Collected essays and papers relating to freemasonry . e special features of that ancient writing, and thus finally pavethe way for an exhaustive criticism of the Old Charges, in their several and collective forms. The few and scattered fragments of traditionary history, that we alone meet with in theRegius MS., may perhaps be accounted for, on the supposition of the poem having graduallybecome denuded of its Northumbrian impress, in passing from the north to the south ofEngland. This brings us to the York Legend, which will form the subject of a separate study,and I shall defer till its close,
Collected essays and papers relating to freemasonry . e special features of that ancient writing, and thus finally pavethe way for an exhaustive criticism of the Old Charges, in their several and collective forms. The few and scattered fragments of traditionary history, that we alone meet with in theRegius MS., may perhaps be accounted for, on the supposition of the poem having graduallybecome denuded of its Northumbrian impress, in passing from the north to the south ofEngland. This brings us to the York Legend, which will form the subject of a separate study,and I shall defer till its close, the consideration of some remaining points arising out of thegeneral structure of the poem, as their treatment will be more conveniently proceededwith when the traditions of iSaxon Northumbria have been passed in review. * , xxxii., pref. cix. The lines quoted above, as well as the marginal notes, are takan fromthe same volume {Boke of Nurture, II., 1244-48). MAF mio £AGLAA^B, ^bf^^ ? //ie £^ of ^.Vtcfis. .^n^ Sa^ 35 SECOND DIGRESSION.[the yoek legend.] Out of olde fieldes, as men saithe, Cometh all thia new corne from yere to yere ;And out of olde bookes, in good faithe, Cometh all this new science that men lere. The Old Charges, or Manuscript Constitutions, concur with the Regius MS. intracing the estabUshment of Masonry as a science, to an Egyptian origin, though they bringit into England by a more circuitous route. The discrepancy, however, is immaterial, forwhether we regard the prose and metrical versions of the Craft Legend as based upon oneand the same original, or as derived from distinct and separate sources, the vast preponder-ance of our written traditions, and the whisper of tradition, unitedly assure us that—throughout Britain—York was long regarded as the earliest legendary centre of the Build-ing Art. In that ancient city all lines of way seem to converge, and in connection with it, atradition has grown up, wherein are as
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfreemasons, bookyear1
