Odds And Ends.

nephew of the D of , and further inland n fine fellow who would have been welcome any time thest twenty years in many an English country-house . I saw n

good deal of a relative of one of our greatest generals , his age was twenty-two , and he was not successful in finding occupation suited to his talents ; he at last agreed to pay a sheep farmer £ 30 a year to be allowed to go

a-shepherdmg-I met many that ruin , dissipation or disgust had driven from home ancl society , who sought renovation , moral , mental and physical , in the purer air and more healthy colonial life : somo of them had been intimates of the

great . The gold discoveries , and an unparalleled development , have flooded over those old times . Gas , railways , and telegraphshave invadedthewilds ; Masonic Hallsand Mechanics ' Institutes stand now amidst flourishing townships , on spots

where we used to bivouac when our drays stuck fast in the mud . In the Land Office at Dunedin , Lake Wakatipu ( as supposed to exist ) was marked haphazard ou the map with

dotted lines . Within four years the district settled , and steamers plied daily between three considerable townships on its banks , " Kingstown , " " Queenstown , " and " Frasert own . "

Life in the Colony then was a reckless , dare-devil business , especially for the young . Excessive drinking was the rule , delirium tremens the exception which proved it . I once spent an evening at a Christchurch hotel , with an Australian who had settled in the Province , who , after

a week in town " on the spree , " intended to return home that night . We drank every known of mixture of claret , champagne , gin and ginger beer—called " stone-fences " and other queer names ; I left him at midnight with fully as much as I could carry . After my departure he mounted ,

ancl started with a brandy-bottle in each holster . Having gone twenty miles , he alighted by a clump of flax bushes to take a drink , finished one bottle and cached the other

under the bushes to serve him another time . After going twenty miles more he reached his homestead and prepared for bed , but missed his pocket-book , which contained papers of value . He concluded he must have left it in

Christchurch , or dropped it among the bushes where he had halted , so saddled another beast and started back again . At his halfway halting-place , he found the book , and disinterred the second brandy-bottle . Whilst finishing this at

leisure , he reflected that having come so far on the road to town , it would be quite a pity not to do the whole journey . I was considerably astonished within twelve hours of the time when I had left him the night before , to find him again at his hotel , where ho stayed on for another week .

I remember the same man undertaking to drive another round by the Sumner-road to Lyttelton , to catch the Mail steamer . Ho drove a gig with a horse called " Black Tommy . " Both had poured copious libations to Fortune before starting . The road zigzags in one part very

precipitously—it s edge being a sheer descent of about GO feet . Hereabouts Black Tommy jibbed , turned his head to the cliff and his tail towards the road ' s edge . The two jumped out just as the gig-wheels were over the preci pice and down went the whole concern . Gazing over with horror they saw

it crashing through the brushwood . a black objectwhich they concluded to be the horse ' s head , rolling over separately . From a farmhouse two miles away they procured ropes and bullocks , and forced their way through the underwood up the

ravine . There they found gig and harness all to pieces , but Black Tommy still alive and not so very much injured by his terrible fall . The black object proved to be the bag of the traveller , who , of course , missed the Mail .

Old Charges Of British Freemasons.

OLD CHARGES OF BRITISH FREEMASONS .

William James Hiighan . IN reply to your fraternal request , respecting our MS . Masonic Constitutions , I submit the following . It is my intention shortly to publish a work in some respects

supp lemental to my " Old Charges of British Freemasons , " which will afford additional particulars of these MSS ., and in accordance with its title—( Illustrations of Operative and Speculative Freemasonry in Early Days )—a sketch will be inserted of some old Lodge Records hitherto but little

Old Charges Of British Freemasons.

known to Masonic students , and various versions of the Old Constitutions will be printed , not previously published . These old MSS . may be arranged under five different classes for convenience of reference . 1 . Original MS .

Masonic Constitutions . 2 . MS . copies ; originals known or unknown . 3 . Printed transcripts of MSS . ; originals known or imknow-n . 4 . Extracts from MSS . not at present discovered . 5 . Allusions to MSS . not now known .

1 . —Original MS . Masonio Constitutions . Location . Harwell's MS . 14 th centnry . ( British Museum ) . Cook ' s MS . 15 th century . „ Lansdowne MS . 16 th century . „ * Sloane MS . No . 3 , 848 17 th centnry .

* Harleian MS . No . 2 , 054 „ „ Sloane MS . No . 3323 * Harleian MS . No . 1942 „ „ Wilson's MS . 16 th century . ( Rev . J . E . A . Fenwiolc , of Cheltenham ) .

? York MS . No . 1 17 th century . ( Archives of G . L . London ) . ? Grand Lod <> e MS . „ „ York MS . No . 6 Aitcheson Haven MS . „ ( Archives of G . L . Edinburgh ) .

York MS . No . 5 „ O ^ ork Lodge , City of York ) . York MS . No . 4 „ „ York MS . No . 2 18 th century . „ Edinburgh Kilwg . MS . 17 th century ( Kilwinning , Scotland ) ,

Aberdeen MS . „ ( Aberdeen Lodge ) . Hope MS . „ ( Lodgeof Hope . Bradford ) , Antiquity MS . „ ( L . of Antiquity , London ) , Alnwick MS . 18 th century . ( Mr . Turnbull , Alnwick ) .

Papworth ' s MS . „ ( Mr . Wyatt Papwortb ) . Scarborough MS . „ ( Archives of G . L . Canada ) . Gateshead MS . „ ( L . of Industry , Gateshead ) .

2 . —MS . Copies ; originals known or unknown . Location , & o . * Spencer ' s MS . 18 th century . ( About 1726 . In possession of Bro . E . T . Carson , of Cincinnati ) . Woodford ' s MS . 18 th century , ( A . D . 1728 . In possession of

Bro . the Rev . A . P . A . Woodford , M . A . Supposed to have been transcribed by G . Sec . Reid , from Cooke ' s MS . ) # Dr . Rawlinson ' s MS . 18 th century . ( Transcribed about A . D , 1730 . In Dr . Rawlinson ' s collection in Bodleian Library , Oxford . ) ? Browne ' s MS . 18 th centnry . ( In Bro . Hughau ' s possession . Copy from MS . about A . D . 1600 , once owned by Bro . S . Browne , of Chester . )

3—printed transcripts of MSS . ; originals known or unknown . Roberts' MS . ( Printed by J . Roberts , A . D . 1722 . In Bro . R . F , Bower ' s Grand Masonic Library . ) ? Briscoe ' s MS . ( Published br Mrs . Briscoe , A . D . 1724 , & o . ) Colo ' s MS . ( Printed by Cole " in 1729 , and then in 1731 , & c , & o . )

* Dodd's MS . ( Published by Mrs . Dodd , A . D . 1738 . Only copy known , in Bro . B . T . Carson ' s magnificent Masonio library ) , Dowland ' s MS . ( Printed in Qentleman ' s Magazine , 1815 ) . ? Krauso ' s MS . ( First printed A . D , 1810 . Believed to be a com . pilation ) .

4 . —Extracts from MSS . not at present discovered . * Dr . Plott ' s MS . ( History of Staffordshire , , D . 1686 . Very im . portant ) . * Dr . Anderson ' s MS . ( Booh of Constitutions , A . D . 1723 , & c , & c . ) * Stont ' sMS . ( Bonk of Constitutions , A . D . 1738 , & c , & c . ) * IIargrove ' s MS . ( Hargrove ' s History of York , A . D , 1818 ) .

5 . —Allusions to MSS . not now known . ( No extracts . ) * Yorh MS . No . 3 of A . D . 1630 . ( Inventory of Grand Lodge of all England , held at York , A . D . 1777 ) . * Wren ' s MS . ( Found amongst the papers of Sir Christopher Wren , according to endorsement on Browne's MS , )

? Masons' Company ' s MS . ( "A book wrote on parchment , " in tho chest of the Masons' Company , London ) . ? Chester MS . ( MS . of A . D . 1600 , once the property of the lato Bro . the Rev . W . Crane , Prov . G . Sec . of Cheshire ) .

• Morgans MS . ( MS . said to hare been taken abroad by Bro * Morgan , G . Sec . of Ancients , A . D . 1751 ) . ? Dermott ' s MS . ( MS . exhibited by Bro . Dermott at "Ancient " Grand Lodge , A . D . 1752 , and declared to have been written by one Bramwell of Canterbury , in the reign of Henry VII . )

The majority of these MSS . have been traced by myself [ and friends within the last ten years , the chief amongst the number being the well-known Masonic student , Bro . the Rev . A . F . A . Woodford , M . A ., P . G . C . Those marked with a * are still missing . t and I shall be delighted to

correspond with any brother who knows of any possible clues to the discovery of either of them . I do not despair of several more versions being traced , and as each MS .

comes to light the early connection between operative and speculative Freemasonry is rendered still more certain , and the antiquity of our Societ y is placed on a still firmer , wider , and historical basis .