Masonic Notes And Queries.

wickshire , mention is made of the St . Alban's Lodge . It might be worth while to impure what has become of that Lodge . I . have a copy of the quarto edition of Anderson's Constitutions , revised , & c , by Northouck , and published in 1781 . It has been handsomely bound , and has an inscription on the outside , in g ilt letters , " Compliment to St . Alban's Lodge , Birmingham , of Dr . S . Freeman . P . G . S ., London , ' 178 R . "

ItEI- 'KHENCE TO AST ' -. ' . U . ' / . V Tl' .-U'T WANTED . Where can I be favoured with a perusal of an early tract , mentioned in one of Dr . Oliver's books , as published in 1 O 70 , aud entitled A . Short Analysis of the Uncbanyed Likes and Ceremonies of Frcemasoimi ?"—AV . P .

ANTIQUITIES 03- * YOliK . In the account g iven tinder this head of the Masonic Coffeehouse in York , it is stated that Mr . Blanchard had certain papers in his possession . In reference to this statement we may observe , that Godfrey Higgins's Anacalypsis , ( vol , i ., bk . x ., chap , viii ., sec . 1 , p . 70 S ) , the following passage occurs : — "The documents from which I extracted the above information respecting the York

Masons were given to me b y —Blanchard , Esq ., and transferred by me to the person who now possesses them , and with whom they ought most properly to be placed —his royal highness tlie Duke of Sussex , " —[ Query : In whose custody are they now ?] In the same article , mention is made of a Lodge being hclcl in the crypt of York Minster . The meeting referred to is mentioned by Higgins as having taken place on "the 27 th of May , 1778 , and was the last meeting in the crypt of the Druidical Lodge , or Chapter of lloyal Arch Masons , or Templar Encampment . — SENEX .

WAS TIIE DUKE OF WELLINGTON A FREEMASON ? Among the numerous appointments , titles , and orders of the great Duke of AYellington , can you tell me if he at any time belonged to our fraternity?—IN-QUIBER . —[ In the Freemasons ' Calendar , printed under the sanction of the Grand Lodge of Dublin , for the years 1818 to 1850 , there appears in each volume a- portion headed "Traditional and Recorded Information

respecting the Order of Freemasons ; " but this was omitted in the publication for 1 S 57 , and whether it has been so since we cannot say , not having the books to refer to . In all the years above mentioned , from 1848 to 1850 , the following- statement is made : — " 1790 . The Duke of Kent initiated ; and , December 7 th , the Duke of Wellington initiated in No . 401 , at Trim , of which Lodge his grace ' s father the Earl of Morning-ton and his brother the

Marquis Wcllesley hacl been Masters . " A well informed brother , whom we hold in great respect , has stated to us that lie remembers a characteristic letter from the Duke appearing in some newspaper or periodical , in which his grace denied all knowledge of the Craft , or having at any time been made a Mason . Feeling anxious to oblige "Inquirer , " wc have put his query to all whom ive supposed likely to throw any liht on the subject of its authenticitybut

g , without avail ; nor can wc trace No . 191 among the Irish Lodges , or even find that there was a Lodge existing at any time afc Trim . Perhaps some of our Irish brethren maybe able to set this matter ri ght , by proving to us the correctness or incorrectness of the authority quoted . —Eo . ]

INTRODUCTION OE . MASONRY INTO ENGLAND AND I 11 ELAN 1 ) . Both in and out of the Craft the "Remarkable Occurrences in -Masonry , " ivhich is yearly perpetuated in our Calendar and . Pocket Booh , has met with much ridicule , on account of the gratuitous assumption of some ofthe statements put forth being , if not positively untrue , at least impossible of proof . But while the English Masons have modestly attributed to St . Alban , the protomartyr of

Britain , the honour of having "formed the first Grand Lodge , A-i ) . 287 , " it appears we are far more modern than our brethren of the sister kingdom . In perusing their portion of "The Traditional and Recorded History ofthe Irish Constitutions , selected from Ancient Authors , and from the Archives of the Grand Lodge , " printed year by year iu the Dublin Freemasons' Calendar , the first paragraph states , " . JI . 278 li . The Phoenicians are

supposed to have settled A . C . 1261 , in Ireland , and Masonry to have been introduced hy Heber and ilcremon , sons of ' Milcsius , succeeded byEochaid , styled the Ollamh Fodhla , or Learned Doctor , p ( A - c- 709 ) constituted triennial meetings at Tarah in Meath . Rut the constant warfare and aggressions of the Danes destroyed the ancient records and discouraged all sciences , though the eastern round towers and minarets which still exist testifthe

y labours of the era , corroborated by the opinions of Strabo , of ' ° US Siculus , and b y the Sanconiathon , referred to by Sir tnlham Betham , in his second volume of Elruria Celtica , assimilating the Masonic rites with the mysteries of jrfnothrace , and

with the Gobhan Saor , or free smith of Ireland , A . D . 300 , St . Albans obtained the first royal charter for "Assemblies or Huttes of Masons to beholden in England . ( Preston ' s Illustrations . ) A . I > . 872 , Alfred the Great promoted the Order , and the art much prospered . According to Bede , Alfred was initiated at the College in Mayo ; and the letter of Eric , a celebrated philosopher of Auxerre , to Charles the Bald , about the middle of tlie ninth

century , designated the Irish philosophers ' Servants of the ivise Solomon . '" How are the discrepancies of the dates between the English and Irish Calendars to be reconciled ?—G . B . —[ AA ' e are totall y unable to reconcile these statements with tbe generally received history of the times in question . The looseness ofthe Irish Calendar ' s account may be tested by tho following : —It is there asserted that Preston is the authority for the date A . D . 30 G ;

now Preston says , in speaking of St . Alban ( not St . Albans ) , "He was converted to the Christian faith , and , in the tenth and last persecution of the Christians , was beheaded , A . D . 303 . So also , Alban Butler ' s Lives of the Saints , where the 26 th of June is dedicated to his commemoration ; and the Rev . Dr . Giles's edition of Bede ' s Works . In the passage about Alfred's initiation at the College in Mayois another gross blunder . Bede could not have

, written about Alfred , as he ( Bede ) died 104 years before Alfred was born ! Bede was born A . D . G 73 , and died 735 . Alfred tbe Great was born A . D . 810 , and died ( 101 ! AVell may our correspondent allude to the ridicule brought on our Order through the historically false dates assigned to various events and jiersons , who we believe to have / been totally unconnected with our Craft . It is time such delusions were swent away . ]

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD " . MASON . " Your contemporaryjjilie Athenwnm , in one of the April number ? of the ]) resent year ( p . 578 ) , writes thus while reviewing- a work : —• " Wc remember a case iu -which the true etymology has been forgotten , and the subject , noble in itself , has suffered decrease oi dignity by this obliviousness . AVe allude to the alleged British derivation ofthe word 'Freemason . ' It is said that one of the

many titles of the Druids was May's Ons , or Men of May—the May-pole having been a standard or symbol of Drnidism—Freemasonry , as derived from Drnidism , has therefore forgotten its etymology ; indeed has forgotten its orig in itself , and vulgarized May's Ons into Masons , by which the prosaic fact and the poetical sentiment equally suffer . " The above , I dare say , is thought yery clever and original , but it appears to me very far fetched , and

unworthy ofthe least confidence . Can you inform me where the reviewer found such an authority , oris it truly an original idea?—IXVESTIGATOU . —[" Investigator" need hardly be told that the Masons do not derive their foundation from the Druids , nor litis Masonry forgotten itself . The writer in the Athencemn appears to have been reading Cleland ' s tivo essays , The Way lo Things hy Wordsand The , Heal Secret of the FreemasonsSvo ., London , 1700 '

, , —a work which advocates a Celtic derivation for most words , and among others will be found the term "Mason" with the above etymology , and reasons in support of its correctness . See a very much more intelligible and probable derivation in the Freemasons ' Mii'iadne ( vol . vi . p . , ' 3351 .

A NOTE lU-lOLTNE !) . Our correspondent " Civis , " who sends us a note for insertion , seems to have misunderstood our explanation in a late number , AVe deal only ivith historical , antiquarian , literary , and biograp hical matters . Personalities are not included ; particularly when they would lead to wounding the feelings of a brother . For this reason , the note forwarded by " Civis , " cannot be inserted . —Eo .

EXTINCTION- OP A LE . UI . VI'I ) BOD V . —A meeting had been fixed to take place at Valines this summer , of the learned in the national lore oi all the remaining branches of the Celtic family in Great Britain , Ireland , and France , nuclei- the auspices of the Archaeological Association oi Brittany , of which the Yieointo de Villemarque was the distinguished president . Various schemes of hospitality , research . , and consultation ivere founded ou this arrangement , and it was anticipated that the conmight have thrown additional liht ethnologyhistory

gress some gon , , and language . ' ¦ ' But all these amenities have been annihilated by a blow . The Minister of the Interior has been led to perceive the inconsistency of such proceedings with a certain law against associations in general , which law was made in 18-52 , shortly .-ifter the coup d ' etat . The peaceful Bretons , who loved arehaiology , and meddled not in polities , found one morning iu their family newspapers a brief cirri ! , declaring , ill magisterial language , that the association was dissolved . " This

society , which was founded sixteen years ago , under tho patronage of Louis Philippe , contained two sections , one of agriculture , and the other of archaeology , and during its existence several valuable ivories have been contributed by its members ,