Hunting For Manuscripts.

HUNTING FOR MANUSCRIPTS .

Entertaining interview Between Bro . Morang and Bro . J . Ross Robertson , the Canadian Masonic Historian .

THE last time I had a talk with Bro . Ross Robertson about matters Masonic was on a sunshiny day in the early part of June of 1900 , while we were comfortably seated in deck chairs on board the Cunard liner " Lucania . "

I had a lot of writing to do the next day and , consequently , a promise made by Bro . Robertson to tell me something about his collection of Masonic manuscripts , more especially those connected with the " History of Freemasonry

in Canada , " did not materialise . Another contributory reason for the non-fulfilment of the promise was that I had a day ' s packing to do before landing at Queenstown , and all Atlantic travellers know what that means . And I had more than

myself to look after . So I disembarked at Queenstown and Bro . Robertson went on to Liverpool , and I had half made up my mind that I should have to wait until I met the Past Grand Master in Canada before I could hear the rest of his interesting story .

The fates , however , were kind . I whirled through Ireland and crossed over from Belfast to Glasgow and northyes , away up to the Lewes , the islands which as schoolboys we knew as the Hebrides—and after a pleasant passage across the Minch—it ' s generally a rough trip—I landed at Stornaway , the chief town of the island of Lewes .

What made my trip of more than ordinary interest was the discovery , in a chat with some friends at the Imperial Hotel , that Bro . Robertson was even known here in this far northern region . My friend , who was a member of Fortrose Lodge under the Grand Lodge of Scotland ,

warranted in Stornoway in 1767 , took me by surprise when he said that Bro . Robertson ' s grandfather , a Mr . Hector Sinclair , had lived there from about 1796 until about 1823 , and that he had been a member of that Lodge for over twenty years . " Yes , " said the Brother , " your Past Grand Master ' s

mother was born a hundred years ago in the old farmhouse on Goathill , and it is just one hundred and two years since her father was made a Mason in Fortrose Lodge . We see Bro . Robertson every two or three years and he is always welcome . "

I had some business in the town and after a day ' s rest I went south to London , thence to Paris and down to Munich and Oberammergau to see the Passion Play . I had a day or so at Zurich , and then by the advice of a friend I headed for the highest , driest , and one of the sunniest health resorts

in Europe— -the Engadine of Switzerland , where they have air as asceptic as it is made , where germs and dust do not corrupt and where you are protected from winds b y the ranges of Alps that vary from 10 , 000 up to 13 , 000 feet in height . I found this at St . Moritz after a ten hours' jaunt

in a Swiss diligence over the Julier Pass of the Bernese Alps . I arrived in the evening , rather tired after the drive and turned in early . The next morning I was up with the lark , threw open my window in the Bavier Hotel , and as I did so ,

much to my surprise , I saw Bro . Robertson and his son evidently taking a constitutional before breakfast . My lungs did good service at that moment and we renewed our friendship of the Atlantic liner at our breakfast an hour later .

Here you have two breakfasts—one small and early , a cup of coffee and bread and butter—and at eleven o ' clock you have your meat breakfast . This morning I had my first Alpine climb . Bro . Robertson said a short climb would give me an appetite for my

second breakfast and I , therefore , assented most willingly to accept the P . G . M . as a guide . Yes , it was a short walk if you take it on the level , but when it means a walk up a slope that

eventually brings you about 800 feet above your starting point , then it is no mud task . We started out , Bro . Robertson ' s son leading the way , the pater came next and then " yours truly . "

I do not believe that Bro . Robertson has any malice in his composition , nor do I think he would deliberately invite me to perform a sort of hari kari , as they do in Japan , but no more Alpine short walks for me just at the present writing , for I am jotting this all down an hour after my return to the hotel .

But I am anticipating . Bro . Robertson ' s son , young and vigorous , shot upwards like a veteran Alpine guide and his paternal relative kept close behind him , Talk of the highest

Hunting For Manuscripts.

degrees in the Craft—I was getting all the degrees I wanted for all time . The route to the Habensee , or the peak that rises about 800 feet above St . Moritz , is given as an hour and a half walk . I had an idea that Bro . Robertson said half an hour . But the half hour passed and our feet kept moving .

Every half hour we rested by the wayside on benches which some kind spirit had placed b y the path , and finally in nigh two hours' time we saw the national flag of Switzerland floating over the upper plateau of land , and just two hours from our start rested in the bandbox restaurant that private enterprise had placed upon the top of this mountain peak .

A two hours' rest revived my wearied frame , and while Bro . Robertson ' s son went off exploring I sat , and over a cigar and a cup of delicious coffee , reminded Bro . Robertson of his promise to tell me of his quest for manuscripts , without which his exhaustive work could not have been written .

" I ' m afraid , " said he , " that I hardly realised all that that promise meant . " "How so ?"

" Well , while it s an easy task to talk of hunting for pictures , it ' s rather difficult to tax one ' s memory regarding manuscripts . " " Why , it seems to me that you would remember where you found your manuscripts much more readily than where you found your pictures . "

" Not at all . That ' s just where you are mistaken . A picture , you know , once seen , impresses itself on the mind , doubly so if you are interested in the subject . " You can take in the whole perspective at a glance . You , so to speak , size up the scene—if it ' s a landscape—so much so , that if you are

handy with a pencil you can make a rough drawing of it from memory . As I say this I think of a sketch ol Halifax , Nova Scotia , which I found one morning in the British Museum as I turned over a number of maps issued about 1760 . It was a rare find—fancy Halifax in 1750 . It was just a village , and

yet Masonry was founded in Nova Scotia before Halifax was thought of . The founder was Erasmus J . Phillips , a British officer in the garrison at Annapolis . He was initiated in the first Lodge at Boston in 1737 and on his return to

Annapolis founded a Lodge , ' i'hat was about twelve years before Edward Cornwallis , the first Governor of Nova Scotia , obtained a Warrant from Phillips for Lodge No . 1 , Nova Scotia . Bro . Edward Cornwallis was a brigadier general and an uncle of Lord Cornwallis of Yorktown fame . "

" / vre there any traces of Phillips' work ? " " None whatever . We know that he was made a Mason in Boston and he appears to have been Provincial Grand Master of Nova Scotia as early as 1750 , for in that year he

was addressed by Bro . Cornwallis and others as such when they asked for a warrant for a Lodge at Halifax . Phillips lived at Annapolis and undoubtedly held a Lodge there , but of this there are no records . I have searched everywhere without finding the slightest trace of his work prior to 1750 . "

" Did you ever come across a picture of Cornwallis ? I mean Edward—"

" No , never . He was never engraved nor put on canvas . The same of Bro . Thos . Carleton , the first Governor of New Brunswick . His picture can ' t be found ; neither can that of Col . Simon Fraser , of the 78 th Highlanders , be found . He was the eldest son of old Lord Lovat . Anyone who has

the picture of any one of these three can get his own figure for them . Fraser , you know , was the Provincial Grand Master that installed the Officers of the Lodge at Quebec in I 759- " " What about Upper Canada manuscripts ? Those are more directly connected with your history . "

" That is just what I am thinking about . I have so many that I scarce know where to begin . Why , the manuscripts of the first three Provincial Grand Lodges that worked in Upper Canada from 1792 to 1858 are in rriy library . They fill very comfortably about ten portfolios of a hundred pages each

and all these are classified and indexed—yes , and typewritten . This does not include the manuscript minutes of a hundred and twenty of the pioneer Lodges , such as Zion Lodge , No . 10 , of Detroit , that was ! under Canada from 1704 to 1805 . " - ^

Why , was Zion not an American Lodge ?" " Yes , after 1805 , but from 1794 until the close of that year it worked under a warrant granted by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Lower Canada at Quebec . " " Was ^ here a Zion Lod ge at Detroit prior to l / xu ' f