Page 19 - MFM Jan Feb 2024

Malmesbury in his description of King Alfred’s
life wrote:

But, in short, I may thus briefly elucidate his whole life:
he so divided the twenty-four hours of the day and night
as to employ eight of them in writing, in reading, and in
prayer, eight in the refreshment of his body, and eight in
dispatching the business of the realm. There was in his
chapel a candle consisting of twenty-four divisions, and
an attendant, whose peculiar province it was to admonish
the King of his several duties by its consumption. 4

This shows that
King Alfred had a
type of “talisman”-
the candle and the
attendant - to help
remind him, and we
as Masons could use
the 24-inch gauge in
the same way.

When thinking about
Source and description: Wikipedia: ‘Alfred depicted in a
stained-glass window of c. 1905 in Bristol Cathedral.” a talisman, consider
the definition in
Wikipedia: “Bristol Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy
and Undivided Trinity, is the Church of England cathedral in the the Oxford English
city of Bristol, England. Founded in 1140 and consecrated in 1148, Dictionary (“OED”)
it was originally St Augustine’s Abby but after the Dissolution of
the Monasteries it became in 1542 the seat of the newly created that provides:
Bishop of Bristol and the cathedral of the new Diocese of Bristol.
It is a Grade I listed building. “A stone, ring, or
other object engraven

Lives of great men all remind us (sic) with figures or
characters, to which are
We can make our lives sublime, attributed the occult
And departing leave us powers of the planetary
Footprints on the sands of time.” influences and celestial
configurations under
In Brother Mackey’s 1869 publication, A Lexicon which it was made;
on Freemasonry, the entry for the 24-inch gauge usually worn as an
amulet to avert evil
provides: from or bring fortune
An instrument make use of in operative masonry, for the to the wearer; also
purpose of measuring and laying out work, and which, medicinally used to
in speculative masonry, constitutes one of the working impart healing virtue;
tools of the Entered Apprentice. The twenty-four inches hence any object held to Malmesbury stain Glass.
which are marked upon its surface, are emblematical of be endowed with magic Source Wikipedia.
the twenty-four hours of the day, which, being divided into virtue, a charm.”
three parts, instruct the mason to give eight hours to labour
eight hours of service of God and a worthy, distressed The OED continues on the entry for the term
brother, and eight to refreshment and sleep. William of “talisman’ that,“[i]n quot. 1638 applied to
Malmesbury tells us, that this method of dividing the day the telesms or consecrated statues set up in
is the same that was adopted by King Alfred. 3 Egypt, the later in Greece, to protect the city or

community: see telesmn. ”Moreover, the OED
One could be skeptical of this reference to King continues, “[a}mong Muslim nations, the potent
Alfred. Upon further investigation, it turns out principle is held to be contained in verses from the
Brother Mackey was right on point. Granted Qur’an engraved on the charm.” The etymology
William of Malmsbury wrote several hundred perhaps is enlightening: “17th cent. French
years after King Alfred in the 1200s. William of