y by some writers. By a natural reaction others
have been led to discredit altogether the existence of such a society,
and to consider the masonic fraternity merely as one of the various
trade corporations or guilds whose relics have descended to our own day.
But apart from the argument drawn from universal belief, there is
probably sufficient evidence to show that the Freemasons were
distinguished to some extent from other guilds, partly by the possession
of peculiar secrets, and partly by their religious character. They seem
to have been as it were the knight-errants of architecture, and to have
travelled from city to city and country to country in the exercise of
what they must have deemed a half sacred profession."

Ample proof has been adduced that Henry VI was not only a Mason himself
(having been admitted a member of the fraternity in 1450), but did a
good deal for the craft; and Freemasonry has much to thank him for. In a
history of Westminster Abbey, written by the late Dean Farrar, is to be
found the following: "Even the geometrical designs which lie at the base
of its ground plan are combinations of the triangle, the circle, and the
oval." Masons' marks are to be found in various places on the walls in
chapel.

The Windows

[Illustration: SHIP WINDOW]

AS I have previously mentioned, the building was begun in 1446, but,
owing to the long Civil Wars, it dragged on until 1515; and it was in
that year that a contract was entered into with one Barnard Flower, to
glaze the windows "with good, clene, sure, and perfyte glass, according
to the old and new lawe," or, as we should put it, the Old and New
Testament. Barnard Flower died between July 25, 1517, the date of his
will, and August 14, 1517, the date when the will was proved, having
completed only four windows, one of which is generally believed to be
that over the north door, while a second faces the organ on the same
side. He describes himself as "Barnard Floure, the Kinges glasyer of
England, dwelling within the precynt of Saint Martin hospitale, in the
Burgh of Southwark, in the county of Surrey." In 1526 two contracts
were entered into with other firms to complete the rest of the windows,
which was done in 1531. Among the names of those who entered into the
last contract were two Flemings. Windows of a similar kind, although
smaller, are to be found at Fairford in Gloucestershire; these date from
about 1490.

The windows of the Chapel contain