Wonders Of Operative Masonry.

the Penitential Cell , only four feet and a half long by tAvo and a half Avide . There disobedient Templars Avere confined , " that their souls might be saved from the eternal prison of hell . " Among the eminent persons buried in the Temple Church , Avere Plowden , the great laAvyer of Queen Elizabeth ' s time ; Selden , the noted writer oil international laAV , and Oliver Goldsmith ; and there is a monument to Edmund

Gibbon . When the Order of the Templars was abolished , in A . D . 1312 , by Pope Clement V ., King Echvard II . granted the Temple to the Knights Hospitallers of St . John of Jerusalem ( who had their chief house Avhere St . John ' s Squaro , ClerkenAvell , noAv is ) who afterwards rented it to the

, lawyers , AVIIO have held it ever since . The old ceremony of creating serjeauts-at law resembled that used for receiving serving brothers into the Fraternity of the Temple . In 1 S 40 Temple Church Avas elegantly restored , at a cost of 350 , 000 dollars .

NETLEY ABBEY , a secluded picturesque and elegant ruin , is situated in Hampshire , three miles east of Southampton , and fiftyfive miles south Avest from London . It Avas founded by King Henry III ., in A . D . 1239 , and Avas cruciform , being 200 feet in length , Avith transepts of 120 feet . The monks do not appear to haA'e been very learned , for they owned but one book—Oicero ' s " Treatise on Rhetoric . " The

Abbey s roofless aisles have now scattered over them fragments sculptured with armorial bearings and other architectural devices , Avith great trees giwving Avhere the p illars of the nave used to stand , Avhile grass and ivy mantle the AvindoAvs and pointed archesand Avild roses bloom on

, the very top of one of the walls . The singular natural loveliness of the spot , and the romantic style in which art and nature are exemplified in this ruin , make it one of great interest to the tourist . Poets love to sing of it , and travellers to describe it .

In the Gentleman ' s Magazine for November 1 S 22 , a handsome lithographic engraving of this Abbey may be found . Its revenue at the Dissolution Avas . £ 160 . Netley is not without its legend . Its roof remained until 1704 , Avhen the materials of the Abbey were sold to a carpenter named William Taylor . While negotiating for them he was much troubled

by dreams , and saAv a phantom of a monk , Avho foreboded evil to him if he proceeded ; and one night he dreamed that a large stone fell upon him and killed him . A friend to whom he related this , advised him to drop the undertaking ; but others advising him to go onhe concluded bis

bar-, gain , Avhich ho believed to be a good one . Shortly after , Avhile endeavouring to take some stones from the Avest wall , the whole of the windoAV fell upon him , and crushed him on the spot . WhenHaAvthome visited Netley Abbey he said he saw a large mass

of conglomerate stone that had fallen from the wall , between the naA'e and the cloisters , and he thought that perhaps this Avas the very mass that killed poor Mr . Taylor ! NEWSTEAD ABBEY in Nottinghamshire ,

125 miles north-Avest of London , stands in . a legendary neighbourhood , in the heart of Sherwood Forest surrounded by the haunts of Eobin Hood . It was founded A . D . 1170 , by Henry II . At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII . it Avas given to Sir John Byronan

ances-, tor of Lord Byron , and it came into the poet's possession in A . D . 1798 . Then , one end of the Abbey remained , with portions of the cloisters . He restored a part of it for a dwelling , and fitted up a quaint library for himselfin which he had tAvo

, skulls of the old friars grinning at him . Lord Byron sold the Abbey to Col . Wildman , AVIIO spent over £ 80 , 000 in restoring the venerable pile . In " Don Juan " Byron Avroto , referring to himself and bride :

"To Norman Abbey whirled the noble pair An old , old , monastery once , and noAv Still older mansion—of a rich and rare Mixed Gothic , such as artists all allow FeAV specimens yet left us can compare Withal , it lies perhaps a little IOAV , Because the monks preferred a hill behind To shelter their devotion from the Avind . "

There is no better Guide Book to Newstead Abbey than the thirteenth canto of " Don Juan . " Of course the Abbey was haunted . A goblin Friar Avalked the cloisters by night , and his appearance usually portended evil . The poet claimed to have seen him just before he contracted his ill-starred marriage with Miss Milbanke . Hence he Avroto : 2 o 2