The Masons' Square In Gloucester Cathedral.

But Ibis is the common Freemason ' s legend , which ' M . y . Billings speaks of in his architectural account of Rosslyn Chapel , Scotland , adjoining Hawthornden , the seat of the Sinelairs , hereditary heads of Freemasonry in Scotland . When I was there two corbels were pointed out to ire on either side the west end of

the chapel ou the inside , one representing an old man ' s head , the other that of a young man , which had a red streak across the brow . In Lincoln Cathedral there is also something similar , hut I don't remember what it is like , for it is many years since I was at that Grand old Minster . I shall be lad of information on

g this point . These doggrel rhymes are current respecting the Gloucester bracket , thus"John Gower , ' Built Gloster College , Campden steeple , and C . cester tower , But what vexed him rig-lit sore ,

He never lived to hnild one more . " Some readings give Bower . Both these names are to be met with in this county . Bauer , n . s ., in German , signifies a builder ; bauen , v ., to build . There was an architect in the Abbey [ the present cathedral ] , and he was one of the thirteen chief officers of the monastery

, and a professed monk . His title was Magisier Opcris . This bracket had nothing to do with him , I should think , for neither of the figures are shaven monies . Otherwise , one might refer to Seabroke , who began , and the other to Tulley , who finished the tower , as commemorated in this monkish distich : —

' Hoc quod digestum specularis onasqnc politum , " Tuliij hec ex onare Seabrol ; e abhate iuhente . " which , hy the bye , I have never as yet seen satisfactorily translated . Query , does the second word of the second line , which decidedly reads "hec , " do duty for hie or hajc ?

I think the bracket was probably due to the piety of the principal Mason employed , or the builder who took the contract , and gave money to maintain a lamp and to secure masses for his soiil . The earliest representation of this bracket , that I know of , appears in Carter ' s Etchings in 1785 : size

ofprint 7-J-by Gi inches . A second appears iu Britten's Gloucester Cathedral , pi . ix . A third in John Murray ' s Handbook . Gloucester was an Abbey of Benedictines . Cirencester an Abbey of Augustine Monks .

| Chipping Campden to the Nuns of St . Wei-burg , Chester . A ] three separate and distinct societies , so that it is doubtful if John Gower built them all , unless he was the Gilbert Scott ofthe day . The upper part of Gloucester Tower was built in the middle ot the fifteenth century ; Seabroke was abbot from 1450 to 1457 . Though the other two towers named are in

the perpendicular style , yet there is nothing to show that they were coteinporaneous ; there are no records of these other two as to when they were built . In Bigland and Fosbrooke ' s City of Gloucester , folio editiou , page 127 , and quarto edition , page 254 , is an attempt to explain the meaning of this design , referring the reader to Carter , and to a publication by the Anti quarian Society . It is there entitled " Gower ' s Monument . "

Now , as we are on the subject of Masonry and Freemasonry , I would call tbe attention of the curious to the Mason ' s marks in the Cathedral ; they are parti-

The Masons' Square In Gloucester Cathedral.

cularly to be observed on the massive Norman pillars of the nave . The same marks are repeated several times . I have not been able to discover any of these marks on work later than that ofthe Norman period . For my part I think they are nothing more than the marks of ordinary Masons , as nowadays , that each man ma } ' be able to recognise and point out his own

handiwork . Some gentlemen of the Craft , I know , think otherwise . One mark is a large , and decided , capital A of medieval form , which would be a case perhaps in point , unless it be intended for the initial of the word Adonal ( in Hebrew the Lord ) , used as a charm against the Evil _ 3 ye .

There was discovered near St . Mary de Crypt by the late Mr . Addison , and carefully preserved by him , being inserted against the wall of his house , a representation of " the Great Architect of the Universe ' under the guise of an old man with a fine flowing beard , and holding a large pair of compasses in his hand . J . D . T . NIBIETT .

Tuffley , 29 th December 1869 . ( SECOND NOTICE . ) Dear Sir , —I bave waited a week in hopes of eliciting an erudite reply . In default thereof I will add a few more particulars . The M . M ., who is represented as

an old man with an ample bifurcated beard , rests his right band upon his right knee , whiles he raises his left hand , vertically from the elbow , to the side of his head . He wears a large pouch or bag of a singular shape , very like the water bouget in heraldry , hanging down in front of himwhilst some implement

, ( one end of it broken off ) is thrust across the top of it . The Apprentice is youthful and beardless . Both wear long Jrocks down to their heels , instead of the usual short Mason ' s frock of the present time . I have again examined the flat surface of the bracket above , and am still of opinion that the image of some

saint stood upon it , possibly that of St . Reynold , the patron saint of the stonemasons , Mr . Billings suggests that at Rosslyn some arch wag of the neighbourhood has produced the effect of a gash across the forehead of the Apprentice by a cunniog touch of red . challc . The Apprentice ' s Pillar is specially pointed outand readily distinguished from all the othersby

, , its spiral wreaths of foliage . The style of this Chapel is that of the fourteenth century , and is truly Gothic run mad , so elaborate and profuse is the carving of foliage in every part . May not a slight alteration he suggested in one of the rhymes—thus : " Gloster College ! builded John

Gower , " & c , This patronymic is Welsh ; so he was doubtless one of the neighbouring Flemings of that _ and . I here once again subjoin a corrected version ofthe monkish distich ,

thus" Hoc qucd digestum specularis opnsipic politum . " " Tuliij hec ex onerc Seabroke abhats juhente . " The second word in the second line is the particular crux . This monkish orthography of " hec " still remains unexplained . Mason ' s Harks . —I will here quote some remarks of a distinguished French antiquary , Mons . de Caumont , in his Al phabet of Archeology : Caen : 1867 , p . 143 , hoping it may meet the eyes of Mons . Thomas ;