Difficulty Of Ascertaining The Age Of Undated Old Masonic Mss.

DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING THE AGE OF UNDATED OLD MASONIC MSS .

BY BRO . JACOB NORTON " . No one feels more grateful to Brethren whoclisinterestedlylabourfor our Instruction than Ave do . We therefore felt

exceedingly pleased to learn that Bro . Hughan ' s untiring efforts in that direction Avere in a measure reAvarcled by the distinction conferred upon him by the M . W . G-. M . of England . But while we

sincerely congratulate Bro . Hughan , and were , and are ever ready to acknowledge his services , and those of his co-labourer the Rev . Bro . Woodford , yet Ave must not alloAv even the feelings of gratitude

to overcome the feeling of duty . We also claim the pursuit of truth for truth ' s sake , and therefore deem it our duty to question and criticise the writ , ings of Brethren , regardless of their

rank , learning , or even the important services they may have rendered . With these preliminary remarks , which Ave are sure will not offend our friends , Ave shall proceed to question the dates affixed to our old undated MSS .

In the preface to Bro . Hughan ' s Old Charges , Bro . Woodford dates the Dowland MS ., as A . D . 1500 , and the Landsdown , as of 1560 , etc . NoAA , Ave would like to kiiOAv the reasons of our esteemed Brother for giving just those

dates' ? True , our Brother added the word " circa" or uncertain to those dates . But why may not those MSS . have been Avritteu in the year 1600 ? Be it further remembered , that Bro . Woodford never saw the DoAvlandMS

., a "d Mr . DoAvland who OAvned it , assures ;« that it was written , not in 1500 , but in the 17 th century . The opinion of « h ' . Dowland certainly deserves more

weight than the opinion of those who never saAV it . Besides which , the MSS . is totally minus of all allusion to the Virgin and other Roman Catholic dogmas ; it could therefore not have been written either in 1500 , or during

the reign of Philip and Mary . The Sloane MS . 3329 , " edited by Brother Woodford , if its date could he fixed with certainty , would indeed settle the question that our system of degrees is older than 1717 . Bro .

Woodford says : " I have no doubt whatever that my learned and lamented friend Mr . Wallbran was quite right Avhen he fixed the date of the MS . from

the internal evidence at not later than 1640 . " Our Brother also says , "the archaisms and peculiarities of spelling , date really and truly , from any part of the 17 th century , hut rather earlier than later . " But vet Bro . Woodford admits

that the handwriting of the said MS . is probably not earlier than 1710 ; consequently , it may have been -written in 1730 . Our Brother also admits that the writer of the MS . was an uneducated man . Further on , our Brother says :

" The narrative is not an original draft , but an evident copy , asAvitness the Avoids printed in italics , Avhich are interlined in the original , arising from a mistake of the copyist in omitting to notice the words'in form of a square' occur

, twice . " These then are all the internal evidence our Brother adduces that the MS . is a copy of a still older MS ., not later than 1640 .

NOAV , it seems to us , that the bad spelling and interlined words , may be better attributed , first to the fact admitted by Bro . Woodford , that the writer Avas an uneducated man , and secondly , the writer of that MS . may

have been duped by a sharper , AVIIO imposed all that trash upon him as Masonic secrets , and finding that he could not Avith those secrets obtain admission into a Lodge , he Avrote the instruction he received in his OAVH Avay

, but here and there he discovered mistakes , so he corrected them b y interlining the omitted . voids . i'