FREEMASONS’ GUIDE AND COMPENDIUM Bernard E Jones. CD-ROM. Available only from The Lintel Trust website Http://www.lintel.org at US$ 29.95 (+p&p, and VAT for European orders). Postal orders using postal orders drawn from US or British banks may be paid direct to Bookfinders International Ltd, North’s Estate, Piddington, High Wycombe HP14 3BE. Tel: 01494 882252. Fax: 01494 881802. All profits go to The Lintel Trust.

Anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of reading books on the CD-Rom format will be in for a feast, should they have a Unix, Mac or PC platform (with Adobe Acrobat). This CD-Rom was an absolute delight to go through. You can print any page off with great ease, and the illustrations are extremely handy for any mason embarking on a course of furthering his masonic knowledge. Finding the right page or chapter was, frankly, simpler than using a conventional book.
    The CD-Rom contains two books in their entirety: The Freemasons’ Guide and Compendium (first published in 1950) and The Royal Arch (published in 1957). The Lintel Trust, a masonic organisation based in Holland and Jersey, has cleverly got hold of the world rights to both of these works by masonic historian Bernard E Jones. The makers have also thrown in some files on contemporary Masonry in Scotland, Holland, Ireland and England, as well as a colourful file on masonic regalia. I take my hat off to them. Hours of pleasure are guaranteed from Jones’ authoritative, well-illustrated works, clearly - if not excitingly - written with no obfuscation.
    The Freemasons’ Companion (558pp) deals, in three ‘books’, with operative Masonry and the London Company, Speculative Masonry, the Grand Lodges (1717-1813), the Craft Degrees, the Lodge and related subjects, the Royal Arch, Mark and additional degrees. Research in these fields continues apace so don’t expect the final word, but the book makes an excellent basis for further study. Jones’ book on the Royal Arch (277pp) is considered by some masonic scholars to be definitive and contains chapters on its origins, the ‘Antients’, The ‘Moderns’ Grand Chapter, York Royal Arch Masonry, the Biblical background, the Bristol Working, the Irish Royal Arch, the Scottish Royal Arch, Symbols, Banners, Regalia, Jewels and much more.
    After this excellent package, I hope the Lintel Trust will feel emboldened to release more difficult-to-obtain masonic material in this stimulating form - as well, perhaps, as producing new material.
    Tobias Churton