Masons Of England And Their Works.

annum . * At Wigtoft , in Lincolnshire , 14 S 5-99 , twelvepence "earnest money , " was given to a workman on condition that "he shall take no other work till we ( the churchwardens ) have done , without our leaves and consents . " As the contract , dated 14 SS , between the Prior of

Durham and . John Bell , mason , but endorsed "latimi " is a good example of such a document , I copy the principal portion without curtailment . It declares that " he is retained and sworn to serve the said prior and chapter and other successors well and truly in his science of masonry during his life ; he shall be special

mason to the said prior and chapter and their successors , and all their works of masonry with imagery and other , new and old ; and to the good speed performing and ending of the said work shall give his due labour and diligence , in his power , with his counsel , help and bodily labour , and so far as pertaineth to his

craft , and after the wit and cunning given to him of Almighty God , without any fraud , deceit or male ingine , to be ministered and given faithfully as oft as he shall be required thereto ; also he shall conceal the secrets and counsel of the said prior ;• ¦ --from his occupation in due time he shall not depart without their

special license ; and one young man their apprentice , to be hired for the term of ten years in the mason craft , one after another , during his life , well and truly ( he ) shall teach and inform , to his cunning and power

without any fraud , & c . ; also he shall be obedient and buxom to the aforesaid prior , & c , in all manner of things lawful and honest;—for the which service , well and truly to be done and performed in form afore rehearsed , the said John shall receive—yearly during all the term of life that he may bodily perform all

these premises for great age or sickness , ten marcs ( £ 613 s . Aid . ) at four times of the year , and every year at the Feast of St . Martin in winter , 10 s . in money for his marte , to be paid by the sacristan ; and yearly , one garment competent to his degree , and one house ferine free to inhabit during his lifein the which

, house lived Thomas Barton , mason ; also shall have one apprentice of his own for a term of ten years in the aforesaid mason craft , one after another during his life , to work and labour in the work of masonry of the said prior , & c , for the which apprentice he shall receive of the sacristan , —every year of the three first

years of his prentice head , 4 marcs ( £ 2 13 s . M . ) and every year of the three next , 6 marcs ( £ 4 . ) and the ten and last year , 7 marcs ( £ 4 13 s . M . ) , at eight times of the year by equal portions ;—and when it shall happen that the said John have continual infirmities or great ageso that he may not work or labournor

, , exercise his craft and cunning , he shall then be content with 4 marcs yearly , to be paid at eight times of the year by the sacristan . In witness hereof , " & c . This is dated 1 st April , 14 SS .

British Architects.

BRITISH ARCHITECTS .

NEW 3 IAT . EKIALS JOB , IITEIS IfVSS . I propose to supply at such intervals as your space , Mr . Editor , and duty to your readers , will allow me , memoranda of moment , hitherto unknown , or not easily accessible , relating to tho lives and works of sonic of tho greatest men of our English school of architecture , lu what I send yon 1 will now and then correct received

, accounts and accepted statements , supplying materials that will prove welcome ; I make little doubt , to architect and builder , contractor and paymaster , master mason and snaster carpenter ; to clerks of works , district surveyors , working men , skilled apprentices , aud tho general reader . For what I send you , I shall give chapter and verse , saying- what I have to say in as few words as I can well use .

In Hertfordshire , that " peculiar" of lord high chancellors , and within a ring-fence | of the mitred Abbey of St . Alban , two of Sir Christopher Wren's assistants are buried—his most celebrated pupil , aud bis master mason at St . Paul ' s , from tho first stone to the very last . Members of the Institute of British Architects , and holders of Soane and Institute medals , need hardly be told that I refer to Nicholas Hawksmoor . architectof

Shenley , in Herts , Esq ., and to Edward Strong , mason , of New Barnes , in St . Albans , Herts . During a year ' s residence in St . Alban ' s , the disfranchised borough of the corrupt Lord Bacon , I have made more than ono pleasant pilgrimage to the graves of Hawksmoor and Strong , —a pilgrimage , as my readers will see , not unmixed with pain ; for the inhabitants of

Hertfordshire would seem to care littlo or nothing about Wren's assistants or Wren himself . This Nicholas Hawksmoor with whom we have first to do was born—so received authorities aver—in the year 1667 , and died March 25 , 1736 , " aged near seventy . " This is incorrect . The aged architect of St . Mary Woolnoth , in London ; of the church on tho Thames banks , at

Limebouso ; and of the towers at All Souls , at Oxford , died , so his gravestone informs us , at the age of seventyfive , and in the year , I think , 1736 ; I say I think ; for on a recent pilgrimage to his grave , in the churchyard of Shenley , in Hertfordshire , I found the figure " 6 " aud the month of the year illegible ; with little more to be gathered from the stone that protects the body of the " poor inhabitant below" than the forlorn hie jacat of Wordsworth , and the words : —

NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR , Armr . AECinTECTUS Obijt vicesimo quinto die Anno Domini 173 ., iEtatis 75 . Worse still , I find the 5-inch thick ledger which covers his remains broken in two , —wantonly broken , I suspect ,

during- the recent reparations of the church . Wren ' s celebrated pupil , and Benson ' s predecessor , lies buried close to the chancel window of Shonlcy Church , under a splendid yew of tho Plantagcnct and Eobin Hood period . The grave of a man so eminent in his art , calls for protection and restoration . May I ask your aid , Mr . Editor , and tho aid of your readersin accomplishing so

reveren-, tial a piece of work . Tho grave of Edward Strong , master-mason to Sir Christopher Wren , and to St . Paul's Cathedral , is within the church of St- Peter , in St . Albans . The place of Strong's interment is msrkecl , wo arc led to auppose , by a blue leger-stono , partly visible , and only in part legible , and by a mural monument of white marble , excellently

wrought , but concealed by the orgau-galloy , under which it was most improperly buried when the chancel was shortened by a thoughtless vicar and two penurious churchwardens . Wren's master-mason lived at New Barnes , on the banks of tho Yer , and died 8 th February , 1723 , in the seventy-second year of his age . His widow died two years later , on the loth June , 1725 , and . at tho same age , —seventy-two . New Barnes , a very pretty