Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

which this famous lodge has been called ; but that by which it is best known to the present generation of Craftsmen , and by which for ninety consecutive years it has chosen to designate itself , accords with the almost universally believed

tradition of its being in point of antiquity the premier ledge of Scotland . The discovery among the Egliuton papers some few years ago of an Ordinance of the time of James VI . bearing upon the privileges of the Mason Craft in this realm , was

accepted by some as au overwhelming argument against the pretensions of Kilwinning as the seat of the first-established Scottish Masonic Court ; but the document in question , while clearly promulgating an official decree confirmatory of a

previous one assigning to the Lodge of Kilwinning a secondary position among the Masonic courts of the time , bears testimony also to Mother Kilwinning ' s traditionary supremacy over all other Scottish lodges . The Ordinance to which we refer ,

and which is dated Dec . 28 , 1599 , is embodied in our papers on Mother Kilwinning which have already appeared iu the MAGAZINE . The "items " having special reference to the subject iu hand are these : —

" First , It is ordanit that the wardene within the boundis of Kilwynning , and utheris places subject to thair ludge , salbe chosen and electit zeirlie be mony of the maisteris voites of the said ludge , upon the twentie day of December , and that

within the kirk at Kilwynning , as the HEED and secund ludge of Scotland . . . " " Item , It is thocht needfull and expedient be my lord warden generall , that Edinburgh salbe in all tyme cuming , as of befoir , * the first and

principal ! ludge iu Scotland ; and that Kilwynning be the secund ludge , as of befoire is notourlie manifest in our awld antient wriitis . . . "

" Item , It is ordainit be my lord generall , that the hale antient actis and statutis maid of befoir be the predecessouris of the masounis of Kilwynning , be kepit be the Crafts in all tymes cuminge . . . " From the foregoing allusion to the Lodge of

Kilwinning as the " Hei / 1 and secund Ludge of Scotland , " taken in conjunction with the other quotations which we have given , it is quite apparent that some such system of centralisation as is in our own day practised in the administration o

public offices , had many years previous to the date of this ordinance been powerful enough to cause the removal of the supreme court of the building fraternity from an obscure village in Ayrshire to the acknowledged metropolis of the

country , where the interests of the Craft could be directed under the eye of the sovereign himself , or of his Masonic proxy ; and that the regulations ordained by authority of " my lord warden general" were , as has already been remarked , but

reiterative of the arrangements consequent upon the permanent establishment at Edinburgh of the principal Masonic Court—an act which His Majesty ' s rejDresentatives did not scruple to characterise as one of pure convenience , and by

which we find the lodges of Glasgow and other parts in the West of Scotland , placed anew under the immediate superintendence of the Ancient Lodge of Kilwinning . Again , if one point of the Ordinance more than another establishes the

former priority of Mother Kilwinning , it is that which commands the obedience of the Crafts to " the hale auld antient actis and statutis " which

had been made by " the predecessouris of the Masounis of Kilwinning . Here then we have the Lodge of Kilwinning ' s claim to be the Head Lodge of Scotland acknowledged , and its ancient enactments homologated ,

by the highest competent authority . Half a century afterwards we find Mother Kilwinning designating itself " The Antient Ludge of Scotland . " In 1731 it is called " The Antient Mother Lodge of Kilwinning ; " in 1735 , "The Lodge of

Free and Accepted Masons of Kilwinning ; " and in 1736 , "Mother Kilwinning , " a title which in 1779 was permanently adopted upon the lodge procuring its first seal .

We are aware of the scepticism of Bro . Findel upon the Kilwinning Masonic tradition ; but our learned brother is equally sceptical upon a point of transcendent importance as compared with any other historical event , and does not hesitate to

affirm that " the history of the world begins with a legend . " It were a hopeless task , therefore , to attempt to move him from the position he has assumed respecting the so-called " fables " upon which the history of the first established Scottish

lodge of Masons is based . While deprecating a blind belief in tradition , we at the same time demur to the dogma which rejects as unreliable a country ' s traditions with regard to events of his-