Abbey of Cluny, or men trained at Cluny, with the original or preliminary designs of the great buildings erected during the middle ages, at least during the 12th and 13th centuries, is also a failure. The whole question is ably and fully treated in the _History of Freemasonry_ by Robert Freke Gould (1886-1887), particularly in chapter vi. on "Medieval Operative Masonry," and in his _Concise History_ (1903). The lodge is often met with, either as the _tabulatum domicialem_ (1200, at St Alban's Abbey) or actually so named in the _Fabric Rolls_ of York Minster (1370), _ye loge_ being situated close to the fane in course of erection; it was used as a place in which the stones were prepared in private for the structure, as well as occupied at meal-time, &c. Each mason was required to "swere upon ye boke yt he sall trewly ande bysyli at his power hold and kepe holy all ye poyntes of yis forsayde ordinance" (_Ordinacio Cementanorum_). As to the term _free_-mason, from the 14th century, it is held by some authorities that it described simply those men who worked "freestone," but there is abundant evidence to prove that, whatever may have been intended at first, _free_-mason soon had a much wider signification, the prefix _free_ being also employed by carpenters (1666), sewers (15th century, tailors at Exeter) and others, presumably to indicate they were free to follow their trades in certain localities. On this point Mr Gould well observes: "The class of persons from whom the Freemasons of Warrington (1646), Staffordshire (1686), Chester, York, London and their congeners in the 17th century derived the descriptive title, which became the inheritance of the Grand Lodge of England, were _free men_, and masons of Gilds or Companies" (_History_, vol. ii. p. 160). Dr Brentano may also be cited: "Wherever the Craft Guilds were legally acknowledged, we find foremost, that the right to exercise their craft, and sell their manufactures, depended upon the freedom of their city" (_Development of Guilds_, &c., p. 65). In like manner, the privilege of working as a mason was not conferred before candidates had been "made free." The regular free-masons would not work with men, even if they had a knowledge of their trade, "if _un_free," but styled them "Cowans," a course justified by the king's "Maister of Work," William Schaw, whose _Statutis and Ordinanceis_ (28th December 1598) required that "Na maister or fellow of craft ressaue any _cowanis_ to wirk in his societie or companye, nor send nane of his servants to wirk wt. cowanis, under the pane of twentie pounds." Gradually, however, the rule was relaxed, in time such monopoly practically ceased, and the word "cowan" is only known in connexion with speculative Freemasonry. Sir Walter Scott, as a member of Lodge St David (No. 36), was familiar with the word and used it in _Rob Roy_. In 1707 a cowan was described in the minutes of Mother Lodge Kilwinning, as a mason "without the word," thus one who was not a