The Scottish Cradle Of Freemasonry*

sincere for him to Avish to assert for her any title ivhatever to AA'hich he does not honestly believe that she has a valid claim ; and he advances no conclusion Avithout a frank and candid statement of the grounds on which it is based , the contrary assertions of other Avriters being fully cited and fairly met . We shall be considerably surprised if the event does not prove that he has administered , hy Ms patient , critical investigation , a deathbloiv to the design , explicitly avowed of late in high places , to affiliate the

Kil-Avinning Lodge to the leading Lodge of the Scottish capital—to depose the Provincial Guild from the high position of mother to the subordinate place of daughter . The incisive nature of the criticism Avhich Mr . Wylie brings to bear on this proposal may he indicated by a reference to his remarks on the obscurity of the birth of the Mother Lodge . " That very obscurity , " he reminds his opponents , " is itself a proof of her exceeding age . If she had begun to exist in 1642 the date of her

, oldest minute-book UOAV in the Charter chest , or in 1599 , the date of the SchaAV Statute , she AA'ould haA'e had no legendary fame . The fact that Holyrood Abbey AA'as build in 1128 by masons Avhom King David brought from Strasbourg Avill not of itself suffice to nuUify the all hut universal belief in the primogeniture of Scotch masonry at Kilwinning . If the building of a Scottish abbey , and the formation of a Scottish lodge , must have been contemporary eA'ents , then to the first ecclesiastical edifice

built in Scotland must belong the honour of the institution of masonry , as a trade fraternity , in our country . But I am not aAA'are that this has been contended for in so many Avoids . No doubt it is presumed that the balance of probability is in favour of the earlier building ; but eA'en if this ride of probabilities ivere a better guide in the past than in the present—for , in these days Ave know that it is the unexpected Avhich happens—is it likely that tradition Avould pass by the Metropolitan Abbey ,

set as it AA'as on an unrivalled eminence in vieAv of the nation , and shoAvn in the searching lig ht Avhich beat upon Holyrood , and fix upon IGlwhniing as being the birth place of Scottish Freemasonry ? " This is admirably put ; and it is a question Avhich the advocates of the opposing A'iew will find some difficulty in ansAA'ering . Clearly the tradition that has for so many hundreds of years assigned the priority to the Kihvinning Lodge is not a thing to be sneered aAvay as of no practical account . In certain

quarters it has been alleged that the Mother Lodge sold her rights ; but Mr . Wylie demonstrates , by citation of the agreement , that the sole object of the union betAveen the Mother Lodge and the Grand Lodge of Scotland Avas the concord of the Masonic Fraternity , and the ohvious desirability of hai'ing only one Grand Lodge in Scotland . The historian of the Lodge of Edinburgh dismisses , in a A'ery contemptuous fashion , the statement that the head masonic courts of the St Glairs Avere held in what he is

p leased to call " the isolated village of Kilwinning . " But Mr . Wylie quietly invites his attention to the fact , of Avhich he seems to haA'e been ignorant , that the Eoslin family had at one time the most intimate connection Avith Kilwinning and its Abbey , for in 1541 Henry Sinclair became Abbot , or perpetual Commendator of Kilwinning . At a still earlier date—A'iz ., in 1491—we find the King expending a large sum on an entertainment gii'en by his Majesty Avhen holding high festiA'al at AA'hat the Edinburgh

partisan designates " the isolated village . " Enough has been said to indicate the nature and A'alue of Mr . Wylie's historical argument , Avhich is conducted throughout in a temperate , candid , and altogether becoming spirit . The materials haA'e been most admirably arranged , and the style is simp le and lucid . The descriptive portions of the work are exceedingly graphic , and at times , as in the presentation of the legend of St . Winning , the author rises to a strain of genuine

eloquence . The account of the Order Heredmn de Kilwinning , established by King Eobert the Bruce , and AA'hich enjoys the highest celebrity in France , is the fullestVe have seen . The old Schaw Statutes , discovered in the charter-room at Eglinton Castle , are printed in full . ; and the other features of the book embrace a A'ery complete illustrated account of the St . Clairs and of the chapel and castle of Eoslin , extracts from the old minutehook of the Mother Lodge , Sir Alex . BOSAVCII ' song in her honour , most interesting tributes to tlie memory of such departed Avorthies as W . Cochran-Patrick and Hugh Conn , poetical pieces by the late Tainos Manson ( a Whist-le-Binkieiie ) and Archibald M'Kay ,