, AN EXPLANATION OF THE 3RD DEGREE TRACING BOARD - G R OSWELL, Masońskie 

AN EXPLANATION OF THE 3RD DEGREE ...

AN EXPLANATION OF THE 3RD DEGREE TRACING BOARD - G R OSWELL, Masońskie
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AN EXPLANATION OF THE
THIRD DEGREE TRACING
BOARD
BY
G. R. OSWELL
P.M., Philanthropic Lodge, No. 107
P.P.G.W. (Norfolk)
P.Z., Philanthropic Chapter, No. 107
P.P.Sc.N. (Norfolk)
Preceptor Philanthropic Lodge of Instruction
AN ADDRESS
delivered at the Me eting of Ph ilanthrop ic
Lodge of Instruction on Friday
17th February, 1950
AN EXPLANATION
OF THE THIRD DEGREE TRACING BOARD
Before I approach, very tentatively, an explanation of our Third Degree Tracing Board, a few
words about Tracing Boards in general will serve as an introduction to the subject.
To begin with, to refer to these Boards as Tracing Boards undoubtedly is incorrect. The proper
title is "The Lodge Board," and as such it is mentioned at least once in our Ritual as it is
practised amongst us to-day. Those Brethren who have been present at the Consecration of a
Lodge will remember, perhaps, that at a certain point the Consecrating Officer says: "Let the
Lodge Board be uncovered," and what we know now as the First Degree Tracing Board is
exposed to the view of the Lodge for the first time, and the rubric directions throughout that
ceremony use the same term.
But as it has been the custom for so many years to use the term "Tracing Board" with reference
to these painted, or otherwise coloured, diagrams I shall refer to them by that name, which is so
familiar to all of us, during this Lecture.
Now, a true Tracing Board, as far as Masonry is concerned, is just what its name implies, i.e., a
plain board such as is used by architects, draughtsmen, etc., and our Ritual refers to it as being
for the "Master to lay lines and draw designs on, the better to enable Brethren to carry on the
intended structure with regularity and propriety," (*The Ritual: Explanation of the First Degree
Tracing Board) and in the early days of the Craft such a board, supported by trestles, was always
present in the Lodge when it was open and at work. For this reason we find it referred to in early
rituals as the Trestle Board. I think I am right in saying that to-day such an one is present at
every meeting of that famous Lodge of Instruction in London known as The Unions Emulation
Lodge of Improvement for Master Masons. As Masonic symbolism began to develop it is found
later on with various lines drawn upon it representing, one presumes, the ground plan of
Solomon's temple and in this latter form it is depicted on our First and Third Degrees Tracing
Boards and also on the present Grand Lodge Certificate. Our present day Boards have not
evolved from this true sense of a Tracing Board, but from something quite different.
In the early days of the Craft, Lodges had not the dignity and decorum of to-day. We have
progressed a very long way from that period when an enterprising tavern keeper exhibited a
notice bearing the words: "Freemasons made here for half-a-crown," and when many a man was
made a Mason for the price of a round of drinks. The Lodges met at their own particular taverns,
from which a Lodge derived its name; for instance, there was a Lodge which met at this hotel
from 1729 to 1735 (*In 1735 it moved to the White Lion. Grass Market (now Norfolk Street),
and later on, in 1785, to the Crown, Church Street. This was the first Lodge to be constituted in
West Norfolk and the
it second in the County. Practically no records survive of its life and activities. It was erased in
1786.) and was known, therefore, as the Duke's Head Lodge. In those days the floors of the
taverns were sanded. Before the meeting commenced the Tyler would draw in the sand rough
sketches of various Masonic symbols, such as the sun, moon, blazing star, etc. In duetime the
sanded floors passed away, but the era of carpets or mosaic tiled floors for Lodges had not yet
arrived, and use was made of the bare boards of the Lodge Room, the Tyler drawing the symbols
thereon with chalk or charcoal. This procedure was known as "drawing the Lodge," and the
Tyler received a special remuneration for this particular service. The amount varied with
different Lodges and in old accounts I have seen the fee range from half-a-crown to four shillings
and sixpence. At the conclusion of the meeting the Initiate, or youngest apprentice, was handed
a mop and pail of water and instructed to wash out the drawn emblems. The idea was not to
enforce a menial task but to teach him that as he obliterated the designs on the floor, so was he to
exclude from his conversation with those of the outside world everything hd had heard or
witnessed in the Lodge. It was, therefore, a symbolical act inculcating in the mind of the new
member the Masonic virtue of silence.
"Drawing the Lodge" continued for some time, when the idea was conceived of using a sheet of
canvas, with the emblems painted thereon, which could easily be laid down and rolled up again
and stored away at the conclusion of the Lodge meeting, and as the use of these floor cloths
proved a much quicker and handier method than drawing with chalk or charcoal prior to each
meeting, "drawing the Lodge" gradually became obsolete. From the canvas which could quickly
be rolled and unrolled to our present day Tracing Boards was but a short step. Thus it will be
seen that although the true Tracing Board, i.e., the Tracing Board mentioned in the Ritual, is the
plain drawing board, the diagrams we call Tracing Boards to-day had their origin in the sanded
floors of the XVIIIth Century taverns.
It is well to remember here that although Grand Lodge does not oppose the presence in our
Lodges of the present day Tracing Boards, as they are anointed with certain elements at the
consecration of Lodges, yet Grand Lodge has never defined the nature of them nor given any
ruling that they must conform to a particular pattern (*A.Q.C. XXIX). Consequently, in the early
days of the present form of Tracing Boards we find a variety of designs, although the modem
ones are all of a conventional style.
In the early and middle XIXth Century, Masonry produced three Brethren for whose artistic
ability and knowledge of Craft symbolism, Masonry, as a whole, owes a deep debt of gratitude:
Brothers Jacobs, Bowring and Harris. These three Brethren, all of London, were responsible for
the present method of arranging and grouping the symbols on our Tracing Boards. It is
necessary to point out that their respective designs were not identical and each one produced sets
of Tracing Boards which differed in detail. The first two of these Brethren need not concern us
here. For those who are interested their work has been dealt with fully elsewhere (*A.Q.C.
XXIX. Miscellanea Latomorum, III, 56.). It is Brother Harris who is of interest to the members
of this Lodge, for this set of Tracing Boards is one of his designs, and as far as I know, it is the
only set in the Province, and naturally, Philanthropic Lodge prizes them greatly. The fact that
they are not original paintings but lithographed reproductions does not necessarily detract from
their value in our estimation of their artistic and symbolic representations of the doctrines and
principles outlined in the three degrees. We may also dismiss as being irrelevant, the somewhat
biased opinion of a well-known Masonic student and critic that the Tracing Boards produced by
Brother Harris contained nothing of artistic merit but were mere daubs.
It would appear that Brother Harris rose to fame as a designer of Tracing Boards when the
Emulation Lodge of Improvement adopted a set of his designs in 1846, after which he received
orders for Tracing Boards from several other Lodges. He was initiated in the Lodge of Good
Intent, No. 479, in 1818. Unfortunately he became blind in 1857, and from then onwards until
his death in 1873 he was a pensioner of the R.M.B.I. It is because our Tracing Boards are of his
design, and that this Third Degree Tracing Board differs greatly from the conventional pattern of
the present day, that I have chosen it as the subject for this evening s Lecture.
This set of Tracing Boards was presented to the Lodge by Brother Cummings in 1957. To-day
very little is known or remembered of Brother Cummings. According to the Centenary History
of Philanthropic Lodge, he was a tailor and draper at Fakenham, Norfolk, and was initiated in
this Lodge in 1855 and became its Master in 1859, receiving the Provincial Honour of
Superintendent of Works the following year. Although, apparently, nothing else is known now
of Brother Cummings, yet this one act of his alone, of presenting the Lodge with this set of
Tracing Boards deserves our everlasting gratitude and remembrance. The other set of smaller
Tracing Boards was given to the Lodge in 1884 by Brother T. M. Wilkin (through Brother
Glasier) who joined the Lodge in 1858 from the British Lodge, No. 8, and was our Master in
1860, 1861 and 1864, and was Provincial Senior Grand Warden in 1860. These smaller Tracing
Boards, which are also Brother Harris' designs, follow, less or more, the customary pattern of to-
day. It is quite possible, and highly probable, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary,
that the only Tracing Board in the possession of Philanthropic Lodge prior to 1857 was the one,
now highly prized by us, which belonged to Philip Broadfoot, that famous Mason of the first half
of the XIXth century who rendered such great service not only to Masonry in general, but to this
Lodge in particular, of which he became a joining Member in 1835. This Tracing Board deals
with the subject matter of the First Degree only. We have nothing to show that Philip Broadfoot
possessed Tracing Boards of the two superior degrees.
If, in its early days, there was present in the Lodge the true Tracing Board of our Ritual and
which is still referred to as one of the Three Immovable jewels of the Lodge,(*The Ritual:
Explanation of the First Degree Tracing Board.) or if the Lodge made use of the painted canvas
floor cloths which preceded the diagrammatic boards we erroneously call Tracing Boards to-day,
they have long since passed away and disappeared from the memory of the Lodge. I have heard
no traditions concerning them.
The fact that we possess the First Degree Tracing Board only of Philip Broadfoot may cause us
to agree with the theory put forward by Brother Dring (***A.Q.C. XXIX, 250.) that the body of
Masons known as the Ancients had but one Tracing Board which sufficed for the three degrees.
Brother Dring is also of the opinion that the other body of Masons, whom the Ancients referred
to as the Moderns, had two Tracing Boards. When the division into the three boards of to-day
came about, unfortunately, is not known.
We may also note here the consideration of another well-known authority on the subject, the late
Brother E. A. T. Breed, that Tracing Boards were not in general use, especially in country
Lodges, before 1825. (*,A.Q.C. xxiii, 191.). Incidentally, it is rather more than probable that
although there were two other Lodges in King's Lynn at that period, viz., Union and Good
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