Notes And Queries.

NOTES AND QUERIES .

TO THE EDITOR OP THE FREEMASONS MONTHLY MAGAZINE . Sir , —I think that some Freemasons may not have fallen in with the following advertisement , reprinted by Mr . James H . Fennell , in " The Antiquary : "" THE Brethren of the Shears and Shopboard are hereby informed , that their whimsical Kinsmen of the Hod and Trowel , having ( on new Light received from some worthy Rosicrucians ) thought fit to change both their Patron and Day , and wnex pectedly taken up our usual place of Meeting ; the Worshipful Society of Free and Accepted Taylors are desired to meet on Monday next , the 27 th Instant , at the Folly

on the Thames , in Order to chuse a Grand Master , and other Officers , and to Dine . " You are desired to come Cloathed , and Armed with Bodkin and Thimble . — Dec . 24 , 1725 . " Can any of your readers give another old and interesting advertisement similar to this ? "E . W . J . " Sie , —St . Nicholas " Cole-Abbey / ' more properly " Cole-Bay , " was distinguished by this affix from St . Nicholas Olave , to which parish it is attached . Both churches are dedicated to St . Nicholas , Bishop of Nicea , who died A . D . 843 .

The church of St . Nicholas Cole Abbey was very ancient in 1377 . Both churches were burnt in the Fire of London , 1666 , and St . Nicholas Cole Abbey was rebuilt in 1677 . It is situated on the south side of Old Fish Street , in the ward of Queenhithe , and extends on the east side of Little Distaff Lane . In 1732 , the parish contained fifty-six houses besides the parsonage , according to the account of Mr . Daniel Yelless , clerk of the united parishes at that time . " Well-Wisheb . "

Sir , —In reply to a querist in your excellent number for June , relative to coaches , I beg to state that Taylor , the water-poet , has fixed the period of their introduction by the following quaint notice in his works ( 1630 , p . 240 ) . He says : " In the year 1564 , one William Boonen , a Dutchman , brought first the use of coaches hither , and the said Boonen was Queene Elizabeth ' s coachman ; for , indeede , a coach was a strange monster in those days , and the sight of it put both

horse and man into amazement : some said it was a great crab-shell brought out of China , and some imagined it to be one of the Pagan temples in which the cannibals adored the divell ; but at last those doubts were cleared , and coach-making became a substantial trade . " The caroch was a species of coach , differing rather in size than form , as our modern brougham does from the vehicle styled a clarence . " Nepos . "

Sir , —Your correspondent Masteos asks if the Orator is still retained in our Lodges ? In some the name is borne on the books , but no active official corresponding to it seems to be appointed ; this to our loss . One cannot turn to any of the old accounts of Masonry without seeing that the Orator occupied a very influentially beneficial part in a Lodge , as the educated spokesman and expositor of Craft principles to the initiated , or to the world externally on public occasions . But with the usual slovenly inattention to the early and purer spirit of Masonry

characteristic of our degenerate day , the Orator has , like the chaplain at a corporation , been voted a bore , or degenerated into a funnel and grown obsolete . I , like a host of other earnest Masons , hail most warmly the decided and ringing tone which your Magazine has recently taken , in drawing attention to points vitally important in resuscitating the languid intellect of the Order , and sincerely trust that the Orator , who might really be considered the " schoolmaster " of the Lodge , will no longer be " abroad , " but reassume his place at the right hand of the W . M . of every lodge , which he occupies in some old engravings of Masonic ceremonial I have in my possession .

In answer to your correspondent , I may say that the office ceased when winebibbing came in and thoughtful mindedness went out of our Lodges . The Craft must restore it , for it is vain to hope for energetic improvement from the Grand Lodge , I suppose . " Decision . "