Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

EARS OF WHEAT FROM A CORNUCOPIA .

LONDON , SATURDAY , JUNE 15 , 1 S 67 .

By Bro . D . MURRAY LVON , A . M ., Masonic University of Kentucky , U . S . ; Corresponding Member of tiie Union of German Freemasons , Leipsic ,- one ofthe Grand Stewards ¦ in the Grand , Lodge of Scotland ; author of the " History of Mother Kihoinninq , § 'c .

RECEPTION OP LODGE VISITORS . In the MS . records of those three century-old sections of the fraternity of operative Masons to whose archives we have enjoyed the privilege of access , we have never yet found the slightest

trace of the appearance in Masonic courts of " visiting brethren / ' or the existence of any law on the subject of their admission ; neither can we , in Scotland , point to any realty ancient regulation anent the rights of visitors in lodges of speculative

Freemasons , or the mode of their reception . The wretched condition in which the public roads were kept , and the dangers incidental to travelling , at and long after the institution of the present Grand Lodge , must have operated to render the

visitation of lodges by transient brethren a thing of rare occurrence , except in the case of the Edinburgh lodges , whose favourable position in this respect was clue to the custom , more universally

observed then than now , of country gentlemen resorting to the Scottish metropolis to spend the winter months of each year in a circle of society larger and more varied and attractive than could possibly be met with in the provinces . In the

early years of the Craft in its present phase of existence its courts were thronged with gentlemen Masons , principally men of independent means , to whom and the few commercial gentlemen then connected with the Fraternity , the practice of

visiting sister lodges was very much , if not almost entirely , confined . In the district from which we write , the improvement which about the middle of the last century began to develope itself in roadmaking-, as well as in the means of transit by

public or private conveyance , led also to a corresponding development of the fraternal feeling prompting to the interchange of visits between lodges and individual brethren separated by longdistances from each other . In the times of which

we speak , and up to a comparatively recent period , troops passing to or from Ireland took Ayrshire in their route , and these contributed largely to the number of visiting brethren borne upon the ederunt books of many of the old west country lodges .

Deputations from sister lodges , and non-representative or visiting brethren , would seem when the custom of paying Masonic visits was yet young to have made it a point to repair to the lodge intended to be visited , at the hour at which the

members were appointed to convene , and with them to take part in the opening ceremonial . If there was little formality in the reception of visitors , there was , on the part of the lodge visited , as little reserve shewn in the transaction

of business in the presence of visitants , who generally remained during refreshment , and with its members participated in the privilege of drinking punch and taking snuff at the lodge ' s expense ; although , on occasions of their being

visited by a brother of quality , the brethren were not averse to accept a treat at the hand of their guest . By and by visitors were treated to a more ceremonious reception , and greater vigilance was displayed in fencing the lodge against the intrusion

of unworthy brethren;—and , as bearing upon this , we shall quote a by-law which we find to have been framed in 1799 : "That there shall no visiting brethren be admitted into the lodge before the Tyler apprises the lodge , and the lodge

be in good order to receive them . No admittance for any stranger brethren unknown , until such time as they give a proper account what they are and what lodge they belong to , and be carefully examined by the Past Master and whoever he shall choose to assist him . " Under this

regulation , visitors were wont to be admitted immediately on the opening of the lodge and before labour of any kind was entered upon—their entrance being greeted by . the strains of the Masonic march played by the lodge fiddler , aided by a whistling

accompaniment by the members , who also kept time with hand and foot until the strangers were seated;—and in recording the visits of such brethren , Secretaries are found ringing the changes thus : Brother so and so entered into the lodge as

a visiting brother ; another appeared in the lodge as a visiting- brother ; a third honoured the lodge with his presence , & c . So highly esteemed were duch visits , that some lodges , with a prodigal distribution of honorary membership to visitors ,

placed their own sons in a minority as compared with the number of those whose onl y recommendation for appointment to the distinction referred to lay in their having once sat in the lodge . With this excessive regard for , ancl encouragement of , the company of visitors came a change