Mother Kilwinning.

Ere the strains of this lament had died upon the ear , the mournful theme was taken up and prolonged by yet another admirer of our accomplished brother : —• The " well plum'd hearse" now is nodding apace , And the mourners are cheerless and sad

, The dark cloud of sorrow sits deep on each face , In the costume of mourning all clad . " Solemn and slow , " as they pace the lone way , The plumes waving dark on the gale , Each breast heaves a sigh , and a tear in each eye , The fate of the brave to bewail .

The eye of the steed is turn'd wild , as it rolls On the dusky attendants around ; The death-notes are heard from the bell as it tolls , While all round seems to echo the sound . Many now weep for a Master no more , And man ) ' ' a Friend that is

, gone ; But the centre of all , is a Patriot's fall , And his fate all the wise will bemoan . Thou , Scotland ! lament , for thy Boswell is gane , To thy arms shall no more be restored ; But entomb'd in affection his name shall remain , And fame shall his merit record .

But Honour ! thou fiend , mourn the deed thou hast done , And wane in thy false borrow'd smiles ; Thou are fair to decoy , thou allur ' st to destroy , Thy embrace like a phantom beguiles .

The Genius of Kyle , with the tear in her eye , Wails deep for the loss of her child , On Lugar ' s steep banks she is heaving a sigh , And now she looks frantic and wild . She wraps herself deep in the gloom of despair , Bewailing his ill-fated doom , She screams on the pileshe laments on the aisle

, , And she sits down to weep o ' er his tomb . It will scarcel y fail to excite surprise , that no "In Memoriam" of Bro . Boswell has been placed upon the records of the mother lodge ; and that at the public funeral which was g iven to his

remains , the Masonic link should have been awanting in the chain of friends which then encircled his early grave .

Masonic Notes And Queries.

MASONIC NOTES AND QUERIES .

A TKIANGfUIiAK BKIDGE . Iu Smiles ' s Lives of the Engineers , vol . i ., page 241 , is a descri ption of a singular triangular bridge , which may prove interesting from its symbolical design . The author writes : — " The first arched bridge of stone erected iu England is said to have been the singular looking structure still standing in the neihbourhood

g of Croyland Abbey , iu the Pens . As the monks were in early times the principal agriculturists , gardeners , and land reclaimers , so they were the principal church and bridge builders . This triangular bridge at Croyland , however , could have been erected for no particularly useful purposebut rather as a curiosit and it

, y ; has been conjectured that it was reared out of the offerings of ' the pilgrims to the shrine of St . Guthlac , the patron of the Pens , as an emblem of the Trinity . The bridge stands on three piers ,

Masonic Notes And Queries.

from each of which springs the segment of a circular arcb , all the segments meeting at a point in the centre . It is situated at a junction of the three principal streets of the little town , which was originally built on piles ; and along those streets the waters , of the Nene , the Welland , and the Catwater , respectively , used to flow and meet under the bridge . Carrying

out the Trinitarian illustration , each pier of the bridge was said to stand in a different county—one in Lincoln , the second in Cambridge , and the third in Northampton . The road over the bridge is so steep that horses can scarcely cross it , and they usually go under it ; indeedthe arches uuderneath are now quite

, dry . This curious structure is referred to in an ancient charter of the year 9-13 , although the precise date of its erection is unknown . On the south-west wing , facing the London road , is a sitting figure ,, carved in stone , very much battered about the face by the mischievous boys of the place . The figure has a

globe or orb in its hand . It is supposed to be a statue of King Ethelbald , though it is commonly spoken of as Oliver Cromwell holding a penny loaf ! " ' —M . C .

USE OE THE TRIPLE TAU . Iu the same volume there is a foot-note to page 104 , in which the plague is spoken of , the note reading thus : —• " The plague was a frequent visitor in the city . Numerous proclamations were made by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation on the subject—proclamations ordering wells and pumps to be drawnand

, streets to be cleaned—and precepts for removing hogs out of London , and against the selling or eating of pork . 'Whenever the plague was in a house , the inhabitants thereof were enjoined to set up , outside , a pole of the length of seven feet , with a bundle of straw at the top , as a sign that the deadly visitant

was within . Wife , children , and servants belonging to that house must wear white rods in their hands for thirty-six days before they were considered purged . It was also ordered , subsequently , that on the streetdoor of every house infected , or upon a post thereby , the inhabitants must exhibit imprinted on paper a

token of St . Andrew ' s cross , otherwise called the sign of the Tau , that all persons might have knowledge that such house was infected . —Corporation Records , 1590-1694 . " This is curious , as the Tau here would seem to have been used contrary to all previous examples in both sacred and profane history . —M . C .

INIGO JONES , SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN , AND NICHOLAS STONE . At page 321 of the same work , speaking of eminent constructive skill and the wages paid to its possessors , Mr . Smiles adds in a foot-note— " Long before Briudley ' s time , Inigo Jones was only paid eight

shillings and fourpence a day as architect and surveyor of the Whitehall banquetting-house , and fortysix pounds a year for bouse rent , clerks , and incidental expenses ; whilst Nicholas Stowe [ this is an error , it should be Stone , Grand Warden of England ] , the master mason , was allowed but four and tenpence a day .

When the Duchess of Marlborough was afterwards engaged in resisting the claims of one of her Blenheim surveyors , she indignantly told him , 'that Sir Christopher Wren , while employed upon Saint Paul ' s , was content to be dragged up to the top of the building three times a week iu a basket , at the great hazard of his life , for onl y £ 200 a year . ' "—M . C .