Wonders Of Operative Masonry.

building , the open-worked battlements around the entire roof , and the finely proportioned pinnacles and towers . The interior is yet more impressive . The vast aad arched roof of solid stone , is unsupported by a single pillar , and its pendant stones seem to hang in the . air , as if " art had weaned them of their tendency to m-avitate . " The famous architect , Bro . Sir

Christopher Wren , was accustomed to go once a year to view the roof of the Chapel of King's College , and is said to have remarked , that if any man would show him where to place the first stone , he would bnild such another . Many of these stones in the roof weigh a ton each , are over a yard

in thickness , and elegantly carved with roses and portcullises . Their erection was a remarkable architectural feat . The length of this superb edifice is 316 feet , its breadth 84 feet , its interior hei ght 78 feet , and the height of each of the four corner towers , 146 feet . The interior is

a splendid example of Florid Gothic , The painted windows , each 50 feet high , are niarvels of beauty , rich in orient colours and imagery . Over one hundred Scriptural events are superbly delineated . A German Master Mason , named Klaus , or Kloosis said to have built King ' s College

, Chapel , but an extant original indenture for the erection of the miraculously vaulted roof is executed by " John Wastell , Master Mason of the Works , and Henry Semerk , one of the Wardens . " This was iu 1508 in Henry VII . ' s rei and the cost

, gn , of the roof was to be £ 1200 . Another indenture , in the archives of Caius College , dated the 16 th year of Edward IV . ( 1477 ) , recites that "John Wulrich" was "Maistr Mason of the Werkes of Kyng ' s College . " flie entire interior of the Chapel is a mass of

Gothic points and paneling , surmounted by airy and exquisite fan-like tracery . ELGIN CATHEDEAL , 174 miles north from Edinburgh , in Morayshire , once rivalled Melrose Abbey in the splendour of its Gothic architecture . Its present ruins attest

its symmetry , beauty , and massive character . Its length is 289 feet , trancepts 120 feet , and hei ght of the two western towers ( between which there is a magnificent doorway ) , 83 feet . Bishop Moray founded it in A . D . 1224 , on the site of an old church , and built it in the form of a assion cross . Its front is wp , l ] preserved

with two massive and lofty towers . The portal is ornamented with fluted pilasters , and above it there is a fine lancet arched window , 28 feet in height . In 1538 it had a central tower and spire , 198 feet high . This has since fallen . In 1565 the revenue of Elgin Cathedral was £ 1675 besides

pay-, ments in kind . In the Chapter house adjoining the Cathedral there is what is termed the " apprentice ' s aisle , " having been built , according to the legend frequently repeated with reference to similar structures

( notably in the case of Roslin Chapel ) , by an apprentice in the absence of his master , who , from envy of its excellence , murdered him on his return—which legend originated , in all probability , in the mysteries of the Lodges of travelling Freemasons , who in

the Middle Ages traversed Europe , warranted by Papal Bulls , and with ample privileges to train apprentices in the theory and practice of Masonry and architecture . In 1568 the lead that covered the roof of this Cathedral was stripped off by the Regent Mortonand shipped to Hollandto

, , raise money for the payment of his troops . Scarcely had the vesssel carrying it left the coast of Scotland , when it , together with the crew and cargo , went to the bottoman evidence , as then thought , of the judgment of Heaven upon those who were

instrumental in carrying away treasures despoiled from God ' s House . WALSINGHAM ABBEY , in Norfolkshire , 110 miles north-east from London , was founded in A . D . 1061 , by the widow ot Richoldis de Favarches , for Augustine Monies . Its shrine soon became the most

popular in England . Foreigners from all parts of the world made pilgrimnges to ii , guided , as they fancied , by the light of the milky way , which the monks of Walsingham persuaded the people was a miraculous indication of the route to their

monastry . Kings and queens were among these pilgrims , and singularly enough , Henry VIII ., in the second year of his reign , made a pilgrimage to it , walkingbarefoot from a distance of three miles , and presented a valuable necklace to the imagi !; and yet the same quondam

worshipper aud royal pilgrim , not many years after , directed the identical image of " Our Lady of Walsingham , " to be taken from its shrine and burnt . Roger Aschain .,