BOOK REVIEWS



THE SWORD AND
THE GRAIL
By Andrew Sinclair

    The Sword and the Grail is the latest addition to the growing collection 
of works seeking to establish proof of an historical link between the origins 
of speculative Freemasonry and the legendary Knights Templar. Hard historical 
proof has remained as illusive as the Holy Grail itself. Nevertheless, Andrew 
Sinclair comes as close as any to presenting evidence that, if not conclusive, 
is spellbinding at least.
    His personal quest began at the ancestral home of the Sinclair's, Rosslyn 
Castle, near Edinburgh, Scotland. There at Rosslyn Chapel, so important to the 
legends of the Scottish Masons, he found the first key to the mystery, a 
Templar sword carved into a tombstone. This sword-in-the-stone, marks the 
grave of Sir William de St. Clair, companion of King Robert the Bruce at the 
Battle of Bannockbum in 1314.
    From there the book winds its way through a labyrinthine investigation of 
the history of the Knights Templar, the symbolism of the Grail legend, and the 
evidence that the Templars sought refuge at Rosslyn after the death of their 
Grand Master Jacques DeMolay. The evidence Sinclair produces points to a 
Templar quest to found a new Jerusalem far to the west, and of Prince Henry 
St. Clair, First Earl of Orkney, who, with the assistance of Venetian 
navigators, explored the coast of what is now Nova Scotia and Rhode Island 
nearly a century before Columbus.
    The author is a novelist, historian, and filmmaker, and was a Founding 
Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. 
    Published 1992, Crown Publishers Inc; 201 East 50th St; New York NY 10022.
245 pgs, illustrations, hardcover $22.50.



(Reviews by Pete Normand, Editor, American Masonic Review.)


THE BYROM
COLLECTION
By Joy Hancox

    This is a fascinating story of the author's discovery and subsequent 
deciphering of a collection of 516 intricate geometrical diagrams handed down 
to the descendants of John Byrom (1691-1763), secret Jacobite sympathizer, 
member of the Royal Society, and early London Freemason at the time of the 
formation of the premier Grand Lodge in 1717.
    Through her researches, Hancox unlocks the meaning of the diagrams and 
discovers they are concerned with cabalistic philosophy, mysticism, cosmology, 
navigation, Freemasonry and architecture. Many contain conceptual designs for 
the Elizabethan playhouses, such as Shakespeare's Globe Theater, while others 
reveal hidden numerological symbolism in the layout of Westminster Abbey and
mediaeval Templar churches.
    The collection was not the work of one man, but a collection amassed over 
a period from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century, indicating 
an ongoing interest in their symbolic and philosophical value over a period of 
time by a self-perpetuating organization. It is evident from this work that 
there was an architectural tradition incorporating philosophical concepts 
handed down from working architects to speculative students of the art. In 
1725 Byrom's Cabala Club met on the lower floor of the meeting place of the 
Lodge of Antiquity, the senior of the "Four Old Lodges of London." The author 
was assisted in researching the Masonic connections by Rev. Neville B. Cryer, 
a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge.
    The author is an Associate of the Royal College of Music, and is now 
writing a biography of John Byrom.
    Published 1992, Jonathan Cape Publ., London. 320 pgs, hardcover. Available 
for #26.95 to: Q.C.C.C. Ltd; 60 Great Queen St; London WC2B 5BA; England. 
(Visa, MC, AmExp)


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