IN the discussion of this subject, modern freemasons
would seem to have an advantage, yet this is apparently
counteracted by laws of secrecy, since Mr. Gould gives
even less of definite evidence than Janner. But here and
there we have direct documentary certainty, while in
other directions we can rely with equal certainty upon
attendant facts which seem to fit in exactly with the
direct evidence.

Most masons, to begin with, led a nomadic life which
contrasted with that of other artisans. In each case, on
the completion of a building, the staff dispersed. Imagina-
tive writers have pictured compact bands of masons, like
the Free Companies of the Hundred Years' War, keeping
together and passing on from church to church as those
companies passed on from victory to victory. No evidence
seems to have been offered for this; rather, all the
evidence seems to be against it. In the vault of King's
College Chapel, Cambridge, the banker-marks are indeed
fairly uniform and continuous from beginning to end;
but we know that the contract here was for three years,
and the staff would naturally remain fairly stable. At
other churches (e.g. Melrose and St. Nicholas, Lynn) the
interest is, on the contrary, to see how men vanish and
are replaced; again, the neighbouring churches testify to
the dispersion of this large staff. Yet St. Nicholas cer-
tainly took less than eighteen years to build, and perhaps
only ten or so, including the setting of the stones as well
as the cutting. The mason, in this respect, was like the

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