aqna nite [ vitro ] , and tha set yonr tnrfe or yonr erthe ayen [ against ] the fyre , and set it shonn ayen the fyre , and wythin an onr ye shall hane the perceley her i" ° Utte Wt a knjf ' and Wt the pronf ye sha 11 knowe the tron , 1 , ° There was a certain rough humour—though it is probable the

Bleanings From Old Ebronicles, &C.

offender did not think so—as well as propriety in the mode of punishing cheating and similar offences iu the good old '' iys , while the public manner in which tho punishment was intliced cannot have been without its deterrent effect . Stow , in hi ' , enunieritio !) of tho modes of punishment for various ofi ' eners , mentions several which show that our forefathers had a rude yet , ready wav of meting

out justice . Thus he tells ns very circumstantially how , in ! , > 59 , a certain carman " underwent tho Punishment of Riding for : i cheat . " This carman had evidently very clondy ideas as to the proper dis . tinction to be drawn between in « imi and twu . i . Having to carry " a Load of Billets to he delivered to some certain person , " it , seems hr " sold somo by the way , and converted tho money to his own use .

And when ho came to deliver his Billots and to sell thorn hn told them so deceitfully that ho might save this number of Billets . " However , honesty would have been the better policy . " Ho was discovered , and his Billots wore told over again . Awl so what was wanting of the Talo pnme to bo found out , whereupon he was carried to tho Counter and thero kept till Friday next . Market . Day . And

then he was fetched out and set on Horseback with his Face to tho Horse ' s tail with two Billets before him and two behind him , aud so carried about London . " Tho more serious ofFdnce of sending bad meat to market was of course more severely visited , especially , as in tho instance recorded , the man had onco already been punished for the samo crime . In tho year 1560 , " ono rid about London , "

says old Stow , " with his face toward the horse tail for bringing in and selling meazle Bacon at Market . The samo man the next day was set on tho Pillory , and two groat pieces of his meazle bacon over his head , and a Writing set np , showing his crimes ; and that about two years before , he was punished for tho same offence . " In another case—that of " one Chullenter , a Baker of tho Bridge House , for some Deceit in his Bread , " no punishment was indicted , though it

was made public how thoroughly he deserved it . " Being accused about his Bread , ho was sent for to Guildhall , before the Maior and Aldermen . And his Crime being evident , his judgment was , that he should go afore two of the officers of ono of the Hospitals to the Bridge House ; and afore him , by way of Disgrace , shonld be carried the Pillory by one belonging to the Hospital ; which was done accordingly . "

Strype , in his edition of Stow , published in 1720 , mentions font-Fire Insurance Offices as then existent , namely , that " kept against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill and at tho Rainbow Coffee House by the Inner Temple Gate in Fleet Street" —tho Phoenix , because houses insured in it had a plate affixed to them , " being the resemblance of a Phenix in the Flame ; " tho Hand-in-Hand ; the Snn ; and tho Union . The three last are still flourishing .

The Pansh Register of St . Giles ' s , Cripplegate , contains the record of the marriage , on . the 22 nd August 1620 , of Oliver Cromwell with Elizabeth Bourchier , the fntnre Lord High Protector being at the time in the twenty-first year of his age . Our forefathers looked upon whales , porpoises , grampus , and seawolves as fish , and the choicer portions of them were served at dinner in the lenten season and on fish days generally .

Nor was the service on these " Fysshe " Days by any moans to bo despised , if we may judge from tho following bill of fare taken from an old work on the manners and customs of old times in England : " At the first cours—oysturs in grave , and baken herringe , and pyke , and stok-fisch , and merlynges fried . At the secondo conrs , eles in grave , and pnrpays "—porpoise— " and galentyne , " according to

Halliwell , a dish mado of sopped bread and spices , " and therwith cougar , ande Salmon fiesshe and dorre rosfced , and guarnard sothen , " —that is , boiled— " and baken eles and tart . At the thriddo course , rose to potage , and crem of almondes ; and therwith sturgeon , and whelkes , and gret eles , and lamprons rosted , and tenches in gele ; aud therwith daryolus " ( dariols ) , " and leche-fryes made of frit and friture . " Those , however , who take an interest in such matters and

would like to judge for themselves of the elaborate character of a royal or public banquet , even on a fish day , shonld turn to the pages of "Fabian's Chronicle , " in which they will find a full description of the order in which the guests were arranged , tho names of the great officers of state who were present , and an enumeration of all the various dishes that were served at tho Coronation banquet in Westminster Hall , on 23 rd February 1420 , of Katherine of France , Queen of our Henry V . Yet this was held in Lent .

Truth is often stranger than fiction . If any one were told thafc within the last half century tho Lords of the Admiralty bad issued their warrant for the arrest of a whale , he would—if he wero a vulgar man—most probably throw out a hint that the statement was very " like a whale . " Yefc , in tho quarterly accounts of receipt and expenditure by the Receiver of the Droits of the Admiralty , during the earlier years of the reign of Her Majesty ' s immediate predecessor

on the throne , thero occurs the following curious item of expense " 1832 , May 31 . Disbursements incurred in executing a process to arrest a whale , by Admiralty Warrant , dated the 15 th instant , £ 58 9 s lid . " The whale , however , appears to have been illmannered enough to set the Admiralty process-servers at defiance . At least , thero is no receipt per contra to balance the above expenditure , as doubtless there wonld have been in respect of oil , blubber , and whalebone , had the whale been captured .

By the way , whales as well as sturgeons were , if they are not still , Boyal Fish , and both were declared to be the property of the Sovereign as far back as 1324 . The learned Blackstone , on the authority of old writers , lays it clown as regards the former , that if one is taken on our coasts , the king had allotted to him as his share the head , while tho Qneen received the tail , the reason assigned for this division being that it was to furnish the Queen ' s wardrobe with whalebone .

Well fermented Old "Wines and Matured Spirits . J . E . SHAJTD & Co ., Wine merchants ( Experts and Valuers ) , 2 Albert Mansions , Victoria Street , S . W . Price lists on application ,