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THE MASONIC REVIEW , THE LEADING JOURNAL OF Masonic and Social Events for Freemasons ,

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Eminent Masons At Home.

Eminent Masons at Home .

No . ii . —MR . THOMAS WILLIAM TEW , J . ., AT PONTEFRACT . WHEN the Bradford Historical and Antiquarian Society visited Pontefract twelve months ago , Thomas AVilliam Tew , the Provincial Grand Master of West

Yorkshire , sought out Richard Holmes , the antiquarian writer , of Pontefract , and between them , in the space of six short weeks , wrote an historical work of one hundred and nine pages of closely-printed matter upon the antiquarian structures and communities of the locality , including the

Priory of St . John , the historical Castle from which the town takes its name ; the Dominican , or Black Friars of Pontefract , the Hermitage , the celebrated Eubwith House , and St . Nicholas Hospital , a charity easily traced to Saxon ages . The book was printed by Richard Holmes himself , and a copy presented to each member of the society as a souvenir of the visit .

As you leave the railway station at Monkhill over a modern embankment which crosses the ancient Mill Dam , the remains of the Swillington Tower of Pontefract Castle , rebuilt by Thomas of Lancaster in 1322 , faces you on the left hand as you descend to the town , about half a mile to

the south-east . Excavations have been going on for years , and every now and again foundations of unknown parts of the Castle are exposed to view . But within the walls the landscape gardener has had a free hand , and the impene-

Eminent Masons At Home.

trable stronghold upon which Henry de Lacy , the great Earl of Lincoln , spent the best part of his life in improving and strengthening , and within which two Royal prisoners—James I . of Scotland and Charles , Duke of Orleans , taken at Agincourt—were incarcerated , has been , with its terraces

and keeps , embellished with modern lawns , flower beds , and gravelled paths . Chaucer lived here , and wrote some of his best poems in the Round Tower , and Edward IV . started hence to the fatal engagement at Towton . The market " bus " from the hotel in the market place , with its freight of

villagers coming in to " shop , " is put along at a rattling pace as its pair of horses gallop up the hills and down the hills without any restraining hand from the north-country coachman , who pulls up suddenly at the " Red Lion , " and vouchsafes you the information that he will be happy to take you

back again , if "you be a goin ' . " You have seen the market place of Pontefract sleeping under a scorching July sun , when nothing more lively than a crawling errand-boy sweltering under a well-loaded basket has only just saved the thought that Sleepy Hollow has been reached , or that you had pitched , even in smoky Yorkshire ,

upon a little town apparently dead to everything but memories . It is a little livelier now this Saturday afternoon , with one or two conveyances driving in from the " suburbs . " The country folk come to fetch their Sunday dinner , and the gradual stream of pedestrians who move to and fro through

the simple doorway , with nothing more pretentious than a well-worn brass plate , immediately opposite the entrance to the " Lion , " from which you take a cursory glance up and down . It is the local branch of Messrs . Leatham and Tew , West Riding Bankers , and Treasurers to the County Council

and the War Office ; and you cross the street and enter in search of one better known than any other man for miles round . The bank parlour is a parlour of a hundred years ago . The circular mahogany table , black with age and frequent polishings , reflects the rays of a struggling August sun , and the patternless oilcloth which covers the floor has

never borne a speck of dirt in the mind of living man . But perhaps nothing takes you back more readily to the roystering Cambridge days and the golden-sanded floor of old Bill Templeton's than the "Windsor" armchairs , polished with the breeches of four generations of customers

of Messrs . Leatham and Tew . Upon the coloured walls hang the portraits of four successive proprietors of the bank , but they have stopped short since about 1 S 7 6 . You think , whilst you listen to the chink of gold upon the counter outside , what a jolly party these old Quaker-gentlemen

would make if you could drag them from their frames and seat them round the table , which must in reality have been fingered by them in the flesh . Perhaps some of them could tell you the history of the blunderbuss and brace of horse pistols which adorn the overmantel in the banking room , a glimpse of which you gather as you inquisitively make a survey of the place .

Through the small-paned "bow" window looking out upon the highway of Pontefract—Pomfret the natives pron ounce it—you watch the passers-by darting in and out from the old archway of the old Moat Hall , which spans the road to the Castle lower down the town , and when

you turn you find the Provincial Grand Master with extended hand waiting to welcome you to West Yorkshire , and the establishment over which he rules . And it is with his first glance that you thank a mighty providence the