Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

EARS OF WHEAT FROM A CORNUCOPIA .

LONDON , SATURDAY , AUGUST 22 , 1863 .

By Bro . D . MCTRKAY LYOS , A . M ., Masonio University of ' Kentucky , U . S . ; Corresponding Member of the Union of German Freemasons , Leipsic ; one of the Grand Stewards in the Grand Lodge of Scotland ; P . G . S . W . of Ayrshire ; author of the "History of Mother Kihvining , " See .

( Continued from page 23 . ) KING EGBERT BRUCE , " S COTCH MASONRY , " THE LODGE OP "KILWINNING . In an article entitled " History of the Ancient and Accepted Rite , by a Sublime Prince of the

Royal Secret , " which appeared in the Magazine of February 1 , 1857 , there occurs the following passage : — " Many professors of the high degrees designate it ( the A . & A . Rite ) as ' The Scotch Rite / This is not to be wondered at , when we

consider that its principal and original governing degree was derived from the Scottish ' National Order of H . R . D . M . of Kilwinning / founded by Robert Bruce , on St . John ' s day , in June , A . D . 1314 , after the battle of Bannockburn . " Dr .

Oliver says : " The Order of H . R . M . had formerly its chief seat at Kilwinning ; and there is reason to suppose that it and St . John's Masonry were governed by the same Grand Lodge . " While in our Notes on Mother Kilwinning ,

some five or sis years ago , giving the substance of the foregoing quotations—the information contained in the first extract being in all probability derived from the writings of Thory or some other foreign authority , —we at the same time stated that having made a minute inspection of the Masonic records at Kilwinning , we , as was fully

expected , failed m obtaining the slightest trace of the Lodge of Kilwinning ' s reported connection with ANT of the so-called high degrees . It was with a similar result that in 1843 , through the medium of the late Dr . Arnot ( an enthusiastic

admirer of the high degrees ) , the resuscitators of Royal Order at Edinburgh instituted a searching inquiry upon the following points : " ( 1 ) Whether there be any traditions , or documents , tending to show that Robert Bruce had patronised

Masonry , and sat as Grand Master . ( 2 ) Whether there be still preserved at Kilwinning any traces , traditionary or otherwise , of the Royal Order of Eobert Bruce , of which the first step or degree is called H . R . D . M ., of Kilwinning . " It was afterwards thought that although the Order was not now known at Kilwinning by name , traces of it might

be detected in some of the degrees—as Mark and Past—practised by the Mother Lodge ; but this test could not be applied , because the speculative degrees mentioned had never been worked in Kilwinning .

We know not , therefore , upon what grounds Robert Bruce and the Royal Order of Scotland are associated with the Lodge of Kilwinning ; and , in the absence of any tradition worthy of the name , local or national , or of authentic documents ,

corroborative of the legend pointing to Kilwinning as the source whence has sprung the Order from which foreigners have spun out the degrees

of what they call " SCOTCH Masonry / ' we must continue to disbelieve the statement . Laurie , it is true , gives , in the last edition of his " History of Freemasonry , " some degree of credence to the ¦ legend in question . His belief on this and kindred

points is , however , based on the assumed " certainty" that Mother Kilwinning ' *' possessed in former times other degrees of Masonry than those of St . John / ' But , seeing that the fraternity of Kilwinning never at any period practised or

acknowledged other than Craft degrees , and have not preserved even the shadow of a tradition that can in . the remotest degree be held to identify Robert Bruce with the holding- of Masonic courts

or the institution of a secret Order at Kilwinning , the paternity of the " H . R . D . M . " must be attributed to another than the hero of Bannockburn , and a birth-place must be sought for it in a soil more favourable to the growth of the high grades

than Scotland has hitherto proved . Another obstacle to its recognition as an ancient Order of native origin is the fact that Herodein de Kilwinning does not appear to have been known in Scotland at the date of tho erection of

the Grand Lodge of that country , or for twenty years after that event . It is alleged that about the year 1750 certain English records of the Royal Order found their way to the Grand Lodge of the system at Edinburgh . But that such a body

existed in the Scottish metropolis at the date mentioned is highly improbable ; for , speaking through the recently discovered letter of Bro . Manningham embraced in Bro . Findel ' s most interesting communication to last week ' s Magazine ,

Lord Aberdour , a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland , expresses himself in 1757 aa being " utterly unacquainted" with what was then on the continent denominated " Scotch Masonry . "