Masonic Notes And Queries.

llth century ? It is to this MS . poem that the writer of the article impugned refers , and from which he quotes , the author of which was a monk or priest , and who refers to earlier MSS . which he had himself then seen . Dr . Oliver thought so highly of that old poem , that he contends we have in it the substance of the rules and regulations framed at the York

Assembly . Has " Pictus" not seen the ancient prose MSS . History of Freemasonry , edited by Bro . Matthew Cooke , among the Additional MSS ., British Museum , and of date the latter part of the loth century , to which the writer also refers ? -There requires no

authority from anyone to prove both the genuineness and antiquity of these MSS . ¦ they are open to all students , and have as yet never been questioned . The writer of that article on the West Yorkshire Prov . Grand Lodge Meeting , whoever he be , was then , undoubtedly , correct in stating that our

Masonic tradition dates to the end of the 14 th century , or 500 years back . But this brings us to the greater question , what is the connexion between operative and speculative Freemasonry , ancl which , with your kind permission , I will defer to next week , simply premising that I have never changed the opinion long

ago expressed , not only that Freemasonry is very ancient , but that-iis true history is to be sought in the operative guilds of mediaeval and earlier times . —A MASOSIC STUDENT .

Correspondence.

CORRESPONDENCE .

¦ The Editor is not responsible for the opinions expressed by Correspondents . RAIDS UPOJV MOTHER KILWINNING , OE RAIDS BY MOTHER KILWINNING ?

TO THE EDITOB OP THE MEEJIASOXS' MAGAZINE ASH MASONIC irilHtOK . Dear Sir and Brother , —Our esteemed brother , D . Murray Lyon , at page 201 , says , — " If we except the periodical boastings on behalf of a lodge whose claims for precedence over all other Scotch lodges were based upon the alleged genuineness of a document which one of our most accomplished antiquarians ( Cosmo

Innes ) has unhesitatingly declared to be a forgery , * the Lodge of Kilwinning has for 60 years been in unchallenged possession of the first place on the roll ef daughter lodges under the Scotch constitution . " ! Very good so far , only we hope by and bye to be able to show that the pretensions by which " Mother

Kilwinning " has secured that position are false , ancl that Mary ' s Chapel was rather foolish to allow the Lodge of Kilwinning to get above her ( unless , indeed , might was stronger than right ) , and that " Mother Kilwinning , ' , instead of really being , as it gives out , the Mother of Masonrv in Scotlandis simpl

-, y , pos sibly a daughter of the Lodge of Glasgow ; or , if the Kilwinning Lodge be the daughter of the " fraternity " which built Kilwinning Abbey , about the beginning of the 13 th century , + then that Kilwinning

fraternity was probably—as may yet be proved—a branch from the fraternity employed ( constituit ) by Bishop Joceline in 1190 to build his new stone cathedral , the old one having been lately burned down , being probably of wood , as many of the early ecclesiastical structures were . The Abbot of Kilwinning was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Glasgow

, Kilwinning being in his diocese . Another point is that the Monastery of Kilwinning was only an offshoot from the parent Tironensian Monastery of Kelso , and the noble ruins of Kelso Abbey , * still extant ( built about A . D . 1200 ) , bespeak an older date than those of Kilwinning Abbey . Does it not seem strangethen ,

, how so little is said about Kelso being the grandmother of Masonry in Scotland ? I am afraid that Bro . A . Laurie , in his History of Freemasonry ( 1804 ) , has had an unfairly warm side to Kilwinning ; and , while he stoutly knocks down the York legend , he as firmly holds on by the equally ( in some respects

more ) absurd Kilwinning one . Further on this point , see Magazine for June 20 , 1868 , second column of page 491 . In same Magazine , page 490 , I state that the Malcolm the Third and David the First writs are

"two brothers well matched , both being equally pure impositions ; and since then more light has only further proved the correctness of said assertion . I have now therefore to make another statement , and assert that the York legend aud the Kilwinning legend are another pair of " brothers well matched , " both being equally absurd and contrary to the real

history of their several countries , as a little more time and research will still more clearly prove . In the Magazine for November 7 , 1 S 6 S , page 366 , I referred to the manifest absurdity of the Kilwinning legend , and of it being " allowed that there is great probability in Bro . Laurie ' s surmise that the English

brethren owe their knowledge of the Craft to emissaries from Kilwinning—which drew the following remark from our learned brother " R . Y ., " page 3 S 9 , November 14 , 1 S 6 S : — " Bro . Buchan has got hold of another scandal to Masonic history—the fables about Mother Kilwinning—and he is sure to handle it with accustomed straightforwardness . The invention is

very modern . It will , perhaps , be found to come from France in the last century . " I have delayed following this matter up , as I was expecting to see Bro . Lyon ' s History of Kilwinning , which , however , I understand , is not now to be published until next Christinas . I intend to refer to the Glasgow and Kilwinning building fraternities again ; meanwhileI

, wish to refer to the conduct of " Mother Kilwinning' ' since she joined the Grand Lodge , assisting at its formation in 1736 . When the Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed in 1736 by a number of the Scottish lodges , the Lodge of Kilwinning was also there as a consenting

party , and duly received the position on the roll of No . 2 , Mary ' s Chapel being No . 1 . At this time Bro . A . Laurie tells us , page 150 of his " History of Freemasonry" ( 1804 ) , that , — "The Grand Lodge having ordained that a fee should be exacted from every person who was initiated into the Order since the institution of the Grand Lodge , or who might