Master Masons : Edward Strong, &C.

MASTER MASONS : EDWARD STRONG , & c .

LONDOX , SATURDAY , OCTOBER 8 , 1861 .

My father possessed , aud -was proud of possessing , a copy of Small ' s " Treatise on Ploughs , " carrying on its title-page , in a rough , free , manl y hand , these memorable words , " Eobert Burns , Poet . " The book is noAV mine , and by its side stands a companion volume , precious in my eyes

, of "Poems , chiefly in the Scottish Dialect . By Eobert Burns ; " on the title page of which is written "Allan Cunningham , Mason , 6 th April , 1804 . " My father was then in his tAventy-first year . The ivriting is the handwriting of each . "Burns had an unmistakeable ri ght so to

describe himself , " my father once observed to me , on my calling his attention to the contrast in the descriptions . "There is no apprenticeship to poetry . I was apprenticed to a mason—to my brother James—and I am sure I am a mason , ay ,

a master-mason , and a good one : —when I was last in Edinburgh I could trace the marks of my chisel on many a stone in Charlotte-square . Yes , " he added , after a pause , and Avith an air of pride , " and the stones were well and truly wrought . " * Masons have been architects , and occasionall y

good ones ( the York water-gate , on the Thames , has recentl y been taken from Inigo Jones , architect , and g iven to Nicholas Stone , mason ); but there is no instance , I believe , of an architect proper having ever been a mason proper . In the church of St . Peterin the disfranchised

, borough of St . Alban ' s , is a large well-wrought monument of marble ( and good marble , too ) carrying beneath a life-sized bust of the deceased ( scul ptor unknown ) this suggestive inscri ption : — " Near to this stone are deposited the Eemains of EDWAED STRONG ,

Citizen and Mason , of London , whose masterly Abilities and Skill in his Profession the many public structures he was employed in raising will most justly ¦ manifest to Posterity . In erecting the edifice of ST . PAUL ' S several years of his life were spent , even from its foundation , to his laying the last stone .

And herein , equally with its ingenious Architect , SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN , and its truly pious Diocesan , BISHOP COMMON , he shared the felicity of seeing both the beginning and finishing of that stupendous Pabric .

In piety to his GOD , in justice , fidelity , kindness , and charity to his neighbour ; In temperance , humility , contempt of the world , and the due government of all his appetites and passions ; In conjugal and paternal affection , in every relation , every action , and scene of life , He -was Avhat the best man , the best Christian , would desire to be at the hour of Death .

He died the Sth of February , MDCOXXIIL , In the 72 nd year of his Age . Near Him liefch MAAITIIA , 49 years his most beloved Wife : A Wife in all respects worthy of such an Husband .

She Died Y 15 th of June , 1725 , aged 72 years . Their only Daughter , Elizabeth New , of Newbarns , Widow , Died 26 fck October , 1747 , aged 71 years , " The bust seems a fine one . I say seems ; for ,

shame to say , the monument is now buried beneath a cumbrous west end gallery at a distance of some ' five-and-tAvent y feet from the spectator ; so that ' the chin , mouth , and nostrils of Sir Christopher Wren ' s Master Mason at St . Paul ' s "from its foundation to his laying the last stone , " are alone seen .

I had the pleasure of seeing ( half-seeing , rather ) this fine monument in company Avith a skilled Master Mason—an old Pimlico acquaintance of mine from boyhood—Mr . Samuel Cundy . Need I tell you hoAv much we joined in a mutual regret that a monument in every Avay so interesting should : '

be thus buried ? A small sum , he said , would cover the cost of moving it to a better site in the church , and it would then be once more a monument to be seen and admired . Perhaps the Builder , for so good a purpose , Avould undertake to receive subscri ptions from one and all towards so good an

end . I will vouch for obtaining tbe consent of the Avorthy vicar , the Eev . H . N . Dudding ; and to . see that men of skill and care ( I was almost born in Ohantrey ' s marble-yard ) remove it with reverence to a proper site . There are masons , I may here observe , busy in replacin g the compo-covered .

Perpendicular tracery of the south-west windows of the church Avith well-wrought stone ; so that , skilled men are at hand to effect what is necessary .-Nor do I doubt of seeing it soon and well done , with your all-influential assistance , Mr . Builder . The fate of monuments erected to English

architects has been a little unfortunate . The monument to Inigo Jones , in the church of St . Benet , Paul ' s Wharf , was destroyed in the Great Eire , andthe tombstone of Nicholas Hawksmoor ( Wren ' s celebrated pupil ) is to be seen in the churchyard of Shenley , shamefully broken in the middle , and its inscription scarcely legible .

The sister art of Sculpture , whatever she may have done or overdone in aid of architecture , has done little for architects . Wren has a cheap " circumspice" in St . Paul ' s ; Vanbrugh lies in the vaults of St . Stephen ' s , Walbrook , Avithout a monument ; Gibbs reposes not in his own fine

church of St . Martin ' s , but in the little brickbuilt church of old Marylebone , with a stonecutter ' s slab to record the circumstance . Kent and Lord Burlington sleep together in Chiswick Church , each without a monument ; Sir William Chambers has a blue leger in the south transept of West-