Masonic Odds And Ends.

seems far from improbable that the Company or lodge which Elias Ashmolc visited was the same which owned the Antiquity BIS ., and which is still represented by the Lodge of Antiquity of to-day . There is a Book of Accounts preserved by the regular Mason ' s Company extending

from about 1630 , to past 1086 , and on the first page thereof occurs the term Freemason . The following is the reference to the Company in Stow ' s Survey of London , enlarged by A . BI ( undav ) . London , 1633 :

" The Company of Masons being otherwise termed Free-Masons of ancient standing and good reckoning , by means of affable and kindo meetings , divers times , and as a loving Brotherhood should use to doedid frequent this

, mutuall assembly in the time of King Henry the fourth , in the twelfth yeere of his most gracious Beigiic . " There is a woodcut of the Company ' s arms corresponding with that at the head of the Antiquity BIS . " Sable , a chevron between

three castles , & c . " Sir Christopher Wren . Sir William Chambers in his "Civil Architecture" ( Lockwood & Co . London , 1 S 62 , p . 263 ) , thus speaks of the above : "To the eternal disgrace of the reign of

George the First , Sir Christopher Wren was , at the advanced age of eighty-six , after fifty years of useful , active and laborious self devotion to the services of the public , dismissed from the office of surveyor-general . His death took place on the i 5 th Fubvvuvry 1723 , in the ninety-first year of his age . " Sir Christopher Wren was born , we believe , on the 20 th October , 1 G 32 .

FROM THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS . A Legend of Dover . " So that after a grill , or short turn on the mill , And with no worse a singeing , to purge her iniquity ,

Than a Freemason gets in the Lodge of Antiquity , She'd have rubb'd oft old scores , Popp'd out of doors , And sheer'd off at once for a happier port

, Like a white-wash'd Insolvent that ' s gone through the court . " John Mv / fda , iha M « stfv M ( w * n . Bro . James Miliar , in " Thy Architects

and Builders of the Middle Ages" * ( page 131 ) , observes , "From the following inscription on a tablet upon the wall of the south transept of the famous Melrose Abbey , wo are led to infer that John Blurdo was inspector of several of our

Scottish ecclesiastical structures . The inscription is in rude rhyme , packed in by the sculptor without regard to the metrical line , and quoted by Mr . Archibald Bl'Lellan , in his essay on the Glasgow Cathedralfrom the Blonastic Annals of

, Teviotd do , by the Rev . John Morton . " We have placed them according to general usage as the sense of this very ancient inscription is otherwise sacrificed .

| o !) n : ijj ' urbo : sum : turn : tallit : bias : 1 : giiru : bom : iit : parnssc : ecrtninl g : % \\\> : bab : iir : ta p ing : all : UTason : ami : Of : Ihutf : 3 Uibroijs : m : line : Inrli : © I ¦ ( Ulasgti : pdros : iinb : jijhislan :

© f : . Siibbiisbiill : irnb : of : ialar . ijr : | Jrai ) : fo : QDob : mib : l | l ' arn : baitj ; : j ^ nb : sheet : Saittt : Jolja : fo . keep : Sbis • baljj • hull ¦ frae : skaiilj :

There is also another inscription in this old abbey on a shield , charged with the compass and fleurs-de-lis , respectively indicating the Blasonic rank , and native country of the above John Blurdo .

" J ? a nans jrc co-upas cbiirt about ira trail ) anb laufc bo , | liit boubtc beljaulbc to u ijcnk ( guotlj | oj ) it gluvbo . " Oras we should say , "As goeth the

, compass even about , without deviating from the true circle , so , without doubt , do truth and loyalty—look well to the end , quoth John Blurdo . " In 1830 , under the foundation stone of the very ancient Bridge "Baal ' s "

, Limerick , Ireland ( liro . Michael Furnell reported in the Freemason ' s Quarterly Review , 1842 , p . 28 S ) , was found a brass square with the inscription , " I will strive to live with love and ease . "

1517 . On the reverse was the following : " Upon the Level , by the Square . ''