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g ives the four crowned martyrs . These were all the legends then existing , to which he added from his own erudition , " Noees Hod , " and Nabogodonezer ' s tower of Babylon , seven miles

hig h . The next author , viz ., of Matthew Cooke ' s MS ., lived after printing was invented . He omitted the martyrs , and " M udder Mary bright ; " and this inclines me to believe that the author WTOte

after the Reformation . But be that as it may , the additional fables which he introduced , were drawn from the Bible , with which he was but imperfectly acquainted ; from the Policronicon ,

Isodorus , Sec . ; whether he did not pervert the materials he drew from these sources , the same as he did with those of the Bible , I know not ; and from Cooke ' s MS ., the MSS ., which 1 have

no doubt , were the rituals of initiation , each beginning with an invocation , and followed with " Brethren , I will tell you how this worth y Craft was begun , " and after giving the same

legends as in Cooke ' s MS ., ( only here and there with additions and variations ) , the elder is then requested to lay the candidate ' s hand on a book , during which time the charges and laws were

recited , and which winds up with an oath , " So help you God , " etc . These MSS ., thanks to our assiduous Bro . Hughan , are now printed , and as some of them bear dates when written , ( the

latest is dated 1714 , ) we may be very sure that those legends were all in all . That was known to the Masonic fraternity up to the eve of the

the formation of the Grand Lodge of England ; and whatever legends we now possess which are not found in that MSS . have been added

since 1717 . The author of Matthew Cooke ' s MS ., among other legends , introduced for the first time

King Solomon and his lemple into his history of Masonry ; and all his additions were copied into the MSS . which I call the rituals with additional

improvements . That his knowledge of Bible history was faulty , is evident from his statement ( lines 54 S to 572 ) . "And the making of Solomon ' s temple , which King David began , "

iVc . «} ro . Student I am sure , cannot believe that David began to build the temple , though it continued a Masonic tradition , and was doubtless firnilv believed by the old Masons from the irtth

century to 17 14 , the date of the last ritual . And why : because the book ol' Kings , \ -c , in the Bible , was written nearer the time of David than

the Cooke ' s MS ., or the sources whence its author may have derived his information . The same reasoning must lead me to reject York as the location of the supposed Athelstan

assembly , and for the same reason , I must also believe that the " widow ' s son , " with the degree in which that 'personage plays so prominent a part , was unknown to the . Masons until 1717 . As already stated , tin- author of Cooke ' s MS .

' , vn « the founder ol the Solomonic Masonic theory , and here is another instance of his ign irance of biblical hisior-,- . I te says . "And the king ' s son of Tvrc was his ( Solomon ' s *

Master . Mason . " But putting his Biblical knowledge aside , if the Master Mason was the king ' s son , he mi' . dit have been the son of n

widower , but not ol a widow . And that is ail the Cooke ' s MS . has to say about King Ifvram , and of the chief . irc !; itcci wf tin- temple , he did not profess to know even live name of the king ' s

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son , or Master Mason . But the author of Dowland ' s MS ., who copied the traditions collected by the author of Cooke ' s MS ., informs us that the name of Irani ' s son , the chief Master Mason , was Aynon , and nearly all the

the succeeding rituals , or MSS ., printed by Bro . Hughan , vary the name . Thus Anon , Anion , Dion , & c , and in the ritual dated 1714 , the said son of King Hiram is called Benain . Now , as the old Masons knew nothing of H . A .,

"the widows son , " as late as 1714 , and as that personage is not alluded to in any Masonic record previous to 1721 , we must come to the conclusion that the legend , and the degree in

which , as already said , that individual plays so prominent a part , were invented after 1714 . I shall not attempt to do injustice to the intelligence of "Masonic Student" by supposing that he believes in all the traditions

communicated in the old rituals , such as the two pillars , one of which could not burn , and the other could not sink ; or that Abraham taught Euclid the sciences ; and that Euclid taught David in Egypt , geometry ; or that Nymus Greens , who

was one of the builders of King Solomon ' s temple , went afterwards to France and initiated Charles Martel , & c . But as my worthy brother professes to believe in the Masonic St . Alban legend , because the said legend is given in Cooke ' s MS . I took some trouble to investigate

the origin of the said legend ; but before entering upon the subject . I must pause to relate an anecdote . "Tom , an apprentice in a manufacturing establishment in London , brought the news one

morning into his workshop , that the lion at the top of Northumberland House , in the Strand , had the day before wagged his tail three times . Of course some of the men laughed at the story , but others showed an inclination to believe him .

To be brief , the working men in the shop took opposite sides , viz ., waggers , and anti-waggers . John Smith , the leader of the former , argued that he himself had once seen a crowd extending as far as Nelson ' s monument , and he heard

many declare that somebody had seen the said lion wag its tail quite plainly ; and what is more , his father told him that when his grandfather was a boy , thousands of persons believed in the phenomenon . " ^ Sow , what advantage , " he

argued , " would it have been to any one to invent such a tale , and is it possible to suppose that thousands of people for several generations , would have credited the wagging that of lion ' s tail , if there had not been some foundation at the

bottom .- What Mr . Robinson , you say it is impossible ; I deny it , as there may be a mechanism inside the animal , connected with an invisible spring on the surface , which spring is operated upon by the wind when it blows from

a certain point of the compass . Mr . Jones says that the animal , tail and all , is made out of one piece of stone , but has a microscopic examination ever been made of the lion and tail in till its details ? True no joints have as yet been discovered in the tail ; but that is no reason a priori

that its jointures may not be discovered Hereafter . ' Here the speaker was interrupted by shin , is oi' laughter from the . antiwaggers , when Mr . Smith denounced his opponents as skeptics , who will believe nothing tliey tlo not see ; and he continue ;! ¦ ' but it is

unmani / on your part to insult a hel pless boy . Mere , Tom , yes , honest Tom says , that he saw the lion wag . " '' Xo , sir , said Tom , •' i did not say 1 saw the lion wag , but Dick told me of it . Y . 'hen Dick appeared , he stoutly denied in the

lace in honest Turn , of having said three times . " The lion wagged its tail twice , " he said , ' •' but not three times ; " and when questioned whether he haw the wagging , he answered in the nega-. ive ; but young Harry ( so called to distinguish him from a senior of that name ) told him that

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he saw it wag twice . When Harry appeared , he in turn accused Dick of exaggeration ; he did not say twice , nor how many times it wagged ; it may have wagged only once , Sec . And after a good deal of prevarication , he finally admitted

that he did not see the wagging , but that somebody told him , that somebody said , that somebody saw the lion wag its tail . It is scarcely necessary to add that the examination terminated with a burst of laughter , in which even the waggers joined .

And , now , I will examine my St . Alban ' s Tom , Dick , and Harry . I will begin with the most improved version of the legend , and then trace it backward to its nucleus . Thus Anderson tells

us that " Carausins encouraged the Craft , particularly at Verulam ( or St . Alban ' s ) , by the worthy Knight Albanes , who afterwards turned Christian , and was called St . Alban Proto-martyr

m Britain under the Dioclesan persecution , whom Carausius employed to environ that city with a stone wall , and to build him a fine palace for which that British kinrr made St . Alban the

steward of his household and chief ruler ot the realm . . . . " St . Alban loved Masons well , and cherished them much , and he made their pay right good , viz ., two shillings per week and three

pence to their cheer ; whereas , before that time through the land a Mason had but a penny a day and his meat , until St . Aiban mended it . He also obtained a charter from the king , gave them

charges , " & c . As Anderson refers to the old constitutions as his authority , I took up Dowland ' s MS . Therein , I could find nothing about Carausius ,

theDioclesian persecution , or the building of a palace for a British king . It mentioned all the rest , including the two shillings and three pence ; but how

the saint could " pay the Masons in shillings and pence at a period when no such coin circulated in England , is more than I can tell .

Having now examined myTomandDick , I must next call upon Dick ' s Harry , viz ., Matthew Cook ' s MS ., from which , as already said , those legends were copied into Dowland ' s MS . & c . But I

found that the Cooke MS . knew nothing about Carausius , Dioclesian persecution , & c . In short here is all that that authority furnished about St . Alban , — " And soon after that" ( after Charles

the 2 nd of France was made a Mason by Nymus Greens , one of Solomon ' s Masons employed at the building of the temple , after that event ) "came St . Adhabell into England and converted St .

Alban to Christianity , and St . Alban loved well Masons , and he gave them first their charges and manners , first in England , and he ordained

convenient times to pay for their travail . " We have nothing here about steward of the king ' s household , & c .

Having pointed out how that Masonic legend gradually swelled in size , witheach successive manipulation , the next question I ask , what authority have we for the very existence of such a

I ' roto-martyr ? Here , again , I found Tom , Dick , and Harry differ in the narrative . The first author 1 consulted was ' •Butler ' s Lives of the

Saints . He , of course , gives the longest account ; but as he refers to Bede as his Dick , I examined Bede ' s account . Bede ' s account , though , not quite so long as

Butler ' s , is [ very circumstantial . He relates very minutely the dialogue between St . Albari ami his judge ; how the judge requested the saint to sacrifice to devils , and for refusing to do