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Greenwich Hoy!

2007-11-14T05:49:57Z

Gideon: format

On [[Chapter 43: 436-439|page 438]] Dixon references "a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous." Dixon is holding the following poem, which was published on pages 594-595 of the 1764 volume (December section) of ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men") was "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia]).
----

Pall Mall, Dec. 24 1764. 
Mr. Urban, 
''Having met with a very imperfect copy of the following verses in a News paper, I send you the original, in hopes of doing it justice in your Magazine''. 
Yours, &c. 
C.P.

<Center><big>'''GREENWICH HOY!''' 
'''''Or, the''''' '''ASTRONOMIC RACERS.'''</big></Center>

<big>L</big>ET gents on fam’d ''Newsmarket’s'' sod 
Exhaust their wealth, blaspheme their God, 
While the swift courser strains each nerve, 
His wanton master’s sport to serve.

Give me the heroes who aspire, 
Push’d on by astronomic fire, 
To course it through the starry host 
And make the fun their starting-post: 
Who sport with planets, moons and suns, 
With as much ease as ''Childers'' runs. 

Two lunar months are past, and more, 
Since of these heroes half a score 
Set out to try their strength and skill, 
And fairly start for ''Flamsteed-Hill''. 
But lo, from doubts, or tears, or surfeit, 
Six have drawn stakes, or else paid forfeit; 
And thus, there now remains no more 
To run the match, than doughty four. 

The first, who vaunts the race he gets, 
Is affluent professor B—ts; 
Whose first of ''April’s'' lunar map 
Has giv’n his judgement such a rap, 
As to induce his warmest friend 
To wish no longer he’d contend; 
Who owns the ''place'' his only view; 
The business ''journeymen'' may do, 

The N—b s brother next advances, 
Who, with some mettle, skips and prances: 
But take care, Rev. ''M—sk—l—n'', 
Thou scientific harlequin, 
Nor think, by jockeying, to win: 
Why, when the foremost in the course, 
Would’st thou thy hopeful chance reverse, 
Avouching with ungen’rous mind, 
The two most worth had declin’d? 
Believe me, this fallacious boast 
Has run thee the wrong side o’ the post; 
Eor the ''great donor'' of the prize 
I just, as ''Jove'' who rules the skies. 

The next, who promises some sport, 
Is the renown’d optician, ''Short''; 
Makes all the interest he can, 
And candid hopes, if should fail, 
Experienced ''Nestor'' may prevail.

''Nestor'', aloud, the standers-by, 
Looking around, with pleasure cry— 
And wilt thou, ''Bevis'', wilt thou venture 
Against such hardy wights to enter? 

Yes, clear the course, and call the grooms, 
For, lo! how he attended comes: 
Immortal ''Newton'', ''England’''s boast, 
Conducts him to the starting-post; 
And pointing with the other hand, 
Shows him, who to assist him stand. 
See thy friend ''Halley'' by thy side. 
And ''Bradley'', whom thou oft didst guide; 
By ''Phœbus'' sent with ''Pegasus'', 
To aid thee in this arduous course. 

Tho’ no professorship you hold, 
No fellowship, endow’d with gold, 
No pension on the worldly stage, 
To comfort thy advancing age, 
Yet has the ''Prussian'' hero deign’d 
To fix the ‘midst his learned band. 
Courage! then, Sir, nor drop thy merit; 
And that the world with outstretcht eyes, 
Looks on, and points thee for the prize. 
Nay, singly ask the other three, 
On whom (himself excepted) he 
Thinks that the dubious lost should fall, 
''Bevis'', they’ll answer—one and all. 
Keep then this adage old in view, 
That ''what all say must sure be true'': 
And, ‘gainst the field, I think we my 
Venture some odds—you get the day.

:::::::::C.P.

Chapter 39: 391-398

2007-09-16T03:19:41Z

Gideon: /* Page 397 */

==Page 395==
'''mephitic''' 
of, relating to, or resembling mephitis : foul-smelling <mephitic vapors>

'''Colonel Byrd''' 
William, 1674-1744 [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00477341&id=g7u8YIKtb_wC&dq=inauthor:byrd&num=100&q=inauthor:byrd&pgis=1 GoogleBooks] [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=william.byrd+1674+1744 Google]

==Page 397==
'''Quoiting''' 
A game similar to horseshoes played with quoits (from the middle english ''coyte'', flat stone) particular to the Northeast.
(source: thefreedictionary.com)

Is there a significance to the choice of quoiting over a pistol dual between Dixon and Fabian, which is independent of Dixon's religious pacifism?

Superficially, the game resembles the West Line: an invisible line defined by staked points along which objects (stones) fly. One could note the same, of course, about a duel -- so perhaps there is some other significance in the choice of quoit?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 42: 422-435

2007-09-16T03:07:03Z

Gideon: /* Page 425 */

==Page 422==
'''Weather-gage''' 
"Sh OED lists 'have or keep the weather gauge of' as be windward of, fig get the better of. On a side note, Pynchon also uses gage in GR for marijuana (in the Red Malcolm scene) and I always presumed this was a corruption of ganja or ganga, but no, it is listed under gage, LME, var of gauge, 1 A quart pot, long rare or obs LME, 2 A pipe; a pipeful (orig. of tobacco, now chiefly of marijuana), hence, marijuana, slang L17. That's L17 slang, foax! and no doubt the contents of the pipe
changed some time before GW started growing and selling his crop in
the M18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'']

See also: [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22449&sort=author More Discussion on Dinn's notes]

'''Dromonds''' 
"The dromons (from Greek δρόμων, dromon, i.e. "runner") were the most important warships of the Byzantine navy from the 6th to 12th centuries AD. They were indirectly developed from the ancient trireme and were usually propelled by both oar and sail, a configuration that had been used by navies in the Mediterranean Sea for centuries." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromon Wikipedia]

'''Spielers''' 
"Anglicized plural of German 'player' (as in Mabuse, Der...)" ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'']). Possibly spelled as an "anglicized plural" in order to pun off spoilers, spies...?

==Page 423==
'''hey? right out of G. Rex's purse it came''' 
"G Rex being King George" -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'']

'''the Tub!''' 
Cf. ''[[T#tub|A Tale of a Tub]]'', a satire by Jonathon Swift? Read it in [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub Wikisource], or read about it in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_a_Tub Wikipedia], which describes it in such a Pynchonian light:
:"the book is constructed like a layer cake, with Digression and Tale alternating. However, the digressions overwhelm the narrative, both in terms of the forcefulness and imaginativeness of writing and in terms of volume [...] Many critics have followed Swift's biographer Irvin Ehrenpreis in arguing that there is no single, consistent narrator in the work [...] The digressions individually frustrate readers who expect a clear purpose [...] Some, such as the discussion of ears or of wisdom being like a nut, a cream sherry, a cackling hen, etc., are outlandish and require a militantly aware and thoughtful reader."

Wikipedia also notes that satire targeted "indexers, note-makers." I found myself squirming as I read this paragraph while working on this wiki:
:"Swift's targets in the Tale included indexers, note-makers, and, above all, people who saw 'dark matter' in books. Attacking criticism generally, he appears delighted that one of his enemies, William Wotton, offered to explain the Tale in an 'answer' to the book and that one of the men he had explicitly attacked, Curll, offered to explain the book to the public. In the fifth edition of the book in 1705, Swift provided an apparatus to the work that incorporated Wotton's explanations and Swift's narrator's own notes as well. The notes appear to occasionally provide genuine information and just as often to mislead, and William Wotton's name, a defender of the Moderns, was appended to a number of notes. This allows Swift to make the commentary part of the satire itself, as well as to elevate his narrator to the level of self-critic."

On the other hand, I delighted in the Pynchonian names: Curll and William Wotton.

==Page 425==
'''Oh Ruddier than the Cherry''' 
"Aria from Handel's Acis and Galatea of c 1720" -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'']

I believe that the words were written by John Gay (1688–1732) and that Handel set them to music. In this operatic scene, "the giant Polyphemus [a love-stricken cyclops], more used to wreaking terror and devastation than feelings of love, attempts to woo Galatea (O ruddier than the cherry) but Galatea flees in terror" ([http://www.bamptonopera.org/repertory/mozhanacisdetail.htm Bampton Classic Opera]). See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphemus Wikipedia] for more on the tale.

Listen to it, hear: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbyxE9QWPfc&mode=related&search= YouTube]

Read along while you listen:
:O RUDDIER than the cherry!
:O sweeter than the berry!
::O nymph more bright
:Than moonshine night,
:Like kidlings blithe and merry!
:Ripe as the melting cluster!
:No lily has such lustre;
::Yet hard to tame
::As raging flame,
:And fierce as storms that bluster!

:Ripe as the melting cluster,
:no lily has such luster;
:yet hard to tame as raging flame
:and fierce as storms that bluster.

:O ruddier than the cherry,
:O sweeter than the berry,
:O ruddier than the cherry,
:O sweeter than the berry,
:O nymph more bright
:than moonshine night
:like kidlings blithe and merry.

'''It flies through the Air, in a curious, as it seems ''directed'', Arc, hits the Tub with a solid ''bong'', flattening its Point''' 
Cf. p. 5, opening line to novel: "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr'd the Sides of Outbuildings"

'''[[V#voam|Professor Voam]] , Philosophical Operator''' 
"Voam appeared a hundred pages [p. 321] back as the 'camp naturalist' that Dixon consulted about Emerson's watch. That incident must have been a 'flash forward.'" -- [http://osdir.com/ml/culture.literature.thomas-pynchon/2002-03/msg00114.html from MDMD Dinn's notes on Ch. 41]

In addition to Voam's striking job titles ("camp naturalist" and "Philosophical Operator"), note that in Pennsylvania and New Jersey there is an organization called VOAM Electric Cooperative Inc. — and VOM is the abbreviation for Volt-Ohm Meter.

==Page 426==
'''"You'd be flatter'n a Griddle-Cake" [...] "Excuse me,-- to what End? Gazing at it, as it fries? saying Oh you're so Circular...your Airr-Bubbles, they're so intriguing,--"''' 
" "*Than*, *than*" Took me a few parse errors before I realizes that Voam's intended 'flatter than' is read by Mason as 'flattering'." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes]

'''Torpedo''' 
Electric eel, here -- though this is incorrect as a "torpedo," when speaking of electric naval life, is an electric ray, order Torpediniformes (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_ray Wikipedia]).

==Page 427==
'''Dixon, emerging coprophagously a-grin''' 
coprophagous -- "Feeding on excrement" ([http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coprophagous Wiktionary]); i.e., a sh*t eating grin

'''''exeunt''''' 
Latin for "they leave." Used as a stage direction in theater scripts, though the term is now obsolete. (See [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/exeunt Wiktionary])

'''the Slave who spoke to Dixon earlier''' 
"earlier being [page] 419.25 where he meets the 'pretty Bondmaiden' and it is Austra from the Cape. cf also [page] 431.5." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes]

'''Love-Jobbers''' 
Pynchon having more playful fun with the job title of "Jobbers"--"Love," of course, being used euphemistically. Cf. [[B|Body Jobbers]], [[L|Land Jobbers]]

'''in payment of a Debt forever unexplain'd to me''' 
"Perhaps Austra incurred this debt by failing to lure Charles into fathering a child by her. Oh Complicity! Oh Complexity!" -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes]

'''Novitiate''' 
novitiate (per [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/novitiate Wiktionary]):
#the period during which a novice of a religious order undergoes training
#the place where a novice lives and studies
#a novice

'''Rapprochement''' 
"The establishment of or state of having cordial relations; an agreement, accord, or reconciliation." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rapprochement Wiktionary]

'''Dutch Rifle''' 
Dutch rifle wheellock, circa 1630: The jaw is normally tightened with the same spanner used to cock the lock. This being a "Dutch" lock.

==Page 428==
'''A Polaris of Evil''' 
At the time of Mason & Dixon, Polaris only literally meant the North Star: "Polaris" comes from Stella Polaris, the Latin form of its common name "Pole Star". The rarely used Greek name Cynosura (Κυνόσουρα) means "tail of the dog". 
Polaris was the name of a famous guided missile system in the 20th Century. 
Here, North as the place from which death and destruction comes in Pynchon's world is clearly alluded to and what is another negative allusion to "man's best friend" may be implied. There is Pugnax the dog in ATD. Arguably, dogs are symbols of the bourgeoisie in Pynchon, complicit in mankind's war-making History in TRP's vision.

'''Patch-Box''' 
"Another change that was made to the old Jaeger ["brought to the colonies by German gunsmiths in the early 1700’s"] that most scholars consider unique to the American longrifle was the addition of a brass patch box. The Jaegers and the early longrifles had storage compartments in the butt of the gun with sliding carved wood covers. The argument is that these covers were easily lost and something a little more practical was required for the longhunter. Hence, the hinged brass patch box." -- [http://www.americanlongrifles.com/american-longrifle-kentucky-rifle-story.htm The Story of the American Longrifle] (an excellent read, incidentally)

'''Piercings''' 
Pierce-work -- "Metalwork, woodwork, etc., incorporating perforations made for decorative or functional effect." -- OED

==Page 429==
'''a Forest Weapon, match'd to a single Prey, heavier than a Squirrel, not quite so heavy as a Deer....''' 
"about the weight of a man, say? Is that maybe why, in which case, evil polarises around this rifle?" -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes]

==Page 430==
'''Mr LeSpark, as he will come to tell the Tale, declines back into the Couch''' 
Tell the tale *now* (as in to Tenebrae, Ives, Ethelmer, DePugh, etc.) or tell the tale *then* as in rat out M&D's tub theft to Lord Lepton? (This idea was sparked by comments in [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes].)

==Page 431==
'''''Sí, sí, Cariño''''' 
??? literally, Spanish for "Yes, yes, Affection," but I think that a better translation is in order? Perhaps Pynchon offers a clue later on the page in translating the eel's other name, "El Peligroso," as "The Dangerous One." Literally, this translates as "The Danger"; this logic would equate "Cariño" with "Affectionate One." ???

'''let a Nonelectrickal provide the Thrills for a change''' 
The eel's identity is so wrapped up in being electrical that anything that cannot provide a spark is called "a Nonelectrickal"?!?

==Page 432==
'''El P.''' 
??? Diminutives in this novel are often puns, but if this is one, I'm not catching it. ???

'''''una Criatura Ci'clica, asi eres''''' 
"a cyclical creature, so you are" -- [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/s.html HyperArts]

'''worrying about Coach schedules''' 
Perhaps busy travelers in the 18th Century concerned themselves with tight transfers on Coach lines--or perhaps this is more of Pynchon's riffing on Coaches as modern airliners?

'''far off E-do''' 
"Edo is the old name for Tokyo, in use in the 1760s." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Dinn's Notes]

==Page 433==
'''surcease''' 
"The cessation of something or someone." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/surcease Wiktionary]

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

V

2007-09-16T02:58:27Z

Gideon: voam div br

'''Vacuum''' 
44; 155; 197; 356; 363; 428; 556

'''Vampire''' 
425; Hungarian, 728

'''''Vampyr of Covent Garden''''' 
117; Gothick novel Mason names to Maskelyne

<div id="vane"></div>'''Vane, Sir Henry (1613-62) (The Younger)''' 
116; English statesman who, between 1635 and 1637, was governor of Massachusetts; After returning to England, he entered the House of Commons. Along with [[P#pym|John Pym]], he played a major part in securing the execution of the [[S#strafford|First Earl of Strafford]]; 225; 226; [[Sir Henry Vane|MORE]]

<div id="varna"></div>'''Varna, Battle of''' 
The 1444 campaign the King of Hungary, Ulaszlo I, launched against the Turks (the "infidels") in an attempt to drive them out of Europe. The Christian army was utterly destroyed; lost by [[C#caesarini|Caesarini]], 591

'''Vasquez Brothers''' 
477; have Marimba Quartet on M-D Line crew; 546

<div id="vaucanson"></div>'''Vaucanson, Jacques de (1709-82)''' 
372; He actually did make a mechanical Duck that could eat and excrete. Perhaps his most significant automata were his automatic looms, because years later, Jacquard would invent the punched card so as to ''program'' Vaucanson's looms; 450; 668; ''See also'' [[D#duck|Duck]]; [http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/mazlish.html More]

'''Vector of Desire''' 
96; how DePugh LeSpark describes a telescope; [[Vector of Desire|Eymological Musings]]

<div id="veery">'''Veery Brothers'''</div>
289; Cosmo & Damian, professional effigy-makers in Philadelphia; Yes, and what effigies, if they're connected, as one would assume, to the Catholic saints Cosmo (Cosmas) and Damian, twin brothers from 3rd century CE Asia Minor who were martyred. But the connection becomes clearer when one considers that St. Cosmo (Cf. Randolph St. Cosmo in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day'']) became known as "the modern Priapus," the Greek god of sensuality, his symbol the phallus. The Fete of St. Cosmo and Damiano as late as 1780, was celebrated at Iserni, in Naples, replete with "ex voti" phalli, made of wax, which the women offer up, asking "Blessed St.Cosmo, let it be like this." And Cosmo, you see, is "a rare Wax Artist, our Cosmo is." [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=St._Cosmo Much more on this page on the ''Against the Day'' wiki...]; And as far as "Veery," there's the bird:
:The Veery, a secretive bird, lives in dense shade. The beautiful song of the Veery sounds best at dusk, as it echoes through the deepening gloom of the forest. The bird is rather difficult to see, but it can be lured into view by an imitation of the squeaking of a bird in distress. Its diet is evenly divided between insects obtained on the ground and fruit. It migrates at night, the flock keeping together in dark skies by means of a "contact call" characteristic of the species. Experiments on other thrushes show that their vision in shade or twilight is better than that of most other birds. [http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=BD0266]

'''Veevle''' 
53; on crew of ''Seahorse''

'''Vendue''' 
511; an auction; 682

'''Venus''' 
27; 137; 138; "from a Machine" 668

'''Verger''' 
8; church caretaker

'''Vesuvius, Mt.''' 
235

'''Vineland''' 
633; 634

'''Vinovium''' 
218

'''''Vis centrifuga''''' 
555; Latin: "centrifugal force"

'''''Vis Fulgoris''''' 
685; Latin: "power of lightning"

'''''Vis Inertiae''''' 
708; Latin: "power of inertia"

'''''Vis Martis''''' 
765; Latin: "power of Mars"

'''Visto''' 
234; To facilitate sighting and marking, the surveyors employed axmen to clear
a rough corridor, the Visto, "8 or 9 yards wide" along the points of their
periodic observations and measurements; "Gravity along the Visto, is become
locally less important than Rapture" 651; "upon the Atlantick Sea" 712

<div id="viudas"></div>'''Viudas de Cristo, Las''' 
420, 518; Spanish: "The Widows of Christ"; ''See also'' [[W#widows|Widows of Christ]]

<div id="voam"></div>'''Voam, Professor''' 
321; "camp naturalist" & "Philosophical Operator" on M-D Line crew; FYI: In Pennsylvania and New Jersey there's an organization called VOAM Electric Cooperative Inc. and VOM is the abbreviation for Volt-Ohm Meter; 425; 550; 619

'''V.O.C.''' 
58; Dutch: "'''V'''erenigde '''O'''ostindische '''C'''ompagnie" (Dutch East India Company); 69

'''Void''' 
179; 183; 288; Vacancy, 709

'''Volcano, Captain''' 
402; sobriquet of "Amy's" "Uncle"; in Montague's, 564

'''Voltaire (1694-1778)''' 
372; one of the greatest French authors and embodiment of the spirit of the Age of Reason; "remark about Gas and As-tronomers" 385; "Thorns and Angels" 568; writing about the Mechanickal Duck, 668

'''Vongolli''' 
707; Italian: vongole = clam; "French-Shawanese half-breed Renegado" who is
M&D's "sidekick"; reminiscent of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=G#goll Von Göll in ''Gravity's Rainbow'']

'''Vortices''' 
220; Vortices were an attempt by Continental philosophers and mathematicians to explain how space could be continuously occupied by solid matter (i.e. with no gaps) and yet allow movement. Atomic theories were deemed unacceptable because either they required space between atoms with nothing to fill it or they required solid atoms which interlocked and tesselated to fill space but thereby disallowed any movement; 556; [http://www.goddess.org/vortices/vortex.html Of Further Interest...]

'''Vowtay Brothers''' 
100; Company writers

'''Vroom, Cornelius''' 
60; Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; patriarch of the 5-person Vroom family. Also similar to the name of a 15th century Dutch painter [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelis_Vroom Cornelis Vroom]

'''Vroom, Jemima ("Jet")''' 
60; Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; 16-year-old daughter of Cornelius & Johanna; the three daughters are
named after Job's three beautiful daughters in the Bible.

'''Vroom, Kezia ("Greet")''' 
60; Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; middle daughter of Cornelius & Johanna; the three daughters are named after Job's three beautiful daughters in the Bible.

'''Vroom, Kerrenhappuch ("Els")''' 
60: Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; 12-year-old daughter of Cornelius & Johanna; the three daughters are named after Job's three beautiful daughters in the Bible.

'''Vroom, Johanna ("Vrou")''' 
60; Dutch: "vroom" = "pious" or "godly"; wife of Cornelius; ripping her bodice in front of Mason, 87

{{MD Alpha Nav}}

Greenwich Hoy!

2007-09-08T03:42:31Z

Gideon: New page: On page 438 Dixon references "a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous." Dixon is holding the following ...

On [[Chapter 43: 436-439|page 438]] Dixon references "a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous." Dixon is holding the following poem, which was published on pages 594-595 of the 1764 volume (December section) of ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men") was "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia]).

Pall Mall, Dec. 24 1764. 
Mr. Urban, 
''Having met with a very imperfect copy of the following verses in a News paper, I send you the original, in hopes of doing it justice in your Magazine''. 
Yours, &c. 
C.P.

<Center><big>'''GREENWICH HOY!''' 
'''''Or, the''''' '''ASTRONOMIC RACERS.'''</big></Center>

<big>L</big>ET gents on fam’d ''Newsmarket’s'' sod 
Exhaust their wealth, blaspheme their God, 
While the swift courser strains each nerve, 
His wanton master’s sport to serve.

Give me the heroes who aspire, 
Push’d on by astronomic fire, 
To course it through the starry host 
And make the fun their starting-post: 
Who sport with planets, moons and suns, 
With as much ease as ''Childers'' runs. 

Two lunar months are past, and more, 
Since of these heroes half a score 
Set out to try their strength and skill, 
And fairly start for ''Flamsteed-Hill''. 
But lo, from doubts, or tears, or surfeit, 
Six have drawn stakes, or else paid forfeit; 
And thus, there now remains no more 
To run the match, than doughty four. 

The first, who vaunts the race he gets, 
Is affluent professor B—ts; 
Whose first of ''April’s'' lunar map 
Has giv’n his judgement such a rap, 
As to induce his warmest friend 
To wish no longer he’d contend; 
Who owns the ''place'' his only view; 
The business ''journeymen'' may do, 

The N—b s brother next advances, 
Who, with some mettle, skips and prances: 
But take care, Rev. ''M—sk—l—n'', 
Thou scientific harlequin, 
Nor think, by jockeying, to win: 
Why, when the foremost in the course, 
Would’st thou thy hopeful chance reverse, 
Avouching with ungen’rous mind, 
The two most worth had declin’d? 
Believe me, this fallacious boast 
Has run thee the wrong side o’ the post; 
Eor the ''great donor'' of the prize 
I just, as ''Jove'' who rules the skies. 

The next, who promises some sport, 
Is the renown’d optician, ''Short''; 
Makes all the interest he can, 
And candid hopes, if should fail, 
Experienced ''Nestor'' may prevail.

''Nestor'', aloud, the standers-by, 
Looking around, with pleasure cry— 
And wilt thou, ''Bevis'', wilt thou venture 
Against such hardy wights to enter? 

Yes, clear the course, and call the grooms, 
For, lo! how he attended comes: 
Immortal ''Newton'', ''England’''s boast, 
Conducts him to the starting-post; 
And pointing with the other hand, 
Shows him, who to assist him stand. 
See thy friend ''Halley'' by thy side. 
And ''Bradley'', whom thou oft didst guide; 
By ''Phœbus'' sent with ''Pegasus'', 
To aid thee in this arduous course. 

Tho’ no professorship you hold, 
No fellowship, endow’d with gold, 
No pension on the worldly stage, 
To comfort thy advancing age, 
Yet has the ''Prussian'' hero deign’d 
To fix the ‘midst his learned band. 
Courage! then, Sir, nor drop thy merit; 
And that the world with outstretcht eyes, 
Looks on, and points thee for the prize. 
Nay, singly ask the other three, 
On whom (himself excepted) he 
Thinks that the dubious lost should fall, 
''Bevis'', they’ll answer—one and all. 
Keep then this adage old in view, 
That ''what all say must sure be true'': 
And, ‘gainst the field, I think we my 
Venture some odds—you get the day.

:::::::::C.P.

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-08T02:31:17Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ Greenwich Hoy!

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Dixon is holding a poem entitled "GREENWICH HOY! ''Or, the'' ASTRONOMIC RACERS" authored by "C.P." and published on pages 594-595 of the 1764 volume (December section) of ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men") was "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia]).

A transcription of the poem can be found on [[Greenwich Hoy!]].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

'''Sinister Alfonso''' 
???

'''Giuseppe''' 
???

'''born in a Drift, a Corf for my cradle, and nought but the Back-shift for Schoolmasters there'''
*drift -- "a place driven to reach coal" ([http://www.geordielee.co.uk/home/Geordie_stuff/Dictionary_A_to_E/dictionary_a_to_e.html Geordie Dictionary])
*corf -- "a basket made of hazel, with an iron bow by which it was attached to the winding rope; corves and trains were formerly used for the same purpose as tubs are now, viz.: for conveying coals from the working-places to the surface" [http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/durhamdialect/mining1888.htm MINING TERMS (1888)]
*back-shift —- "there are two shifts normally worked down the pit. The first is the fore-shift, the second is the back-shift" ([http://www.geordielee.co.uk/home/Geordie_stuff/Dictionary_A_to_E/dictionary_a_to_e.html Geordie Dictionary])
Dixon is reminding Mason, the "Miller's Son," of his own humble origins (p. 438)?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 41: 410-421

2007-09-06T03:29:31Z

Gideon: /* Page 421 */ eo wheel

==Page 410==
'''Nonpareil''' 
from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nonpareil Wiktionary]:
# A person or thing that has no equal; a paragon.
# A small, flat chocolate drop covered with white pellets of sugar.

'''Lepton Castle''' 
"Lepton" is Greek money. It is also a subatomic particle. See, also, [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22311&sort=date "Dinn's Notes": MDMD(14) Notes & Questions Part 1, 410.16]

'''his Lordship''' 
[[L#lepton|Lord Lepton]]

==Page 411==
'''Tallow Dips, and the last feeble Rush-Light''' 
"The first candles probably consisted of dried rushes soaked in grease.
Homemade rushlights were commonly used in England as late as 1800
because, although they smoked and smelled horribly, they were so
cheap ... Eventually someone discovered the method of making a "tallow dip"
with a wick running longitudinally through its center. The wick -- a few
threads of flax, hemp, or cotton, lightly twisted or plaited -- was dipped
in melted tallow and allowed to cool, again and again, until the candle
had a desired thickness" -- [http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/natbltn/500-599/nb590.htm ''Candles''. Nature Bulletin No. 590. Forest Preserve District of Cook County. February 6, 1960]

Note that the lighting technologies are listed regressively, as if moving back through time.

'''Bloomeries''' 
bloomery -- a forge in which wrought iron is made straight from ore ([http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bloomery Wiktionary])

'''Invisible Hand''' 
“Adam Smith's notion that rational agents guided by their own self-interest would act in such a way as to promote the public interest, the foundation of laissez-faire economics which caused much of the misery associated with the Industrial Revolution” – [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/i.html HyperArts entry: Invisible Hand]

==Page 412==
'''Gangue''' 
"(mining) The earthy waste substances occurring in metallic ore" -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gangue Wiktionary]

'''more room inside than could possibly be contained in the sorrowing ruin''' 
Cf. "a Conveyance, wherein the inside is quite noticeably larger than the outside", [[Chapter 35: 349-361|Ch. 35 p. 354]]

'''Plafond''' 
“Plafond, in a broad sense, is any (flat, vaulted or dome) ceiling of any premise. Plafond can be product of monumental and decorative painting and sculpture; subject or ornamental - also is designated by the term "Plafond". Picturesque plafonds can be executed directly on plaster (in technique of fresco, oil, glutinous, synthetic paints, etc.), on a canvas attached to a ceiling (panel), a mosaic, and other methods. As a part of decorative furniture of church and palace stateroom plafonds received a wide circulation in 17 - beginning of 19 centuries. For plafond compositions of this period typically use of effect of illusory break in architectural in open or proceeding behind a ceiling space, the image of figures and architectural details in strong foreshortenings.” – [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plafond Wikipedia]

'''silver sconce and Sperm Taper Light''' 
"sperm taper is a candle made from spermaceti or sperm oil. sconce, LME, aphetic fr Fr esconse = hiding place or lantern, or fr med Lat sconsa aphetic fr absconsa (laterna) = dark (lantern), 1 a) A lantern or candlestick with a screen to protect the light from the wind, and a handle for carrying, LMW-M18, b) a flat candlestick with a handle, M19, 2 A bracket for a candle or a light hung on or fixed to an interior wall, rare M19." -- [http://osdir.com/ml/culture.literature.thomas-pynchon/2002-03/msg00114.html from MDMD Dinn's notes on Ch. 41]

==Page 413==
'''from the Oboick Reveries of the Besozzis, as the Imperial Melismata of Quantz''' 
* Besozzis: probably Antonio Besozzi and his son Carlo Besozzi, oboists and composers (numerous gifted woodwind players apparently sprung from the Besozzi family tree)
* Melismata: plural form of melism, “a melody or melodic sequence of notes. Usually spec. (in singing and vocal composition): the prolongation of one syllable over a number of notes; an instance of this” – the OED
* Quantz, Johann Joaquim (1697-1773): German flautist and composer, and court composer for Frederick II, the Great. He wrote a treatise on flute playing and composed a huge quantity of pieces for the flute.

Question: Did Quantz compose a piece entitled "Melismata"?

Trivia: Quantz and Carlo Besozzi were both oboists for the Dresden court: Carlo from 1754 until his death; Quantz seemingly earlier as he entered Frederick the Great's service in 1741.

'''Hurricanoe''' 
“aka "Hurricane" (a large private party - 18th cent.)” – [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/h.html HyperArts entry: Hurricanoe/Hurricane]

==Page 414==
'''Climbers' Discourse''' 
???

'''behave inconveniently''' 
[[I#inconvenience|Inconvenience]] again, see entry on [[Chapter 40:399-409| page 401]].

'''Churs of Stroud''' 
Churs = electors???
Stroud = Stroud, Gloucestershire UK: [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=stroud+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&om=1 Google Map]

'''Calvert agent''' 
Calvert County Realtors - Calvert Agents In Maryland.

==Page 415==
'''Raby Castle''' 
[[Image:RubyCastle.jpg|thumb|Raby Castle from Jones' Views (1819)|right]]
"Raby Castle [...] near Staindrop, County Durham is one of the largest inhabited castles in England. It has opulent eighteenth and nineteenth century interiors inside a largely unchanged late medieval shell. It is a Grade I listed building. Raby once belonged to the Neville family, who became one of the most powerful in England" -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raby_Castle Wikipedia]

[http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=raby+castle,+Staindrop,+County+Durham&sll=54.630531,-1.773605&sspn=0.168921,0.460739&ie=UTF8&ll=54.595166,-1.808538&spn=0.010567,0.028796&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=1 Google Maps]

'''Brunswick style''' 
worn with a petticoat, the Brunswick was an informal gown or Riding Habit. A riding habit consisted of a petticoat, jacket, and waistcoat.

'''wine-colored Cordovan''' 
a favorite boot color of TRP's. There is a "wine-cordovan boot" on page 121 of ATD, also a female's.

'''French Court heels''' 
Ladies of the French court once carried canes to support themselves on uncomfortable high heels. Heels became lower after the French Revolution, not surprisingly.

'''Iron Nabob''' 
Nabob (from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nabob Wiktionary]):
#an Indian ruler within the Mogul empire; a nawab
#(by extension) someone of great wealth or importance

'''Phrygioid if not Phrygian''' 
According to unvarying tradition the Phrygians were most closely akin to certain tribes of Macedonia and Thrace; and their near relationship to the Hellenic stock is proved by all that is known of their language and
art, and is accepted by almost every modern authority. -- [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Phrygia Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 th edition]. Pynchon's wit makes up the word Phrygioid to mean something like "like Phrygian" that is fake Phyrgian due to the prevalence of 'British modality'--preceding phrase.

"Phrygian Mode - A lot of traditional music, especially Scottish and Irish is termed 'Modal' because it does not follow the conventional modern major or
minor scales. There are seven modes, and Phrygian is the one that starts with E." --[http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/levy_mason_and_dixon.pdf Toby Levy's ''Three Pages Per Day'' Project]

==Page 416==
'''pierc'd paint Eyes of Nevilles and Vanes''' 
"Presumably like some Hammer House of Horror movie there is a tunnel passing behind the portraits in the gallery" ([http://osdir.com/ml/culture.literature.thomas-pynchon/2002-03/msg00114.html from MDMD Dinn's notes on Ch. 41]). Raby's castle was once held by the Nevilles ([http://www.rabycastle.com/history/nevills_raby.htm Raby Castle History: Nevilles]) and was later passed to the Vanes ([http://www.rabycastle.com/history/vanes_raby.htm Raby Castle History: Vanes]).

'''Bellezza, che chiama''' 
"a beauty that beckons" - [http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/i.html HyperArts entry: Italian Translations]

'''multiply-bepoxed''' 
??? suggestion that he has syphilis???

'''after three of these trans-Stygian Years, become Journeyman''' 
Stygian (from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stygian Wiktionary]):
#Dark and gloomy
#Infernal or hellish
#Of, or relating to the river Styx

==Page 417==
'''Chatelaine''' 
from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chatelaine Wiktionary]:
#The mistress of a castle or large household.
#A chain or clasp worn at the waist by women in the 16th to the 19th centuries, with handkerchief, keys, etc., attached.

'''Mignonette''' 
"A type of fine French bobbin lace made in narrow strips and having the consistency of tulle. Occas. more fully mignonette lace. Now hist" -- OED

'''Great Chain of Being this, Great Chain of Being that, [...] this rather lengthy ''Chain'' [...] Is there something [...] dangling from its bottom end?''' 
The great chain of being is a classical and western medieval conception of the order of the universe, whose chief characteristic is a strict hierarchical system. 
It is a conception of the world's structure that was accepted, and unquestioned, by most educated men from the time of Lucretius until the Copernican and Darwinian revolution and the ultimate flowering of the Renaissance. The chain of being is composed of a great number of hierarchal links, from the most basic and foundational elements up through the very highest perfection, in other words, God, or the Prime Mover. 
God, and beneath him the angels, both existing wholly in spirit form, sit at the top of the chain. Earthly flesh is fallible and ever-changing: mutable. Spirit, however, is unchanging and permanent. This sense of permanence is crucial to understanding this conception of reality. One does not abandon one's place in the chain; it is not only unthinkable, but generally impossible. The hierarchy is a chain and not a ladder. 
The natural order, earth (rock) is at the bottom of the chain; these elements possess only the attribute of existence. Moving on up the chain, each succeeding link contains the positive attributes of the previous link, and adds (at least) one other. Rocks, as above, possess only existence; the next link up, plants, possess life and existence. Beasts add not only motion, but appetite as well. 
Man is a special instance in this conception. He is both mortal flesh, as those below him, and also spirit. In this dichotomy, the struggle between flesh and spirit becomes a moral one. --abridged (slightly) from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chain_of_Being Wikipedia]

Notice Pynchon's multimeaning playfulness with the "chains" of the Chainmen and, one must think, the chains of the slave trade. This joking on the concept by Lord Lepton seems to touch some deep themes of M & D.

What [creature] dangles at the bottom of the chain? Where does it "fall" if it 'fails to hold on'? One is reminded of the supposedly real witticism as joke about an Eastern creation myth. The Earth is held up by a turtle
which is held up by another turtle, someone explained. "And that turtle?" asks the interlocuter. "Another turtle"...."And that one"?......."O No, you're not going to trap me...it's turtles all the way down."

'''Perhaps it is a Helixxx''' 
DNA? Though note the suggestion of a snake. (Cf. "the Serpent," [[Chapter 13: 125-145|Ch. 13, p. 135]]; "Something underground, moving Westward," [[Chapter 30: 296-301|Ch. 30, p. 299]])

==Page 418==
'''fiduciary''' 
from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fiduciary Wiktionary]:
#One who holds a thing in trust for another; a trustee.
#One who depends for salvation on faith, without works; an Antinomian.

'''nitter-natter''' 
??? chitter-chatter? ???

'''Staithes''' 
plural for Stath (from OED):
#The land bordering on water, a bank, shore.
#A landing-stage, wharf; esp. a waterside depôt for coals brought from the collieries for shipment, furnished with staging and shoots for loading vessels.
#An embankment.

"Staithes is an English village at the most northerly point of the North Yorkshire coast [...] Roxby Beck (a small river) running through Staithes is the border between North Yorkshire and neighbouring Redcar and Cleveland. Formerly one of the largest and most productive fishing centres in North-East England, Staithes is now largely a tourist destination thanks to its picturesque appearance [...] Staithes is noted for its sheltered harbour, bounded by high cliffs and two long breakwaters. A mile to the north, Boulby Cliff is the highest cliff in England" -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staithes Wikipedia]

'''You sound like one of those Leveler chaps''' 
Levelers or Levellers, English Puritan sect active at the time of the English civil war. The name was apparently applied to them in 1647, in derision of their beliefs in equality. The Levelers demanded fundamental constitutional reform—a written constitution, a single supreme representative body elected by universal manhood suffrage, proportional representation, and the abolition of monarchy and noble privilege. Their ideals, far in advance of their time, were those of complete religious and political equality. They were adept at the use of mass petitions and extensive pamphleteering to arouse the public. When the Long Parliament did not respond to their ideas, they tried to build support in the ranks of the army, with some success. -- Columbia Encyclopedia

==Page 419==
'''It is difficult in these days of closer-fitting Attire, to imagine the enormous volumes of unoccupied Space that once lay between is Skirt's outer Envelope and the woman's body far within.''' 
"Is this another case where inside and outside have wildly different metric
properties. And what about ''these days'' [?] Were skirts so much tighter in the 1780s than in the 1760s [?] If not then who is speaking and when?" -- [http://osdir.com/ml/culture.literature.thomas-pynchon/2002-03/msg00114.html from MDMD Dinn's notes on Ch. 41]

'''Majordomos''' 
Plural form of Majordomo (from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/majordomos Wiktionary]):
#The head servant in a wealthy European household
#A butler

'''Soubrette''' 
a lightweight soprano voice or type of soprano role, frequently found in comic operas or operettas; the soubrette usually possesses a flirtatious demeanor and street wise manner, as in the case of Adele in Die Fledermaus, or is a particularly fetching country innocent, like Adina in The Elixir of Love. Webster's online dictionary.

==Page 420==
'''Otick Catarrh''' 
Mason is suggesting he will get an ear ache (or infection) from Dixon's "loud" and "moist" whisperings:
*Octic - "(anatomy) of, relating/pertaining to, or located near the ear" ([http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Otic Wiktionary]) 
*Catarrh - "inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose and throat" ([http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Catarrh Wiktionary])

'''Ague''' 
Apogee (from [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/apogee Wiktionary]):
# (astronomy) That point in the orbit of any object which is at the greatest distance from the center of the central body. For example, the point in the moon's orbit which is the greatest distance from the center of the earth.
# The highest point.

'''Viudas de Cristo''' 
Spanish: "The Widows of Christ"

==Page 421==
'''Paradise of Chance''' 
Cf. The Chums of Chance in Against the Day.

'''E-O Wheel''' 
"Even Odds"; a roulette (French: "small wheel") wheel, a gambling game based on opposing pairs, e.g. black/white, even/odd, in which players bet on which red or black numbered compartment of a revolving wheel a small ball (spun in the opposite direction) will come to rest within. Bets are placed on a table marked to correspond with the compartments of the wheel.

==Annotation Index==

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==Page 440==
'''''[[L#ley-lines|Ley-lines]]''''' 
The term "ley lines" was coined by Alfred Watkins when explaining his theory that ancient sites around Britain had actually been constructed or formed giving alignments between and across the inhabited landscape of Britain. The sites mentioned include Stone Circles, Standing Stones, Long Barrows, Cairns, Burial Mounds and Churches; 440; [http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm MORE]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_lines Wikipedia entry]

'''Any Argument from Design, here, must include a yearning for Flight''' 
"Argument from design for the existence of God, that is, proved by the simplicity and orderliness of his thereby presumed Creation. A GR theme and a poke at rationalism, which, the more it succeeds in reducing complexity to order, the more it emphasisies (sic) the presence of design, or is that Design, a terribly loaded word for we paranoid." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Oölite''' 
"(geology) a deposit of spherical grains within a mineral cortex accreted around a nucleus, often of quartz grains" -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oolite Wiktionary]

"I'm confused here as to how limestone can be used to make prisms, since
all the limestone I have ever climbed up has been opaque. Is there transparent oölite? Or are the egg-stones a plant." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Master-valve of rose Quartz''' 
"Master-valve" -- interesting choice of words! Generally speaking, a "valve" is a device (esp. a flap or hinge) that opens one line while closing another, generally to control flow.

'''March''' 
1765

'''Azimuth''' 
#An arc of the horizon intercepted between the meridian of the place and a vertical circle passing through the center of any object; as, the azimuth of a star; the azimuth or bearing of a line surveying.
#The quadrant of an azimuth circle.
-- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/azimuth Wiktionary]

==Page 441==
'''strike''' 
Consider some multiple meanings of "strike" (v.) (all quotes from the OED):
*"To bring (an arc) into being"
*"To make one's way, go"
*"Of a serpent or other venomous animal: To wound (a person) with its fangs or sting"
*"To mark with lines, draw a line"
*"To mark, stigmatize"
*"To deal a blow, to smite"
*"To imprint on the mind"
*"to produce a flame with flint and steel or by the friction of a match"
*"To produce (music, a sound, note) by touching a string or playing upon an instrument"; "Of a clock: To make one or more strokes on its sounding part"
*"To kill or wound (deer) with an arrow or spear"; "To hit with a missile, a shot, etc"
*"To lance or cut (a vein)"
*"Of lightning, thunder, a thunderbolt: To descend violently upon and blast"; "To send out or forth (a beam of light)"
*"said of a moving shadow"
*"Of a thought, an idea: To come into the mind of, occur to (a person)"
*"To agree (to articles or terms)"
*"of an electric charge, to pass as a spark"

'''Ev'rything upon the Ground, by April, as they're about to begin the West Line, must be sighted thro' a haze of green Resurrection.''' 
"Wow! remember that radar screen in GR with its `green return' (also the
superhighways of July song with spring's green return). 'green resurrection links the cycle of the seasons back to Christ's cycle of suffering, which suggests Wicks is well aware of Christianity's pagan roots, at the psychological and historical level at least, if not necessarily theological and spiritual. But there is also a hint in 'Resurrection' at America, the New World being an Eden of - or was that for? - the Redeemed. Unlike the corrupt, fallen Old Worlds further East. Depending on which way you read it the New World is either virgin land ripe for corruption or a second chance from a loving creator. Which recalls the opinion expressed by Pynchon's narrator at GR 720 of 'we, the crippled keepers, [...] God's spoilers. Us. Counter-revolutionaries. It is our mission to promote death.' a chillingly beautiful passage leading up to and beyond the judgement at GR 722.22 `America *was* the edge of the World. ... In Africa, Asia, Amerindia, Oceania, Europe came and established its order of Analysis and Death.' Does Pynchon still believe this in M&D or does he believe there is life in America's old corpse still?" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Over Susquehanna,-- once you've cross'd the York to Baltimore Road,-- you'll see.''' 
"The Visto will cross Susquehanna about 20 miles West of the Tangent Line, the York-Baltimore road at 40 miles West. York and Lancaster, counties and cities, are mirror images, either side of Susquehanna, though, disconcertingly, York is West of Lancaster. York is 15 miles N of the Visto, Baltimor 20 miles South on the knee bend half way down Chesapeake Bay. The crossing point on the York-Baltimore Road is at towns called New Freedom on the Pennsylvania side, Maryland Line on the Maryland side. Anyone who can furnish relevant slavery/Civil War explanations for the names? This must be a
notable border checkpoint since it would likely have been a main trade route for Pennsylvanians West of Susquehannah, the river running too fast for easy ferrying of goods across to Philadelphia." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''and he ain't just humming 'Love in a Cottage' either''' 
"First encountered in London as a show Mason wished he had not caught, no?
cf MDMD(10) [page] 292.18" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

Not to mention the obvious joak: "you ain't just whistlin' Dixie!"

'''I lit East''' 
As with "strike" (see above) note that "lit" has connotations with light and fuses, an physical (as in physics) reaction that a human initiates.

'''cry in the right Uncle's ale-can''' 
???

'''fifty-weight of Harness''' 
???

'''the West Line ... will finally refer ... preparing for the Translation south''' 
"refer" and "Translation" paint a different image than "strike" and "lit" above, although all four words describe interaction with the lines. Why the difference? Note that "strike" and "lit" describe human movement along the lines, while "refer" and "Translation" seem to describe the interaction of lines with lines and points and mathematics.

==Page 442==
'''scry''' 
"To predict the future using crystal balls." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scry Wiktionary]

'''heptagon''' 
(geometry) A polygon with seven sides and seven angles." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heptagon Wiktionary]

I believe this is the first appearance of a seven-sided object, but note that several octagonal shapes have appeared, including a couple of deadly devices (the Octuple Gloucester--a big cheese--on page 137 and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428) as well as the Octagon Room on page 437.

'''line of work''' 
Speaking of scrying...

'''Mr. Franklin's [[G#armonica|Armonica]]''' 
Musical instrument consisting of a set of graduated and tuned glass bowls sounded by the friction of wet fingers on the rims. It was invented by [[F#franklin|Benjamin Franklin]] in 1761. His "armonica" consisted of hemispherical glasses suspended on atreadle-operated spindle, overlapping so that only their rims were visible. A trough of water beneath the glasses moistened them as they rotated through it. It spanned four octaves. Mozart composed ''Adagio und Rondo'' K 617 and ''Adagio für Harmonika'' K 356 for the instrument. Beethoven also composed for it, as well as others; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica Wikipedia entry]. See page 268.

==Page 443==
'''Body-jobber''' 
Pynchon having more playful fun with the job title of "jobber." Cf. Land Jobbers and Labor Crimps (naval Body-jobbers), both on p. 365, and Love-Jobbers, p. 427.

'''Parts of a single great Machine''' 
Tell it to John Henry! Humorous, but dehumanizing the human traffic brings slavery to mind.

'''"Developer," or Projector of Land-Schemes''' 
Wicks (Pynchon?) seems to hold Land Jobbers (p. 427) in nearly as high esteem as lawyers.

==Annotation Index==

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'''Gage, General''' 
307; gave small-pox-infected blankets to Indians

'''gahn-on''' 
363; NE dialect: "a mess"; bonny: "good or fine" (reference to Laurel & Hardy)

'''Galactica''' 
465; milk-maid Nathe McClean fancies

'''Galena''' 
547

'''Galileo (1564-1642)''' 
98; Italian astronomer credited with perfecting the refracting telescope

'''Galuppi, Baldassare (1706-85)''' 
377; Italian composer of 95 operas; a pupil of Lotti, he
developed opera buffa style in the period between Scarlatti and Mozart.
Immortalized in Robert Browning's poem 'A Toccata of Galuppi's'

'''Gaming''' 
421; 422

'''Gamma Draconis''' 
107; a second magnitude star and the brightest star in the constellation was the principal object of measurement used by the British astronomer [[B#bradley|James Bradley]] in 1729 in discovering the [[Aberration of Light|aberration of light]]. It is Greenwich's Zenith star; 188; 587

'''gannin straights''' 
239; aka dating

'''Gaol''' 
10; Archaic: "Jail"

<div id="garrick"></div>'''Garrick, David (1717-79)''' 
184; British actor; Garrick and [w.html#woffington">Woffington</a> were amorously linked and lived together from 1742-45. Apparently Woffington never married and the "Mrs." was more along the lines of an honorary title. Although Garrick married in 1749 and remained so until his death there seems some evidence that he retained an attachment to Woffington (e.g. he wore the shoe buckles she gave him until his death). He was also author of the play, [[F#florizel|''Florizel and Perdita'']], "A Dramatic Pastoral, in Three Acts."; Garrick was also a pupil of [[J#sjohnson|Dr. Samuel Johnson]] and a member of his literary club, along with [[B#boswell|James Boswell]] and others. [http://www.bartleby.com/100/257.html Garrick Quotes]; 405

'''Gastreau, Le''' 
385

'''gawpy Look''' 
241; from gawp: to yawn, gape or stare stupidly or in astonishment, L17c.

'''''Gematria''''' 
479; a method of exegesis used by medieval Kabbalists wherein numbers were substituted for letters of the Hebrew alphabet in order to derive new insights into the texts; "a system known to the Kabbalists of the Second Century"; Astral, 772

'''Geminorum''' 
142

<div id="geordie"></div>'''Geordie''' 
27; 'Geordie' is the regional dialect ('tho some insist it's a distinct language and idiom) most famously associated with the North East of England, although there are some significant variations of this within the region. Also, a Geordie is one who speaks this dialect. The most widely agreed definition of the Geordie 'homeland' covers the cluster of towns that lie on either side of the River Tyne. This includes Newcastle-upon-Tyne through to Whitley Bay on the north bank, and Gateshead through to South Shields on the south. There are some similarities between 'Geordie' and Scandinavian languages, which have their origins in the times of Viking occupation. For example, the phrase 'gan hyem' (go home) is almost identical to the Danish equivalent. The name probably derives from the 1715 [[J#jacobites|Jacobite]] uprising, when the good citizens of Newcastle refused to support the Scots against King George. [http://www.geordie.co.uk/slang.htm Geordie Slang Dictionary]; [http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/geordie-translator.asp Geordie Translator]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie Wikipedia entry]

There must be some doubt over the insistence in the novel that Dixon is a Geordie, given that he was born and raised in the vicinity of Bishop Auckland, some distance from the Geordie domicile of Tyneside. Two points, however: the restriction of 'Geordieness' to Tyneside may not date back as far the period in which the novel is set; also, Dixon may be using the 'Geordie' tag for convenience. It is doubtful that the fine distinctions of NE English nomenclature would be of much interest to the other characters.

'''George, The''' 
190; tavern Mason goes to in Stroud; 503; 556; 760

'''George of England''' 
160; George III (1738-1820) was King of England from 1760 to 1811 when he
succumbed to madness; G. Rex, 423; Toy image of, 548; 572

<div id="georgian"></div>'''Georgian''' 
95; original name of the planet Uranus; 708

'''''Georgie''''' 
367

'''Gerloh, John''' 
576; friend of Tom Hynes

'''GERMAN''' 
"Sobald das Geld in Kasten Klingt, [. . . ] Die Seele aus dem
Fegefeuer springt": "As soon as the coins jingle in the
coffer, the soul flies out of Purgatory" 162 - From [[Martin Luther's 95 Theses]]; ''aus dem Kipp'', 359

'''Gershom''' 
276; Geo Washington's black Jewish slave; name-connected to Gershom, Moses'
child by Zippora, daughter of [[J#jethro|Jethro]]; 278; 572; [[Gershom|MORE]]

'''''Ghastly Fop, The''''' 
117; Gothick novel; 178; 347; 457; 527; 767

'''Ghost-fish''' 
660; in Yochio Geni River; [[Charles Mason's Journal#ghost|Mason's Journal]]

'''Giant Beaver''' 
620

'''Giants' Caves''' 
218

'''Gibbon, Mr.''' 
349; his "sort of History"

'''Gibson''' 
614; veteran of Braddock's defeat

'''Giuseppe''' 
439; wicked

<div id="armonica"></div>'''Glass Armonica''' 
268; musical instrument consisting of a set of graduated and tuned glass bowls sounded by the friction of wet fingers on the rims. It was invented by [[F#franklin|Benjamin Franklin]] in 1761. His "armonica" consisted of hemispherical glasses suspended on atreadle-operated spindle, overlapping so that only their rims were visible. A trough of water beneath the glasses moistened them as they rotated through it. It spanned four octaves. Mozart composed ''Adagio und Rondo'' K 617 and ''Adagio für Harmonika'' K 356 for the instrument. Beethoven also composed for it, as well as others; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_harmonica Wikipedia entry]; Mr. Franklin's Armonica, 442

'''Glaucon''' 
282

'''Glaur''' 
229; lowland Scots for mud. "A fool with his eyes in the glaur" is a Pynchonian way of saying "A man of little foresight." The Northumbld. Gloss, 1893, defined glaur as "liquid mud of the filthiest sort" (per the OED); 339

'''Gloucester''' 
503; City and borough of southwest-central England on the
Severn River west-northwest of London. On the site of the Roman city
Glevum, it was the Saxon capital of Mercia and is today a market town and
industrial center.

'''Gloucestershire, Holy Wells of''' 
725

'''Glowing Indian''' 
496

'''Gluck''' 
272

'''Gnosis''' 
560;

'''Goblin''' 
228; the landlord's dog

'''G-d''' 
42; 94; ocean, 123; 134; 137; 138; 164; 190; 220; 229; 344; 356; 357; 361; 422; 429; Heaven and Hell, 482; ''Eyeh asher Eyeh'' ("I am what I am") 486; and Moses, 486; disengagement, 486-87 (Deism is the belief that God created the world then disengaged completely from it, exerting no influence on what followed.); 588; 592; 594; "invisible-Handed" 627; 632; 651; 661-62; 675; 680; 708; 721; of the Hollow-Earthers, 740; 747

'''Golden Valley''' 
207

<div id="golem"></div>'''Golems''' 
481; This image endowed with life, in Jewish folklore, in the 16th century acquired the character of protector of the Jews in time of persecution, but also had a frightening aspect. The most famous is the golem created by 16th century rabbi [[R#rabbi|Judah Löw ben Bezulel of Prague]]; "Jewish Automaton" 485; 684; 711; [http://www.nyu.edu/pages/linguistics/courses/v610051/gelmanr/ling.html Automata Web Site]

'''Goniolatry''' 
587; "Worship of Angles"

'''Gonzago, Mr.''' 
728; room-steward for N. Maskelyne; "Gonzago" is the name of the murdered king in the play-within-a-play in Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''.

'''Gothick''' 
209; The first Gothick fiction began to show up in the mid-18th century, countering 18th-century "rationalism" with stories of mystery, horror and wonder; the common elements in these stories were madness, revenge, outrage, and the supernatural; slavery as a "Gothick Pursuit" 275; 290; 346; 359; 680; 745

'''gowks''' 
239; a fool; a half-witted or awkward person; 244

'''Grail''' 
634

'''''l'Grande''''' 
33; the French ship that attacks the ''Seahorse''; 247; 688

'''Grandam''' 
230

'''Grant, Captain''' 
49; succeeded Captain Smith on the ''Seahorse''; 51; 85

'''Gravity''' 
220; local, 249

'''Graziana''' 
260; pizza-pie tosser in Philadelphia

'''Great Chain of Being''' 
''See'' [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]]

'''Great Warrior Path''' 
646; Want the fat? [[Great Warrior Path|Here's the skinny...]]

'''Green''' 
722; a subversive colour

'''Green Pip''' 
369

'''Greenwich''' 
331; in London, site of first English observatory, set up in 1676. Greenwich is on the south bank of the Thames, about a mile east of the city center. Greenwich faces the Isle of Dogs on the north bank, a long peninsula bounded on three sides by a meander of the river.

'''Gregorians''' 
97; James Gregory (1638-75) was a Scottish mathematician who, in 1661, invented the Gregorian reflecting telescope; Gregorian reflector, 98

'''Grenville Ministry''' 
277; George Grenville (1712-70) became British prime minister in 1763. The prosecution of [[W#wilkes|Wilkes]] and the passage of the [s.html#stamp">Stamp Act</A> took place during his ministry. He resigned in 1765.

'''Grey Hound, The''' 
242; one of Dixon's favoured pubs

'''Grincheuse, Sister''' 
519; a Jesuit; The French verb "grincer" is used most often in the phrase "grincer les dents" to grind one's teeth; it can also mean to grit the teeth, as in pain; another meaning is to produce an acute, prolonged, disagreeable sound. "Grincheuse" came into usage in 1844, according to Petit Robert, as a person "d'humeur maussade et reveche" ill-humored, crude.

'''Grodt''' 
360; owns farm next to Redzingers

<div id="grub"></div>'''Grub-Street''' 
110; street in London, later Milton Street, Moorgate, where many poor and struggling authors lived; it came to symbolize impoverished writers and literary hacks. [j.html#sjohnson">Dr. Samuel Johnson</a> joined the ranks of "Grub Street" in 1737, when he moved to London to ply his trade as a freelance writer; 17

'''''Guarda-Costa''''' 
177; Italian: "Coast Guard"

'''Gyllenborg''' 
272

'''Gyllenstjerna, Count Johan Greve (1636-80)''' 
272; Swede who was chief advisor to Charles XI. Advocated a strong royal authority and opposition to the nobles of the Council of the Realm.

'''Gyrfalcons''' 
513; The largest falcon in the world, found in arctic and subarctic regions around the world

===References===

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==Page 440==
'''''[[L#ley-lines|Ley-lines]]''''' 
The term "ley lines" was coined by Alfred Watkins when explaining his theory that ancient sites around Britain had actually been constructed or formed giving alignments between and across the inhabited landscape of Britain. The sites mentioned include Stone Circles, Standing Stones, Long Barrows, Cairns, Burial Mounds and Churches; 440; [http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm MORE]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_lines Wikipedia entry]

'''Any Argument from Design, here, must include a yearning for Flight''' 
"Argument from design for the existence of God, that is, proved by the simplicity and orderliness of his thereby presumed Creation. A GR theme and a poke at rationalism, which, the more it succeeds in reducing complexity to order, the more it emphasisies (sic) the presence of design, or is that Design, a terribly loaded word for we paranoid." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Oölite''' 
"(geology) a deposit of spherical grains within a mineral cortex accreted around a nucleus, often of quartz grains" -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oolite Wiktionary]

"I'm confused here as to how limestone can be used to make prisms, since
all the limestone I have ever climbed up has been opaque. Is there transparent oölite? Or are the egg-stones a plant." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Master-valve of rose Quartz''' 
"Master-valve" -- interesting choice of words! Generally speaking, a "valve" is a device (esp. a flap or hinge) that opens one line while closing another, generally to control flow.

'''March''' 
1765

'''Azimuth''' 
#An arc of the horizon intercepted between the meridian of the place and a vertical circle passing through the center of any object; as, the azimuth of a star; the azimuth or bearing of a line surveying.
#The quadrant of an azimuth circle.
-- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/azimuth Wiktionary]

==Page 441==
'''strike''' 
Consider some multiple meanings of "strike" (v.) (all quotes from the OED):
*"To bring (an arc) into being"
*"To make one's way, go"
*"Of a serpent or other venomous animal: To wound (a person) with its fangs or sting"
*"To mark with lines, draw a line"
*"To mark, stigmatize"
*"To deal a blow, to smite"
*"To imprint on the mind"
*"to produce a flame with flint and steel or by the friction of a match"
*"To produce (music, a sound, note) by touching a string or playing upon an instrument"; "Of a clock: To make one or more strokes on its sounding part"
*"To kill or wound (deer) with an arrow or spear"; "To hit with a missile, a shot, etc"
*"To lance or cut (a vein)"
*"Of lightning, thunder, a thunderbolt: To descend violently upon and blast"; "To send out or forth (a beam of light)"
*"said of a moving shadow"
*"Of a thought, an idea: To come into the mind of, occur to (a person)"
*"To agree (to articles or terms)"
*"of an electric charge, to pass as a spark"

'''Ev'rything upon the Ground, by April, as they're about to begin the West Line, must be sighted thro' a haze of green Resurrection.''' 
"Wow! remember that radar screen in GR with its `green return' (also the
superhighways of July song with spring's green return). 'green resurrection links the cycle of the seasons back to Christ's cycle of suffering, which suggests Wicks is well aware of Christianity's pagan roots, at the psychological and historical level at least, if not necessarily theological and spiritual. But there is also a hint in 'Resurrection' at America, the New World being an Eden of - or was that for? - the Redeemed. Unlike the corrupt, fallen Old Worlds further East. Depending on which way you read it the New World is either virgin land ripe for corruption or a second chance from a loving creator. Which recalls the opinion expressed by Pynchon's narrator at GR 720 of 'we, the crippled keepers, [...] God's spoilers. Us. Counter-revolutionaries. It is our mission to promote death.' a chillingly beautiful passage leading up to and beyond the judgement at GR 722.22 `America *was* the edge of the World. ... In Africa, Asia, Amerindia, Oceania, Europe came and established its order of Analysis and Death.' Does Pynchon still believe this in M&D or does he believe there is life in America's old corpse still?" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Over Susquehanna,-- once you've cross'd the York to Baltimore Road,-- you'll see.''' 
"The Visto will cross Susquehanna about 20 miles West of the Tangent Line, the York-Baltimore road at 40 miles West. York and Lancaster, counties and cities, are mirror images, either side of Susquehanna, though, disconcertingly, York is West of Lancaster. York is 15 miles N of the Visto, Baltimor 20 miles South on the knee bend half way down Chesapeake Bay. The crossing point on the York-Baltimore Road is at towns called New Freedom on the Pennsylvania side, Maryland Line on the Maryland side. Anyone who can furnish relevant slavery/Civil War explanations for the names? This must be a
notable border checkpoint since it would likely have been a main trade route for Pennsylvanians West of Susquehannah, the river running too fast for easy ferrying of goods across to Philadelphia." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''and he ain't just humming 'Love in a Cottage' either''' 
"First encountered in London as a show Mason wished he had not caught, no?
cf MDMD(10) [page] 292.18" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

Not to mention the obvious joak: "you ain't just whistlin' Dixie!"

'''I lit East''' 
As with "strike" (see above) note that "lit" has connotations with light and fuses, an physical (as in physics) reaction that a human initiates.

'''cry in the right Uncle's ale-can''' 
???

'''fifty-weight of Harness''' 
???

'''the West Line ... will finally refer ... preparing for the Translation south''' 
"refer" and "Translation" paint a different image than "strike" and "lit" above, although all four words describe the lines. Why the difference? Note that "strike" and "lit" describe human interaction with lines, while "refer" and "Translation" seem to describe the interaction of lines with lines and points.

==Annotation Index==

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==Page 440==
'''''[[L#ley-lines|Ley-lines]]''''' 
The term "ley lines" was coined by Alfred Watkins when explaining his theory that ancient sites around Britain had actually been constructed or formed giving alignments between and across the inhabited landscape of Britain. The sites mentioned include Stone Circles, Standing Stones, Long Barrows, Cairns, Burial Mounds and Churches; 440; [http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm MORE]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_lines Wikipedia entry]

'''Any Argument from Design, here, must include a yearning for Flight''' 
"Argument from design for the existence of God, that is, proved by the simplicity and orderliness of his thereby presumed Creation. A GR theme and a poke at rationalism, which, the more it succeeds in reducing complexity to order, the more it emphasisies (sic) the presence of design, or is that Design, a terribly loaded word for we paranoid." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Oölite''' 
"(geology) a deposit of spherical grains within a mineral cortex accreted around a nucleus, often of quartz grains" -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oolite Wiktionary]

"I'm confused here as to how limestone can be used to make prisms, since
all the limestone I have ever climbed up has been opaque. Is there transparent oölite? Or are the egg-stones a plant." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Master-valve of rose Quartz''' 
"Master-valve" -- interesting choice of words! Generally speaking, a "valve" is a device (esp. a flap or hinge) that opens one line while closing another, generally to control flow.

'''March''' 
1765

'''Azimuth''' 
#An arc of the horizon intercepted between the meridian of the place and a vertical circle passing through the center of any object; as, the azimuth of a star; the azimuth or bearing of a line surveying.
#The quadrant of an azimuth circle.
-- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/azimuth Wiktionary]

==Page 441==
'''strike''' 
Consider some multiple meanings of "strike" (v.) (all quotes from the OED):
*"To bring (an arc) into being"
*"To make one's way, go"
*"Of a serpent or other venomous animal: To wound (a person) with its fangs or sting"
*"To mark with lines, draw a line"
*"To mark, stigmatize"
*"To deal a blow, to smite"
*"To imprint on the mind"
*"to produce a flame with flint and steel or by the friction of a match"
*"To produce (music, a sound, note) by touching a string or playing upon an instrument"; "Of a clock: To make one or more strokes on its sounding part"
*"To kill or wound (deer) with an arrow or spear"; "To hit with a missile, a shot, etc"
*"To lance or cut (a vein)"
*"Of lightning, thunder, a thunderbolt: To descend violently upon and blast"; "To send out or forth (a beam of light)"
*"said of a moving shadow"
*"Of a thought, an idea: To come into the mind of, occur to (a person)"
*"To agree (to articles or terms)"
*"of an electric charge, to pass as a spark"

'''Ev'rything upon the Ground, by April, as they're about to begin the West Line, must be sighted thro' a haze of green Resurrection.''' 
"Wow! remember that radar screen in GR with its `green return' (also the
superhighways of July song with spring's green return). 'green resurrection links the cycle of the seasons back to Christ's cycle of suffering, which suggests Wicks is well aware of Christianity's pagan roots, at the psychological and historical level at least, if not necessarily theological and spiritual. But there is also a hint in 'Resurrection' at America, the New World being an Eden of - or was that for? - the Redeemed. Unlike the corrupt, fallen Old Worlds further East. Depending on which way you read it the New World is either virgin land ripe for corruption or a second chance from a loving creator. Which recalls the opinion expressed by Pynchon's narrator at GR 720 of 'we, the crippled keepers, [...] God's spoilers. Us. Counter-revolutionaries. It is our mission to promote death.' a chillingly beautiful passage leading up to and beyond the judgement at GR 722.22 `America *was* the edge of the World. ... In Africa, Asia, Amerindia, Oceania, Europe came and established its order of Analysis and Death.' Does Pynchon still believe this in M&D or does he believe there is life in America's old corpse still?" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''Over Susquehanna,-- once you've cross'd the York to Baltimore Road,-- you'll see.''' 
"The Visto will cross Susquehanna about 20 miles West of the Tangent Line, the York-Baltimore road at 40 miles West. York and Lancaster, counties and cities, are mirror images, either side of Susquehanna, though, disconcertingly, York is West of Lancaster. York is 15 miles N of the Visto, Baltimor 20 miles South on the knee bend half way down Chesapeake Bay. The crossing point on the York-Baltimore Road is at towns called New Freedom on the Pennsylvania side, Maryland Line on the Maryland side. Anyone who can furnish relevant slavery/Civil War explanations for the names? This must be a
notable border checkpoint since it would likely have been a main trade route for Pennsylvanians West of Susquehannah, the river running too fast for easy ferrying of goods across to Philadelphia." -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

'''and he ain't just humming 'Love in a Cottage' either.''' 
"First encountered in London as a show Mason wished he had not caught, no?
cf MDMD(10) [page] 292.18" -- [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9801&msg=22958&sort=date Dinn's Notes on the Pynchon-L]

Not to mention the obvious joak: "you ain't just whistlin' Dixie!"

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

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L

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Gideon: ley-lines div break

'''Labyrinths''' 
25; 208; 362; 409; 411; 413; 427; 514; 612; 653;

'''Lacaille, Monsieur''' 
59;

'''Lagoo, 2-A''' 
420; French spy from Canada

'''Lalande, Joseph-Jérôme de (1732-1807)''' 
213; French astronomer; "Lancashire Lalande" 230; [[Lalande|MORE...]]

'''Lambton, Lord''' 
17; Lambton Castle, 587; Lambton's Oath ("if God should allow [Lambton] victory over the Worm, he would sacrifice unto Him the first living thing he then happen'd to see"), 591 [[Lord Lambdon|Biblical Correspondence]]

'''Lambton, Henry''' 
594; last of the nine generations of Lambtons to die while not in bed, pursuant
to the Worm's curse

'''Lambton Worm''' 
587; a dragon "lacking Wings and a fire-breathing Capacity" that has nine pairs of gill-vents and kills in nines

'''Lamination''' 
389-90

'''Lancaster''' 
304; town where the Paxton Boys slaughtered the Indians; 341; [[Lancaster|MORE]]

'''Lapis''' 
689; 689

'''Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de (1749-1827)''' 
10; French mathematician and astronomer. Between 1799 and 1825 his
monumental five-volume ''Mécanique céleste'' , the greatest work on celestrial mechanics since Newton's ''Principia'', was published.

'''L'Appeau''' 
377; French: "The Call" - an appeau is a hunter's call, e.g. a duck call which the hunter blows through to simulate the sound of a duck; restaurant in Paris

'''Lapp-land''' 
546; region of northern Europe above the arctic circle, encompassing far-northern areas of Finland, Norway and Sweden

'''Larrk of the Sanguine''' 
247

'''Larry, Mr.''' 
303; "Irish Wig-Maker at Bermondsley"

'''Lascar''' 
37

'''Latimers''' 
590; antidraconical [anti-dragon, i.e., anti-Lucifer, or pro-God] family in Durham; Hugh Latimer (148?-1555) was famous as a preacher. He was Bishop of Worcester in the time of King Henry, but resigned in protest against the King's refusal to allow the Protestant reforms that Latimer desired. Latimer's sermons speak little of doctrine; he preferred to urge men to upright living and devoutness in prayer. But when Mary came to the throne, he was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned together with his friend Nicholas Ridley. His last words at the stake are well known: "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man, for we shall this day light such a candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out."

'''laudanum''' 
267; Random House College Dictionary: "1. a tincture of opium
2. Obs. any preparation in which opium is the chief ingredient.
[orig. ML var. of LADANUM; arbitrarily used by Paracelsus to name a remedy
based on opium]"

'''Laws of Springs''' 
697; Hooke's Law of Springs: he amount an ideal spring stretches is proportional to the applied force; [http://physics.bu.edu/py105/notes/SHM.html MORE...]

'''Lazarette''' 
39; sick bay on a ship

'''Leadenhall Street''' 
10; 162; 539

'''Lead Mines''' 
547; "spherickal caverns"

'''Learnèd English Dog''' 
18; the Norfolk Terrier (aka L.E.D., Fang) who talks & blinks; 22; 746; 756

'''Lehigh''' 
306; near where the Indians who were slaughtered "were peacefully settl'd"

<div id="lemaire"></div>'''LeMaire, Christopher''' 
73; 156; partner of Boscovich, 268; 544; Jesuit, 546

'''LeMaire, Isaac''' 
157; "of the Dutch LeMaires [...] the East India Company Director and speculator"

'''LeMaire, Jacob''' 
157; "of the Dutch LeMaires [...] navigator and explorer of the southern seas"

'''Lemonniere, Pierre Charles (1715-99)''' 
213; French astronomer; made twelve observations of [[U#uranus|Uranus]] before it was recognized as a planet.

<div id="lepton"></div>'''Lepton, Lady''' 
411; at Hurricanoe, 414; "Chatelaine [wife of a castle-owner] of Lepton Castle"
417; 507;

'''Lepton, Lord''' 
301; a lepton is a subatomic particle, any of a group consisting of electrons,
muons and neutrinos that experience no strong interactions and are less
massive than mesons and baryons; Riditto at Castle Lepton, 410; 411; 416

<div id="zab"></div>'''LeSpark, Elizabeth ("Zab")''' 
6; sister of Wicks Cherrycoke and wife of J.W. LeSpark

'''LeSpark, Ives''' 
9; brother of John Wade and Lomax; 96; 56; 263

'''LeSpark, John Wade''' 
6; married to Elizabeth ("Zab") Cherrycoke, Wicks' sister; "If there are Account-books in which casualties are the Units of Exchange, then [LeSpark] is deeply in Arrears" [[Comparisons#god"|Compare]] 31; 410; 422; w/M&D at Lepton Castle, 428; 759

<div id="lomax"></div>'''LeSpark, Lomax''' 
47; brother of J. Wade and Ives; 759

<div id="lethe"></div>'''Lethe''' 
253; in Greek mythology, Lethe is one of the rivers of [[Pluto|Hades]] from which the dead must drink to forget everything said and done while alive; thus, it has come to represent forgetfulness; in Plato's Tales of Er, 537; 710

'''Levant Company''' 
251

'''Lewis''' 
269; selling watches

'''Ley-builders''' 
681; "put up Cairns"

'''Ley-borne Life''' 
651; "ley" is arable land used temporarily for hay or gazing

'''Leyden-Jar''' 
294; According to ''Webster's'', "Etymology:
Leiden, Leyden, Netherlands. Date: 1825: an electrical condenser consisting of a glass jar coated inside and outside with metal foil and having the inner coating connected to a conducting rod passed through the insulating stopper"; ''Danse Macabre'', 294;
599; Battery, 600; 764

'''Leyden Pile''' 
390

<div id="ley-lines"></div>'''Ley-Lines''' 
218; The term "ley lines" was coined by Alfred Watkins when explaining his theory that ancient sites around Britain had actually been constructed or formed giving alignments between and across the inhabited landscape of Britain. The sites mentioned include Stone Circles, Standing Stones, Long Barrows, Cairns, Burial Mounds and Churches; 440; [http://www.mystical-www.co.uk/leylines.htm MORE]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_lines Wikipedia entry]

'''''l'Grande''''' 
33; the French ship that attacks the ''Seahorse''; 247; 688

'''Li''' 
627

'''Lightning''' 
357; 462-63; [[Charles Mason's Journal#lightning|Mason's Journal Entry]]

'''Lignum Vitae''' 
764; the wood of any of several tropical American trees with very hard and
heavy wood

'''Linkman''' 
477; one employed to bear a light for a person on the street at night

'''Linnaeus, Carolus (1707-78)''' 
321; Swedish naturalist & physician, and founder of the modern scientific
nomenclature for animals and plants; 360; 431

'''Litharge''' 
227; lead monoxide

'''''Litteraria Expeditione et Soforthia, De''''' 
222

'''Little Bear''' 
653; Ursa Minoris

'''Lloyd''' 
617

'''Locust-Street''' 
266; in Philadelphia

'''Lomax, Uncle''' 
47; ''See'' [[#lomax|LeSpark, Lomax]]

'''Longitude Act of 1714''' 
141

'''Longitude Problem''' 
712;

'''Long Reach''' 
245; "above Gravesend"

'''Lonsdale, Uncle''' 
236; Name-connected to Lon Chaney, Jr. (1907-73) who starred in ''The Wolf Man'' (1941);

'''López, Don Vicente''' 
338

'''Lord Bishop's Castle''' 
754; at Bishop Auckland

<div id="lost"></div>'''Lost Tribes of Israel''' 
485; In the Bible, the 12 tribes of Hebrews named for 10 sons of Jacob (Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, and Benjamin) and the two sons of Jacob's son Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh). The 13th tribe, Levi (the third of Jacob's sons), was set apart and had no one portion of its own. After the break in the Hebrew kingdom under Rehoboam, the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and some Levites formed a southern kingdom called Judah; the other 10 tribes formed a northern kingdom called Israel. These 10 were later (721 B.C.) conquered and transported to Assyria. They became known as the 10 lost tribes; numerous conjectures have been advanced as to their fate, and they have been identified with various peoples.

'''Lot''' 
127

<div id="love"></div>'''"Love in a Cottage"''' 
441; 1762: Librettist: Isaac Bickerstaffe; Composer: [[A#arne|Thomas Augustine Arne]]; Designated Genre: Pasticcio opera (i.e., an opera with contributions from two or more composers); `and he ain't just humming `Love in a Cottage' brings to mind the expression "and he ain't just whistling Dixie."

'''"Love Laughs at a Line"''' 
711

'''Loxley, Benjamin''' 
296; carpenter

'''Loxodrome''' 
47; aka "rhumb line"; According to ''Webster's'', "a line on the surface of the earth that makes equal oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."; 473

'''Loyolan''' 
289; Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was a Spanish soldier and the founder, in 1534, of the Jesuits (aka the Society of Jesus), a Catholic order emphasizing missionary work.

'''Lucas the Cook''' 
54; on St. Helena

'''Luddite''' 
312-13;

'''Ludgate''' 
10

'''Lunarians''' 
21; those who subscribed to the practicability of using the positions of the
stars along the moon's path to determine longitude; 437; 728

'''Lunars''' 
201

'''Lunette''' 
269; as used here, the shape of a crescent moon

<div id="luo-pan"></div>'''''Luo-Pan''''' 
531; "The Lo-Pan is a disc, six or more inches in diameter, with a magnetic compass about one inch in diameter in the centre. The disc, usually red, is inscribed with sixteen or more concentric circles, subdivided by radial divisions, with appropriate lettering. It synthesises all the Chinese theories as to the cosmic harmony between the energies of nature, time-relations as indicated by the sun and moon, and the directions in space from any point on the earth." (© 1995 Pun Yin Metaphysics LtdConcept & Design by Fortune-it Cookie Entertainment Ltd); While it functions like a western compass, it is used in the practice of Geomancy to measure the flow of Ch'i; 534; 543; 544; 587; 636

'''Lynn, Nathan''' 
576; friend of Tom Hynes'

'''Lyra''' 
673; constellation

{{MD Alpha Nav}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

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==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

'''Sinister Alfonso''' 
???

'''Giuseppe''' 
???

'''born in a Drift, a Corf for my cradle, and nought but the Back-shift for Schoolmasters there'''
*drift -- "a place driven to reach coal" ([http://www.geordielee.co.uk/home/Geordie_stuff/Dictionary_A_to_E/dictionary_a_to_e.html Geordie Dictionary])
*corf -- "a basket made of hazel, with an iron bow by which it was attached to the winding rope; corves and trains were formerly used for the same purpose as tubs are now, viz.: for conveying coals from the working-places to the surface" [http://www.indigogroup.co.uk/durhamdialect/mining1888.htm MINING TERMS (1888)]
*back-shift —- "there are two shifts normally worked down the pit. The first is the fore-shift, the second is the back-shift" ([http://www.geordielee.co.uk/home/Geordie_stuff/Dictionary_A_to_E/dictionary_a_to_e.html Geordie Dictionary])
Dixon is reminding Mason, the "Miller's Son," of his own humble origins (p. 438)?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T05:13:59Z

Gideon: /* Page 439 */ drift, corf, back-shift

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

'''Sinister Alfonso''' 
???

'''Giuseppe''' 
???

'''born in a Drift, a Corf for my cradle, and nought but the Back-shift for Schoolmasters there?'''
"corf, pl corves, LME, fr Lat corbis = basket, 1 A basket, arch LME-E17, 2 A large basket formerly used for conveying, hoisting, or delivering, mineral coal or ore; the tub which has superseded it, M17, 3 A container through which water can flow for keeping fish etc in it alive, L17. The Sh OED has a fascinating pair of entries for both back and shift individually but does not list this combination. The most likely sense occurs, especially given its and
Dixon's origins, is under shift, A relay or change of workers or (formerly) horses, now spec, a group of people working for a specific period of time, usu one equivalent to a day's work; a period worked by such a group of people, E18. The scholarship involved in pinpointing a C18th usage whose etymology documents the history of shift working in order to bring an echo of the theme into this narrative-cum-history is typically Pynchon and typically brilliant. Who said this book was neither as grand in its themes nor as scholarly in its address as Gravity's Rainbow. It is all that with a deep streak of humanity woven through its spine." -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

Er, not sure I follow this?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T05:08:22Z

Gideon: /* Page 439 */ Giuseppe???

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

'''Sinister Alfonso''' 
???

'''Giuseppe''' 
???

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T05:01:39Z

Gideon: /* Page 439 */ sinister alfonso???

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

'''Sinister Alfonso''' 
???

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:58:11Z

Gideon: /* Page 439 */ thee

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

'''Were I thee, I should''' 
Is Dixon switching to a formal tone here?

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:56:35Z

Gideon: page 439: re-live/avoid

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Page 439==
'''"Why are you trying to get me to re-live this?" "So as to avoid it m'self, of course."''' 
"Those who do not study History..." --([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:51:38Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ the company

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''And I'd friends in the Company [...] roughly how Sam Peach and Clive of India might sort out upon the Company's own Chain of Being''' 
"The East India Company, that is. and although Mason was Sam Peach's 'parrtickular Friend' (203.30) certain gloating commentators might have argued that the position of Mason relative to Peach was equally as influential on the outcome" -- ([http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author ''Dinn's Notes'' on the Pynchon-L])

And if you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:46:00Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ chain of being

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

'''Chain of Being''' 
If you haven't already done so, see [[C#chain|Chain of Being, Great]].

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:44:14Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ maltster

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Flamsteed was a Maltster's Son''' 
maltster -- "A person whose occupation is making malt" -- the OED online

Surely, with angst, maltster is one of few words in the English language with four back-to-back consonants?* Borsch ties, but it's Russian, technically? See, also, [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:gF646r_lv0oJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadriliteral+four+consonants&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us Quadriliteral in Wikipedia] and [http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words8.html A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia].

(*Especially if you conveniently ignore compound nouns (i.e., watchstrap), pluralized words, proper-nouns, and [http://www.firstschoolyears.com/literacy/word/phonics/digraphs/digraphs.htm digraphic] words (i.e., diphthong, length and twelfth).)

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:13:50Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ halley

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

'''Halley was a Soap-boiler's Son''' 
Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742) -- English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for him (see, also, page 131).

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

H

2007-09-03T04:12:24Z

Gideon: halley div

'''Hadley, John (1682-1744)''' 
270; English mathematician who invented the reflecting telescope and the
reflecting (Hadley's) quadrant.

'''Hadrian's Wall''' 
282; The Wall, located in Britain, was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian, probably given during his visit to Britain in AD 122. Hadrian wanted to mark the northern boundary of his Empire. Expansion further north came later when from AD 140 to 163 Hadrian's Wall was briefly replaced by the Antonine Wall. The frontier soon moved south again, back to Hadrian's Wall. Interestingly, there is little evidence of major conflict on Hadrian's Wall. <ref>[http://www.hadrians-wall.org/ Hadrian's Wall - World Heritage Site]</ref>; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrian%27s_wall Wikipedia entry]

'''Ha-Ha''' 
17; a ditch with a wall on its inner side below ground level, forming a boundary to a garden or park without interrupting the view from within, being visible only from a close proximity (OED, 18th Ed.)

'''Hailstone, Mr.''' 
192

'''Haimo of Halberstadt''' 
385; doctor

'''Half-Hunter''' 
298

'''Halfpenny, Mr.''' 
722; author of ''Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste''

'''Halifax Packet''' 
554; transports M&D back to England; 704

'''Haligast, Squire''' 
366;435

<div id="halley"></div>'''Halley, Dr. Edmund (1656-1742)''' 
131; English astronomer & mathematician; in 1676 he went to St. Helena to
make the first catalogue of the stars in the southern hemisphere; he was the
first to recommend observing the Transit of Venus to determine the sun's
parallax; he predicted the return of the comet that was thereafter named for
him; 152; 187; 438; 631

'''Hammerfost Island''' 
738; where Dixon stayed on his way to the Hollow Earth; a small town (pop. 9,561 in 1995) in Finnmark co., No. Norway, on Kvaløy island. It is the northernmost town of Europe, but its harbor is always ice-free. Tourists are attracted by its uninterrupted daylight from May 17 to July 29. There are fish-processing plants. Chartered c.1795, Hammerfest was heavily damaged by British naval bombardment in 1809, by fire in 1890, and by retreating German forces in 1944. <ref>[http://www.bartleby.com Bartleby.com]</ref>

'''Handel, George Friederic (1685-1759)''' 
229; German-English composer of great reknown

'''Hanger''' 
365; a sword worn at the side; especially, in the 18th century, a short, curved sword. This is what Dimdown uses to attack Armand Allegre; 381; 386

'''Hannings, John''' 
460

'''Hanover''' 
226; 551

'''Hansel''' 
551

'''Harland, Mr. & Mrs. John''' 
330; M&D set up their observatory on his farm; 393; 441

'''Harris's Ferry''' 
310; river crossing ferry at the site of present-day
Harrisburg, capital of Pennsylvania and not too many miles (c. 50
miles?) north of the M-D line on the Susquehanna River

'''Harris''' 
658; Philadelphia land speculator at the M-D Line

<div id="Harrison"></div>'''Harrison, John (1693-1776)''' 
201; English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of
compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government; 213; 322; 436; 728

'''Harrold, Captain''' 
99

'''''Hatchoir''''' 
381

<div id="hawke"></div>'''Hawke, Edward, Admiral (1710-81)''' 
27; British admiral in command of the fleet blockading the French naval station of Brest in 1759. The French fleet was badly needed to assist the French army in Canada and in 1759, the French admiral Count de [[C#conflans|Conflans]] made a run at breaking the blockade. However, Hawke's fleet caught up to them and drove them into [[Q#quiberon|Quiberon Bay]] where nine French ships were destroyed, virtually incapacitating the fleet. This was key in Britains taking Canada from the French; 52

<div id="Head of Elk"></div>'''Head of Elk''' 
397; refers to the head of Maryland's Elk River. It flows through
Cecil County and into Chesapeake Bay in the NE corner of Maryland just west
of the Delaware border. Head of Elk was of strategic significance in the
Revolutionary War: [http://www.ushistory.org/march/phila/elk.htm MORE]

'''"Hearts of Oak"''' 
53

'''Heinz''' 
551

'''Helen of Troy''' 
176; 179

'''Helgi''' 
634; See [[F#finnbogi|Finnbogi]]

'''Heliotrope''' 
549; reddish-purple colour

<div id="hellfire"></div>'''Hellfire Club''' 
110; indulged in orgies at [[M#medmenham|Medmenham Abbey]]; 418; ''See also'' [[W#wilkes|Wilkes, John]]

'''Henry, Patrick (1736-99)''' 
395; American statesman & lawyer born in Hanover county, Virginia; 488

'''Henry VIII (1491-1547)''' 
392; king of England from1509, and quite rotund

'''Hepatomachy''' 
378; "hepato" = relating to the liver; "-machy" = dispute, controversy; the ancients considered the liver the seat of love; thus "Hepatomachy" might very well be "romantic intrigues"

'''Hercules''' 
249; "labor like"

'''Heriulfsson, Biarni''' 
634;

'''Hermuthruda''' 
352; Queen of Scotland

'''Herod''' 
632

'''Herodotus''' 
350

'''Herren, the''' 
152; German: "Masters"

'''Herren XVII''' 
58; This might be an erratum. The Dutch spelling at the time was ''Heeren'', spelled nowadays ''Heren'', and always pronounced with a long ''e''. The spelling used here is German. These 17 gentlemen formed together the representants of the shareholders of the VOC.

'''Herschel, Sir William (1738-1822)''' 
213; British astronomer who, in 1781, discovered Uranus; 708

<div id="hesperus"></div>'''Hesperus''' 
96; Hesperos was the god of the Evening Star (the Planet Venus). He was depicted as a white-winged god crowned with a starry oreole - a male version of Astraia. In vase-paintings usually only his face was shown shining in the heavens <ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Hesperos.html Theoi Project - A Guide to Greek Gods, Spirits & Monsters]</ref>

'''Hester, Aunt''' 
199; Charles Mason's sister, married to Elroy; 762

'''Hetty, Aunt''' 
200; aka Aunt Hester; 763

'''Hia Emperors''' 
623; The Xia Dynasty, established by Yu, ran from ca. 2205-1766 BC. This is said to be the empire that introduced slavery to China. The emperor was Chung K'ang, said to have ruled from 2159-2147 BC.

'''Hibernia''' 
309; aka Ireland

'''Hickman, Thomas''' 
450; on M-D Line kitchen crew; 460; veteran of Braddock's defeat, 614

'''Hindoo''' 
567

'''Hipparchus''' 
574

'''History''' 
44; 68; 75; 349-51; 530; 565; 579; Bad, 615; 629; 708; 747

'''H.M.S. ''Emerald''''' 
738

'''Hob Headless''' 
215; goblin; 505

'''Hobab''' 
297; working on Obs in Philadelphia

'''''Hogarthian Society'', Gin's''' 
247; English satirical painter and caricaturist, William Hogarth (1697-1764) painted "modern moral subjects," including ''Gin Lane'', a series of cartoons depicting the appalling levels of alcoholism and public drunkenness that resulted from the development of gin as the first drinkable distilled liquor that the urban poor could afford to abuse. The term "Hogarthian" often refers more to scenes of squalor and depravity than to Hogarth himself.

<div id="hollow"></div>'''Hollow-Earthers''' 
"A complete, largely unsens'd World, held within our own [...] waiting for some Summons to Light" 548; Dixon, 603; "the ancient City he has discover'd beneath the Earth" 707; Mason taken by Being with "Very large eyes" 739; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_earth Plenty more at Wikipedia...]

'''Honorable John''' 
252

'''Hood, Zacharia''' 
570; Maryland's Stamp Distributor

'''Hoogli''' 
196; river in East Bengal, on which Calcutta (as in "Black Hole of") is
located

'''Hooke, Dr.''' 
188

'''Hoomp''' 
602

'''Horst, Young''' 
661

'''Hothouse Rose''' 
520

'''Hottentot-Land''' 
7;

'''Hounslow Heath''' 
208

'''Howard''' 
764; "Fine with me, as Howard says to Howard, only please try not to kick
that Switch to the main Battery, lest Mr. Dixon, -- oh dear. -- Ingvarr.
What did I just say?" - a reference to the Three Stooges: Larry Fine, Moe Howard & Curly Howard [Thanks to Joe Gioia]

'''Howdah''' 
562; a seat or covered pavilion on the back of an elephant; 572

'''Hsi and Ho''' 
622-28; The earliest recorded solar eclipse was 22 October 2134 BC. Ancient Chinese records note that "the Sun and Moon did not meet harmoniously." The two Chinese royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, failed to predict it and were executed by the unhappy emperor; Court Astronomers for one of the Hia Emperors of China, 622-28; [[Hsi and Ho|The Historickal Personages]]

'''''Hsiu''''' 
623; "or Moon-station of Fang"; The Hsiu are twelve constellations analogous to western zodiacal signs, used to identify position around the Celestial Equator (as the zodiac locates it on the ecliptic). These twelve are also related to the twelve branches in Feng Shui. Fang is the constellation known as Ti-Chieh (Earth's Triumph) and is located within the 72 stars of evil influence. "Fang is a narrow hsiu, only covering a few degrees. Thus, solar eclipses . . . occurring in Fang . . . are moderately rare" (Newton 64)

'''Huang, Lord''' 
626; "Here we must answer to the Market"; Here are three
possible etymologies:

:'''Huang-En or Huang-Fan''': Gods of their respective stars.

:'''Huang-Chin Li-Shih''': Generic name for the Liu-ting spirits . . . Gold is the elemental force of the West, hence these genii are called the "Athletes of the Western Country," or Region of Gold.

:'''Huang K'un''': The God of incense makers and sellers. In the time of Yu,
lightening having struck one of the trees in Hsi T'ien, the Western
Paradise, one of the branches fell into the Blue River. When cast on the
bank, it gave forth so sweet a perfume that it was taken and presented to
the Emperor. No one but Huang K'un was able to explain its origin. Yu had
incense-sticks made from it and ordered them to be burnt in honor of the
Gods. From that time Huang K'un was regarded as the first promoter of this
nation-wide industry.

<div id="hu"></div>'''Hu Gadarn''' 
600; [[Hu Gadarn|HERE]]; ''See also'' [[C#cymry|Cymry]]

'''Humphrey, Duke''' 
560

'''Hum-strum''' 
228; ''O.E.D.'': fr hum + strum, a roughly made or out of tune musical instrument; a hurdy gurdy

'''Hunter, Elizabeth''' 
239; Thomas Hunter's third wife who married Ralph Dixon (George Dixon's
father) after Thos Hunter died

'''Hunter, Jeremiah''' 
239; Thomas Hunter's brother

'''Hunter, Mary''' 
229; Jeremiah Dixon's mother; 238; from a Newcastle family, 239

'''Hunter, Thomas''' 
239; Mary Hunter's father

'''Hunters''' 
43; Jeremiah Dixon's maternal branch of the family, Quakers all

'''Hurricanoe/Hurricane''' 
413; aka "Hurricane" (a large private party - 18th cent.); at Castle Lepton; 527

'''Hurworth''' 
215; town about 3.5 miles south of Darlington and one mile east
of Croft Bridge in Durham County, England

'''Hutchinson, Governor''' 
128; of St. Helena

<div id="hynes"></div>'''Hynes, Tom''' 
7; eventual husband of Catherine Wheat; 575; [[Proceedings of the Council of Maryland|Historical Sources]]

'''Hynes, William''' 
575; Tom's father

'''Hysteresis''' 
630: ''Oxford English Dictionary'': "A phenomenon observed in some physical systems, by which changes in a property (e.g. magnetization, or length) lag behind changes in an agent on which they depend (e.g. magnetizing force, or stress), so that the value of the former at any moment depends on the manner of the previous variation of the latter (e.g. whether it was increasing or decreasing in value)"; [http://www.lassp.cornell.edu/sethna/hysteresis/hysteresis.html MORE]

===References===
<references/>

{{MD Alpha Nav}}

Chapter 43: 436-439

2007-09-03T04:05:43Z

Gideon: /* Page 438 */ betts, bevis, short

==Page 436==
[[C#Chew|'''Mr. Chew''']] 
One of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Also appears on page 327.

Note the varied meanings of "chew": taffy, chaw (tobacco), masticate ("crushing"), ponder (chew over).

[[B#\bird|'''John Bird''']] 
The creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the Pennsylvania/Maryland line, built the sector used by M&D, and made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope.

[[M#maskelyne, nevil|'''Maskelyne''']] 
English astronomer who was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1765; he was also an ordained minister; his sister Margaret married [[C#clive|Baron Robert Clive of Plassey]] (aka "Clive of India") in 1753. [[Reverend Maskelyne|Biography of Maskelyne]]; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Maskelyne.html History of Mathematicians]

Maskelyne and Mason, as you recall, were on [[S#helena|St. Helena]] together (see [[Chapter 13: 125-145]]).

'''H.M. Astronomer''' 
H.M. -- His (or Her, though in this case, His) Majesty's

'''At the very moment he was elevated, I lay flat upon a Back that for all I knew was broken, in a desert place in New Jersey''' 
"i.e. after his fall from his horse at 408.18." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9712&msg=22312&sort=author Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

[[B#bliss|'''Bliss''']] 
"The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

==Page 437==
'''slither'd''' 
On page 135, Maskelyne, speaking to Mason on St. Helena: "Serpent, Worm, or Dragon, 'tis all the same to It, for It speaketh no tongue but it own. It Rules this Island, whose ancient Curse and secret Name, is Disobedience."

Note that Mason also calls Maskelyne "windy" on p. 437 -- again, a reference to St. Helena?

[[W#wrangler|'''this seventh Wrangler''']] 
At Cambridge University, a wrangler is a student who placed in the first class of the mathematical tripos (18th c.). So, Maskelyne only obtained the 7th highest marks in his year. A senior wrangler is one who attains the highest marks in his year.

[[H#Harrison|'''Mr. Harrison, and his Chronometer''']] 
English horologist who invented a timekeeper (chronometer) capable of compensating for errors due to variations of climate, thus solving the problem of determining longitude at sea and finally claiming the huge prize offered by the government.

'''the order of Aberration, nor Nutation''' 
Aberration:
*"The first successful parallax measurements of a star other than our sun were made in the early 19th century. The effort to do so had been going on since at least Galileo's day. [[B#bradley|Bradley]] was using a zenith sector back in 1729 to measure parallax. He at first thought he had succeeded, but when he noticed that all the stars he checked had the identical parallax, he was suspicious, and concluded that it was something else, to wit, aberration." -- [http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9706&msg=16050&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]
*"3. (astronomy) A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4"", and in the latter, to 0.3"". Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aberration Wiktionary]

Nutation: "an oscillation of the axis of a spinning body. Now usu spec a variation in the inclination of an axis from the vertical,esp that which makes the precession of the Earth's poles follow a wavy rather than a circular path." [http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9708&msg=19295&sort=date Pynchon-L: Dinn's Notes]

'''Octagon Room''' 
[[Image:Greenwich Observatory Octagon Room.jpg|thumb|The Octagon Room of Greenwich Observatory]]"The Octagan [sic] Room in the Royal Observatory Greenwich was designed by Christopher Wren. A high ceiling was placed on top of this room so that Thomas Tompion's pendulum clocks could fit in. The building was finally finished in the 1670s" ([http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.5742/The-Octagon-Room.html Port Cities London]). See [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/bookman/library/ROG/ROG05.HTM The Royal Observatory Greenwich] for more detail.

Christopher Wren was, of course, an interesting fellow: "Sir Christopher Wren, (20 October 1632 – 25 February 1723) was a 17th century English designer, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English architect of his time. Wren designed 53 London churches, including St Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note. He was a founder of the Royal Society (president 1680–82), and his scientific work was highly regarded by Sir Isaac Newton and Blaise Pascal." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Wren Wikipedia]

Note that a couple of deadly devices are described in similar ("Octagon") terms: the [[O#Octuple|Octuple Gloucester]] (big cheese on page 137) and "The octagonal Barrel" of the rifle that M&D consider swapping for a Tub on p. 428.

'''Let him fear to stay up for stars that culminate too late''' 
culminate: "The attainment of the highest point of altitude reached by a heavenly body; passage across the meridian; transit." -- [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/culmination Wiktionary]

Note that there are three astronomical terms used on this page; consider, with a grain of salt, these possible double entendres, all reflecting Mason's thoughts regarding Maskelyne's appointment:
*Aberration -- Mason considers Maskelyne's appointment an aberration?
*Nutation -- "The action of nodding the head, esp. as a sign of drowsiness" (OED); Maskelyne is a drowsy (slow-witted) nut?
*"culminate too late" -- Does Mason consider himself a star who will eventually culminate via an appointment to H.M. Astronomer; hence, Masekelyn will fear "staying up too late" upon his post since Mason is clearly the man for the job?

[[M#morton|'''Morton''']] 
Secretary of the Royal Society at time of M-D Line.

'''The last three A.R.'s were all Oxford men''' 
List of Astronomer Royals (A.R.s) (per [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomer_Royal Wikipedia]):

*1675 – 1719: Rev'd John Flamsteed [1st A.R., educated at Cambridge]
*1720 – 1742: Professor Edmond Halley [an Oxford man]
*1742 – 1762: Dr James Bradley [an Oxford man]
*1762 – 1764: Nathaniel [[B#bliss|Bliss]] [an Oxford man]
*1765 – 1811: Rev'd Nevil Maskelyne [Cambridge]

'''Sizar''' 
"A sizar was one of a body of students in the universities of Cambridge and Dublin, who, having passed a certain examination, were exempted from paying college fees and charges. A sizar corresponded to a servitor at Oxford. The sizar paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging. They were probably so called from being thus employed in distributing the size, or provisions." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sizar Wikipedia]

==Page 438==
'''another bonny mess''' 
Reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Fine_Mess Laurel and Hardy] ("That's another fine mess you've gotten us into!")?

'''a Page, enclos'd with the letter, clipp'd from the ''Gentlemen's Magazine'' of the December previous''' 
Is this supposed to the ''Gentleman's Magazine'' (i.e., "man" not "men"), "the first general-interest magazine, and the most influential periodical of its time" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman%27s_Magazine Wikipedia])?

If this scene occurs in late February, 1765, "December previous" is December 1965. I have not been able to locate the 1764 volume of ''Gentleman's Magazine'', but here are some near misses:

* The 1765 volume of [http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0sDAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam#PRA1-PA544,M1 ''Gentleman's Magazine'']
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=xj8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1&dq=curiou+intitle:Gentleman%27s+intitle:Magazine#PPR10,M1 "A Selection of Curious Articles from the Gentleman's Magazine" (1811)], which contains a letter by Dr. Bevis (!) from the 1764 volume (!!). This collection also contains such wonderfully entitled articles as: "An Hour-glass found in a Coffin"; "On the Custom of Swearing in Discourse"'; and "A Saint whose Emblems are naked Boys in a Tub."
*Volumes 1731-1750 on the well-organized [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/pbrowse.pl?item=title&id=ILEJ.3.&title=Gentleman's+Magazine Internet Library of Early Journals]
*Other volumes on the less-well organized [http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:0LSUTDjZwMW9PlZDam&lr=&id=_UEdXMCpZ6wC&sa=N&start=430 Google Books].

'''there were, it seems, ten, competing for the job,- Betts, Bevis, Short...so on''' 
Note the alphabetical listing.
*[[B#betts|Betts]]???
*[[B#bevis|Bevis, John (1695-1771)]]--This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in Philosophical Transactions. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.
*[[S#short|Short, Mr]]--of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in the running for Astronomer Royal (see, also, p. 98).
*seven others???

==Annotation Index==

{{MD PbP}}

S

2007-09-03T04:00:24Z

Gideon: short div break

'''Sacques''' 
564;

'''St. Brendan (C.E. 484-578)''' 
A semi-legendary Irish saint best known for his 7-year voyage in search of the "Land of the Saints," i.e., the Isle of St. Brendan, supposedly in the mid-Atlantic, which Isle legend has him finding and living upon; "Set out in the fifth century to discover an Island he believ'd was the Paradise
of the Scriptures" 134; Isle, 703; 712; Well of Saint Brendan, 724; [http://www.catholicism.org/pages/brendan.htm Great Website on St. Brendan & Possible 5th Century Visits to America]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Brendan Wikipedia entry]

'''St.-Foux''' 
27; 39; 85

'''St. George Parry''' 
389; knife maneuver

<div id="helena"></div>'''St. Helena''' 
74; Island and British territory in the south Atlantic Ocean, 1920 km off the coast of southwest coast of Africa; it was annexed by the Dutch in 1633, then annexed and occupied by the [[E#eic|East India Company]] in 1659; became a British territory in 1833; coffee, 78; 105; 133

'''St. Kenelm's''' 
200; 211

'''Saint Nicholas''' 
352

'''St. Omer''' 
222; Le Maire teaches at a school there, 268

'''St. Peter''' 
26;

<div id="sandwich"></div>'''Sandwich, Lord (1718-92)''' 
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, took part in the prosecution of [[W#Wilkes|Sir John Wilkes]], was associated with Dashwood and the [[M#Medmenham|"Mad Monks of Medmenham Abbey"]]; for his corruption was nicknamed Jemmy Twitcher. The "Sandwich" was invented in 1762; Sandwich, 262, 366, 367, 720

'''''Sal Si Puedes''''' 
55;

'''Sally Lunn''' 
199; a baked good

'''Samarkand''' 
669

'''Sandy Bay''' 
127; 159

'''Sapperton''' 
170; village about 8 miles east of [[#stroud|Stroud]], and Mason's hometown; 719 [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Sapperton,+Gloucestershire,+GL7,+UK&ie=UTF8&om=1 Google Map]

'''Sappho's Fragment 95''' 
96; Sappho of Lesbos (@630BC) is considered one of the great Greek lyrist-poets (she wrote her poems to be accompanied by a lyre). Socrates called her "The Beautiful" and Plato wrote about her, "Some say there are Nine Muses. How careless they are! Behold, Sappho of Lesbos is the Tenth!" Sappho spent most of her life on the Greek island of Lesbos. Only one of Sappho's poems survives in its entirety; the rest are fragments, one of which is #95 which W. T. Wharton translates: "Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered; thou bringest the sheep, the goat, the child back to her mother." Pynchon used "[[H#hesperus|Hesperus]]" - the Goddess of Evening - which is often used instead of "Evening".
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho Wikipedia entry]

'''Savage Mountain''' 
683

'''''Scamozz''''' 
260;

'''Scanderoon''' 
251; "At the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, just below the point where the southern coast of Asia minor joins the western coast of Syria, lies the town of Scanderoon, the ancient city of Alexandretta. This is the seaport for Aleppo, ancient Haleb, about one hundred miles to the east and a little south, for centuries a trading centre whence go caravans of merchandise to the towns far down the Euphrates, and where are brought the grains and wool that come in return." (from: The Arab Horse, Chapter II, "Arabia, And Some of the Bedouins" by Spencer Borden; New York, 1906); Scanderoon/Alexandretta was also the site, in 1628, of Sir Kenelm Digby's (carrying Letters of Marque from King Charles I) victory against French and Venetian galleys anchored there.

'''Schess, Frederick''' 
509; Waggoner on M&D crew

'''Schiehallion''' 
730; "Scottish mountain"; mountain in Perthshire, Scotland; [[Schiehallion|Maskelyne and...]]

'''''schlag''''' 
580;

'''Schuylkill''' 
259; River flowing through the middle of Philadelphia and emptying into the Delaware (which separates Philadelphia from New Jersey). Its source is higher up in the state, in Schuylkill County. Pronounced SKOO-gull, "-kill" being derived from the Dutch for "river" or "canal". In the 18th century, the Schuylkill marked the western boundary of Philadelphia; [[Cape Map|MAP]]

'''Schvenkfelders''' 
380; members of a Protestant sect founded by Kaspar von Schwenkfeld (c.1490-1561), a German mystic. The sect's doctrines most resembled those of the Quakers. In 1736, 40 families emigrated to Pennsylvania where they maintained a distinct existence.

'''Scotia''' 
571;

'''''Scotismus''''' 
596

'''Scriblerian''' 
413; Martinus Scriblerus, a character invented by the Scriblerus Club formed around 1713 by Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, and others. They collaborated on ''The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus,'' a satire intended to ridicule lack of taste in learning; it was belatedly published in 1741.

'''Sea-Fret''' 
243; ''O.E.D.'': fret, North, M19, origin unknown, mist or drizzle coming in off the sea; a sea fog

'''''Seahorse''''' 
21; "Sixth-rate" on which M&D sail to Cape of Good Hope

'''Seal''' 
485

'''Seaton Prize''' 
116; The Seatonian Prize was set up in 1750, being awarded to any Cambridge
graduate for the best poem on "the perfections or attributes of the
supreme being." ''See also'' [[Christopher Smart|Christopher Smart and...]]

'''Sector''' 
13; a telescope meant to view only the zenith (the point in the sky directly above); [[Sector|MORE]]; [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_%28instrument%29 Wikipedia entry]

'''Selim''' 
31; racing Yorick in Chester Town, 756

'''Seneca''' 
532; American Indian tribe; 571; Maiden, 554; 609

'''''Senzacapo, Count''''' 
118; Italian: "without a head"

'''Serpents &c.''' 
135; Worm of Slavery, 147; 153; 196; 226; 231; 242; 245; 344; 352; 594; 591;
Serpent-mound, 595; 673; 676; "deadly watersnake" 690; 770

'''seventh Wrangler''' 
437; ''See'' [[W#wrangler|seventh Wrangler]]

<div id="seven"></div>'''Seven Years' War (1756-63)''' 
The last major conflict before the French Revolution to involve all the great European powers. Basically, it was France, Austria, Saxony, Sweden and Russian versus Prussia, Hanover and Great Britain. The French and Indian War in the colonies was part of it and was settled by the [[P#paris|Treaty of Paris]]. See also [[B#leuthen|Battle of Leuthen]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Years%27_War Wikipedia]

'''Seymour''' 
112

'''''Sha''''' 
542; aka "Bad Energy"; 545; 547; 573; 601; 615; 649; 683; 692

'''Shakespeare, William''' 
351; 690; ''Tragedy of Hypatia'', 559;

'''Shambles''' 
289; abattoir

'''Shantung''' 
169; soft, undressed Chinese silk or fabric made from same

'''Sharpe, Governor Horatio''' 
575; Governor of Maryland, and one of the Commissioners appointed by Lord Baltimore to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, at the time of the surveying of the M-D Line

'''Shaula, second Altitude of''' 
71; a star, Scorpii (Shaula); 72

'''Shawanese''' 
536; tribe that kidnapped Eliza; 595; 663

<div id="shelby"></div>'''Shelby, Captain Evan (1719-1794)''' 
497; A historical figure mentioned in Mason's [[Charles Mason's Journal|Mason's Journal Entry]]. His son, Isaac, became the first governor of the state of Kentucky (1792); 548; and Tom & Catherine Wheat, 576; Welshman, 581; 585; a surveyor, 586; Shelby's Mound, 598; "fighting in the West" 754; [[Proceedings of the Council of Maryland|Historical Record]]

'''Shelby Seat''' 
575

'''Shelton, Mr.''' 
13; Shelton Clock, 121;

'''''Shin''''' 
485

'''Shippen, Mr.''' 
293; wealthy Tory Loyalist and member of Governor's Council in Philadelphia, and one of the Commissioners appointed by the Proprietors of Pennsylvania to settle the boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania, at the time of the surveying of the M-D Line; 325; 773

'''Shippen, Peggy''' 
308; daughter of Mr. Shippen; married Benedict Arnold in June 1778.

'''Shippensburg''' 
601; city in Pennsylvania which borders Franklin and Cumberland
counties. Founded July 1730. Named after Edwin Shippen.

'''Shirburn Castle''' 
193;

'''Shockey, Staphel''' 
496; M&D pause at his house near Antietam Creek

<div id="short"></div>'''Short, Mr.''' 
98; of the Royal Society; made Gregorian reflector for M&D's telescope; 270; in
the running for Astronomer Royal, 438;

'''Shorty''' 
258; the cook

'''Shovell, Sir Cloudsley''' 
323; Captain whose ships crashed onto the Rocks of Scilly

'''Shuja-ud-Danla''' 
162;

'''Sideling Hill''' 
601; One of the best outcrops in the northeastern U.S.A.
is located in the panhandle of Maryland along route 48. Known as Sideling
Hill, the outcrop exposes a syncline in the Valley and Ridge of the
Appalachians, where younger Mississipian strata lie upon Devonian strata.
850 feet of sedimentary rock are exposed in the road cut, and consist of clastics ranging from shale to conglomerate, including coal measures and a rather enigmatic diamictite near the base. <ref>[http://www.geol.umd.edu/HUTTON/sideling.html Geology Website]</ref>

'''Silbury Hill''' 
Silbury Hill lies about a mile south of the Avebury Henge and is situated
in a slight dip just north of the A4 and can be reached from the adjacent
car park although visitors are discouraged from climbing the mound. The mound was built around 2660 BC by Neolithic farmers who subsisted on
wheat, barley, oxen, pigs, and sheep. In this area there is substantial
evidence of goddess worship, and the goddesses are typically portrayed in
the squatting (birthing) position. Silbury Hill is probably the most mysterious Neolithic site in Europe with many theories being expressed as to the purpose of its original construction. Although some believe it was the burial place of King Zil, along with a golden horse, several excavations rule this out as no trace of any type of burial was found. Some people believe that it was built to represent the mother goddess, with the mound sybolising the pregnant womb. It was constructed over a period of probably about 30 or 40 years, around 2500 - 2700 BC which makes it contemporary with the megaliths at Avebury and also with the pyramids in Egypt.598; 748; [http://www.stonehenge.co.uk/silbury_hill/silbury_hill_info.htm More on Silbury Hill]

'''Singleton, Captain John''' 
469; in whose meadow M&D sink a marker post

'''Sir Cloudsley''' 
130; Maskelyne's drink at his local on St. Helena

'''Sirius''' 
107; the Dog Star; The Dog Star, Sirius, is the brightest star in the sky, and frequently used in navigation; moreover, it's a paired star (not unlike Mason and Dixon)[http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/alpha/d.html#dog">MORE on ThomasPyncon.com]

'''Sisson''' 
119;

'''Six Nations''' 
513; 531; 571-72; 636

'''Sixty-six, the''' 
565

'''Sizer''' 
437; In Cambridge
University and at Trinity Colege, Dublin, a "sizer" is an undergraduate receiving an allowance from the college to enable him or her to study and,
formerly, required to perform certain menial duties.

'''Skanderoon''' 
47; aka Iskenderun, a southern Turkish seaport; 251

'''Skraellings''' 
633

'''Slad''' 
527; town in Gloucestershire, about 2 miles north of Stroud

'''Slavery''' 
"a Gothick Pursuit" 275; "In all Virginia, tho' Slaves pass'd before his Sight, he saw none. ''That'' was what had not occurr'd. It was all about something else [...]" 398; 692-93; Dixon accosting slave-driver, 695

'''Slough, Mr.''' 
342; where the Paxton Boys leave their horses. A "slough" is, according to ''Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary,'' "a place of deep mud or mire."

'''Slowcombe''' 
52; Fifer on ''Seahorse''

<div id="smart"></div>'''Smart, Christopher (1722-71)''' 
116; "Christopher Smart, who was tossed in the madhouse for his incessant praying (in the street, for the most part), constantly asked what creativity was, what rationality and irrationality were. His poems let loose a portion of the imagination which the age of reason made a point of keeping fettered with social norms and conventional religion; in this way his raptures were related to the scenes of redemptive or escapest madness we see in the literature of Sensibility." From [http://www.engl.virginia.edu/~enec981/dictionary/24smartM1.html this website]; Smart's published works include ''Poems on Several Occasions'' (1752), ''The Hilliad: An Epic Poem'' (1753), ''A Song to David'' (1763), ''Horace Translated into Verse'' (1767), and ''Jubilate Agno''; [[Christopher Smart|Smart and Samuel Johnson]]

'''Smedley, Lord''' 
281;

'''Smith, Captain John''' 
10; Captain of the ''Seahorse''; 349;

'''Smith, Matt''' 
305;

<div id="smith"></div>'''Smith, Old Sam''' 
638; Lancaster Sheriff and adversary of [[C#cresap|Thomas Cresap]]. Smith was a Pennsylvanian who had at one point (1736) burnt Cresap's home to the ground while attempting to arrest him for the murder of Knoles Daunt.

'''smoak''' 
understand (defined by content; word invented by Pynchon?), 25; smoke, 294; understand, 364;

'''Snake''' 
643; dog

'''Snares of Ranelagh''' 
140;

<div id="snorri"></div>'''Snorri''' 
633; child of [[K#karlsefni|Gudrid and Thorfinn Karlsefni]], and the first white child known to have been born in America.

'''Snotter''' 
566

'''Snowball, Billy''' 
503

'''Snow, Mr.''' 
243; Keel-Bully who takes Dixon out and they drift to "America"; [[Mr.Snow|Etymological Musings]]

'''Snowy Owl Year''' 
513

'''Soames, Jack "Fingers"''' 
53; 699 (?)

'''Society of Jesus''' 
223; Jesuits organization;
''
'''''Socko Stoombray''' 
647; Spanish: ''Se acostumbre''. The text translates this correctly, "one gets used to it."

'''Socrates''' 
283;

'''Sons of Liberty''' 
564; 570

'''Soubrette''' 
419

'''Soupçon de Trop''' 
378; French: "Too Much Suspicion" or "A Bit Much"; "local ''Repaire'' [den]"

'''South Mountain''' 
491;

'''Spadger''' 
259;

'''SPANISH TRANSLATIONS''' 
"una Criatura Ci'clica, asi eres" - "a cyclical creature, so you are" (432); "la Obra": "work" (522); "Pues Entonces": "Now then" or "Well then" (523); "Siempre Alguien derrama las Judias": "Someone always scatters the Jewesses" (523) ["Judias" also means "beans" - thus, what Zarpazo's really saying is "someone always spills the beans" (thanks to Benjamin Schei); "Viudita": "Little widow" (535); "!indale, mis hijos!": "come on/hurry up, my sons!" (549)

'''Spanish Visitor''' 
515; 524; 530; ''See'' [x-z.html#zarpazo">Zarpazo</a>

'''Spears, Mr.''' 
659; lives "where Braddock Road meets the Bank of the Yochio"

'''Spinney, Mr.''' 
454; on M&D crew

'''Spit, Guy''' 
457; "Pass-Bank Bully" on M&D crew; 546

'''Squire's Line''' 
694

'''Squivelli, Mr.''' 
177; ''LOrecchio Fatale'' ("The Fateful Ear")

<div id="staindrop"></div>'''Staindrop Church''' 
233;

'''Staithes''' 
418

<div id="stamp"></div>'''Stamp Act''' 
353; This law passed by the British government in 1765, levied the first-ever
direct tax by Britain on the Americans, requiring payment of a tax on items
such as papers and dopcuments, including newspapers, that were produced in
the colonies. Special stamps were to be affixed to the papers as proof that the tax had been paid. The uproar this act created in the colonies resulted in
George III repealing it in 1766; 394; 405; 564

'''Star Trek''' 
154; "They styl'd it 'Trekking,' and themselves 'Trekkers.'; 486; "Live long and prosper"; [Leonard Nimoy stated in an interview that he "borrowed" the "Vulcan salute" from a hand symbolin Orthodox Judaism; it is a blessing by the priests (''Kohanim'' which symbolizes the Hebrew letter ''shin'', the first letter in the word ''Shaddai'' (Lord)]

'''Stations of the Cross''' 
158; a series of 14 pictures or carvings portraying the Passion of Christ, from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his burial, i.e., (1) Jesus condemned to death, (2) made to bear the cross, (3) his first fall, (4) meets his mother, (5) Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross, (6) Veronica wipes Jesus' face, (7) his second fall, (8) women of Jerusalem weep over him, (9) falls a third time, (10) stripped of his garments, (11) nailed to the cross, (12) dies on the cross, (13) taken down from the cross, (14) placed in the tomb; 267; 314; 724

'''Stayndropshire''' 
233;

'''Steed''' 
577

'''Stephens''' 
32;

'''Stepney''' 
195;

'''Sterloop''' 
101; what the Dutch at the Cape call the rifles with the Pentacle sign, 342;

'''Stewart, Reverend''' 
305;

'''Stichomythia''' 
473; Dialogue in alternate lines of verse, used in disputation in Greek drama, and characterized by antithesis and repetition.

'''Stig''' 
443; Swede Axman on M&D crew; 465; Zarpazo in disguise? 545; 602; 610;
692; 706; 738

'''Stobs''' 
473; wooden stakes used for tallying the chains measured along the line

'''Stone, Reverend Mr. Edmund''' 
690; In 1750, the Rev. Edward Stone of Chipping Norton, England, isolated from a willow tree the first of a group of analgesic drugs derived from salicylic
acid (from the Latin "salix," which means "willow"). The acetylated
salicylic acid, having fewer side effects than Rev. Stone's original, is
better known as aspirin. It has become the most popular, effective,
universally used reliever of pain. [http://www.nidr.nih.gov/slavkin/pain.htm Source]

'''Stonehenge''' 
210; a Stone Age circle of standing stones, some still connected across the top with lintels, used as a cosmic calendar and for religious ceremonies. It is located east of center of a large area of flat land known as Salisbury Plain; 595; 749

<div id="strafford"></div>'''Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of(1593-1641)''' 
226; English statesman who was originally opposed to [[C#charles-I|King Charles I]], but then became a royalist. While lord deputy of Ireland, he promoted despotic policies in order to solidify Charles' dominion. When rebellion broke out in Scotland in response to the harsh policies, Strafford was blamed and, vigorously prosecuted by [[P#pym|John Pym]] and [[V#vane|Sir Henry Vane]], he was beheaded.

'''Strikes of '43 and '50''' 
244; [[Strikes of '43 and '50|MORE]]

<div id="stroud"></div>'''Stroud''' 
167; 197; Churs of, 414; 501; [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=stroud+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&om=1 Google Map]

'''Stuart''' 
551

'''Stuart Charters''' 
226;

'''Stukeleyesque''' 
595; William Stukeley (1687-1765) was a British antiquarian known as the "Arch-Druid." He did valuable objective fieldwork at Stonehenge and Avebury, but his later attempts to link them to the Druids lost many of his colleagues. He wrote ''Itinerarium Curiosum'' (1724) about his travels around Britain.

'''Styx''' 
399; river surrounding Hades; "Monongahela is the" 663

'''subjunctive'''
hopes, 345; laws of nature and common sense, 365

'''''Succedaneum''''' 
205; Latin: "successor" or "substitute" or "provider of relief"; "O sublime" 655

'''Sullivan, Mr.''' 
162;

'''Sumptuary Laws''' 
148; 

'''SURFACE''': 
313; 321; 390; 419

'''surveying''' 
460-61

'''Sutton Pool''' 
50;

'''Svånssen''' 
611-12

'''Sweet, Mr.''' 
454; on M&D crew

'''Swifts''' 
202; "glide like" 516

'''Swivett, Mr.''' 
192; in The George

'''Sybil''' 
591

'''Syncope''' 
8; (1) the loss of one or more letters in the interior of a word (as in ''scarr'd''); (2) faintness due to temporary loss of oxygen to the brain

<div id="szabo"></div>'''Szabo, Zsuzsa''' 
535; Hungarian for "Susan Taylor"; "operator of the automatick Battle of Leuthen" on M&D crew; 551

<div id="szeged"></div>'''Szeged, Truce of''' 
A ten-year truce between the Hungarians and Turks
in which Turkish Sultan Murad agreed not to cross the Danube River. Szeged,
city in southern Hungary, in Csongrad County, at the confluence of the Maros
and the Tisza rivers. Szeged's industries produce chemicals, rubber, glass,
furniture, and textiles, and carry on an extensive trade in paprika, wood,
corn, and wool. It is the site of the University of Szeged, formerly Jozsef Attila University (1921), which includes the Szeged University of Medicine (1872), and landmarks include the remains of a 13th-century tower and a large, two-spired cathedral. Szeged was a trade center and military stronghold for the Arpad kings, who ruled Hungary from 1000 or 1001 until the early 14th century. The city was under Turkish rule from 1542 to 1686. It was partly destroyed by a flood in 1879 and later rebuilt; 591; 594

==References==
<references/>

{{MD Alpha Nav}}

B

2007-09-03T03:57:21Z

Gideon: betts & bevis div breaks

'''B. of L.''' 
728; Bank of London

<div id="babylon"></div>'''Babylon''' 
600; one of the most famous cities of antiquity. It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia) from the early 2nd millennium to the early 1st millennium BC and capital of the Neo-Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, when it was at the height of its splendour. Its extensive ruins on the Euphrates River about 55 miles (88 kilometres) south of Baghdad lie near the modern town of al- Hillah. Babylon gets a lot of bad press from a Judeo-Christian perspective. The Tower of Babel, in the Old Testament, was located there, and the Mother of all Harlots in the Book of
Revelation. The evil twin of Jerusalem.

'''Bacchus''' 
339; The Roman god of wine and intoxication, equated with the Greek Dionysus. His festival was celebrated on March 16 and 17. The Bacchanalia, orgies in honor of Dionysus, were introduced in Rome around 200 BCE. These infamous celebrations, notorious for their sexual and criminal character, got so out of hand that they were forbidden by the Roman Senate in 186 BCE. Bacchus is also identified with the old-Italian god Liber. [http://www.pantheon.org/ Encyclopedia Mythica]

'''Bad Hats''' 
198

'''Baker, William''' 
672; M-D Line crewman killed by falling tree

'''Baker's Peel''' 
653; Crannarain ("Baker's Peel") is an Irish name for Ursa Major

'''Baltimore, Lord''' 
257

'''Banks, Joseph (1743-1820)''' 
770; president of the Royal Society, 1778-1820; made his name by going on the expedition to Tahiti with Captain Cook - the expedition ostensibly being to observe the 1769 [[T#transit|transit of Venus]]. His accounts of the voyage and the botany of the Pacific gave him prominence and he rose to be President of the Royal Society, friend (initially) of George III and general government scientific fix-it of the late eighteenth century.

'''Barcarole''' 
56; a gondoliers song, or a piece of music with a similar rhythm

'''Barkley''' 
577;

'''Barnes, Moses''' 
7; overseer of the axmen on M-D Line crew; 323; 435; 445; "Camp-Lawyer" 611

'''Barnett''' 
577;

'''''Bas-mondaine''''' 
668

'''Batavia''' 
77; present-day Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia

'''Bathsheba''' 
147; From the Bible: "It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, 'Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?' So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her .... And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, 'I am with child.' (2 Samuel 11:2-5 RSV)

Of all of the troubles that King David faced during his lifetime, the incident of adultery with Bathsheba was the most grave. Bathsheba's husband was Uriah, a loyal soldier of the king. When attempts failed to make it appear that Uriah was the father of the child that his wife was expecting (2 Samuel 11:6-13), David resorted to making her a widow so that he could take her as his own wife. God forgave David, not only because David repented (2 Samuel 12:13), but moreover for the sake of the assigned role that The Chosen People were given in God's plan of salvation for all humans, all sinners. David then married Bathsheba, but the child from the adulterous incident died. Later Bathsheba had a second son, Solomon, who succeeded David as King of Israel. Solomon was the first king of Israel born to a reigning king, and was the last king of the united kingdom of Israel.

'''Battery, The''' 
399; Battery Park (to New Yorkers, The Battery) is a 21-acre (8.5 ha) public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City. The park is named for the artillery that was stationed there at various times by the Dutch and British.

<div id="leuthen"></div>'''Battle of Leuthen''' 
536; The Battle of Leuthen was a battle fought on December 5, 1757 during the [[S#seven|Seven Years' War]]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leuthen More from Wikipedia]

<div id="wandiwash"></div>'''Battle of Wandiwash''' 
564; decisive battle, fought on Jan. 22, 1760, in the Anglo-French struggle in
So. India during the Seven Years' War; ''See also'' [[C#coote|Coote, Eyre]]

'''Bay of All Saints''' 
161;

'''Bayley''' 
738

'''Beacon Line''' 
712

'''Beck, Zepho''' 
618

'''Beck, Rhodie''' 
619; wife of Zepho

'''becoach-and-six''' 
329

'''Bedlamite''' 
314; aka "Madman" or "Fool," named for Bedlam which is a contraction of Bethlehem Royal Hospital, the first insane asylum in England, est. 1247; 440; 729

<div id="beggars"></div>'''''Beggar's Opera''''' 
270; Written by John Gay (1685-1732), ''The Beggar's Opera'' debuted in 1728 in London. It was an immediate success, breaking all previous records and was performed more than any other play during the 18th century.(1) It was a complete departure from the popular Italian operas of its time. ''The Beggar's Opera'' used both dialogue and music to further the story. Gay took music from whereever he could find them. Forty-one of the sixty-nine airs were broadside ballads of the time. The other tunes were borrowed from contemporary composers (including Handel). To these tunes he wrote lyrics to fit his play. Instead of taking his plot from myth he wrote a story focused on the underbelly of society - thieves, whores, fences and jailers. The world of the Beggar's opera is gritty and real, it's end optimistic only because of the popular insistence that Operas must end happily

Despite its grim reality, ''The Beggar's Opera'' is a comedy. It is a period romp that comments with brilliant satire on life. It's satire was on both society and politics. The populace and critics of the time understood [./w.html#walpole">Sir Robert Walpole], a whig and considered England's first Prime Minister, to be the subject of many of the scenes, and his play Polly was banned by Walpole for the fact. [More from [http://www.contemplator.com/history/johngay.html The Contemplator's Short History of John Gay and ''The Beggar's Opera'']]

'''''Bellezza, che chiama''''' 
416; Italian: "A beauty that beckons..."

'''Bencoolen''' 
33; aka Benkulen; (aka Fort Marlborough to the East India Co, during M&D's time) On the West coast of Sumatra, approx half way between the equator and
Krakatoa. According to J Keay in ''The Hon. Company'' "It was not a popular
destination. Only the disgraced and the truly desperate found their way
[there]." 41; 44; 47; 270-71

<div id="bernoulli"></div>'''Bernoulli, Jakob (1654-1705)''' 
135; Swiss mathematician who was the first to use the term integral. He studied the catenary, the curve of a suspended string. He was an early user of polar coordinates and discovered the isochrone; [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Bernoulli_Jacob.html More]]

'''Besozzi, Alessandro (1702-93)''' 
Composer who created several works for oboe, including 'Divertimenti in E Minor for Oboe and Violincello' and 'Sonata, Opus. VII, No. 6; several members of the family were composers;'"oboick reveries of" 413; 668

<div id="betts"></div>'''Betts''' 
438; in the running for Astronomer Royal

<div id="bevis"></div>'''Bevis, John (1695-1771)''' 
438; This physician and amateur astronomer was the discoverer of the "Crab Nebula" in Taurus, M1 (1731). In 1769 he observed the Transit of Venus from just along the road from King George at Richmond, and published his observations in ''Philosophical Transactions''. He described the initial turbulence to Venus as "a black wafer on the surface of a drum." Bevis was also a Commissioner of Longitude under which the Nautical Almanac was produced and which included Maskelyne's instructions for observing the Transit.

<div id="bible"></div>'''Bible''' 
Garden in Genesis, 134; "an Israelite in whom
there is no guile" 278 (Washington says John 1:49, but it's actually John 1:47); reference to Exodus 4:14 (should be Exodus 3:14--that Cherrycoke sure knows his bible, eh?), 486; [[L#lost|Lost Tribes of Israel]], 485; Infancy Gospel of [[T#thomas|Thomas]], 486; "Revelation exists as a Fact" 487; Adam & Eve, 615

'''Bienville, Céléron de''' 
285

'''Big Dipper''' 
652; Bear's Tail, 652; Ursa Major, 653

'''Birch, Mr. Tom''' 
75; 247; 270; 603

<div id="bird"></div>'''Bird, John''' 
12; was the creater of many astronomical instruments at Greenwich and a
member of the Royal Society. He recommended Dixon for the surveying of the
Pennsylvania/Maryland line, and he built the sector used by M&D; 13; 17; Quaker, 43; 73; 75; made Darkening Nozzles for M&D's telescope, 98; 120; 298; wrote a letter to M&D announcing Maskelyne's promotion, 436

'''Bishop of Durham''' 
43; Clause, 282

'''Bisley''' 
Bisley is five miles east of Stroud. Chalford is about four miles
slightly west of due south from Bisley, but the line to Stonehenge runs east of
Stroud passing through Oakridge which neighbors Chalford, continuing over
the river and up the valley on the other side and on to Stonehenge. Near Calne, the line passes a smaller stone circle and an image of a horse carved into the chalky ground of a hillside; Church, 218; 292; Parish, 504

'''Blapsia''' 
492

'''Black Boys''' 
490; 601

'''Black Dog''' 
494; ("the mandrake, which, when tied to the tail of a
black dog, shrieks when it is torn out of the earth" - ''The
Philosophical Tree in Alchemical Studies'' (Coll. Works, Vol. 13, p. 311)

'''Blackner, Mr.''' 
117; Landlord of The Moon tavern

<div id="blackhole"></div>'''Black Hole of Calcutta''' 
152; 404; 483; ''The Black Hole of Calcutta, or, The Peevish Wazir'', 562; 665

'''Black Joke, The''' 
583; fiddle tune play'd at Hynes/Wheat wedding

'''Black-Powder''' 
402; "thick-set Irishman" on Long Island; 564

'''Black Watch Plaid''' 
490; The Black Watch or Royal Highland Regiment, was
a Scottish infantry regiment. It was formed (1739-40) to guard against
Scottish rebels and keep the peace. It became known as the Black Watch
because of the dark colors of its plaid regimental tartan.

'''Bland, Margaret "Meg"''' 
751; Dixon's live-in lover in later years

'''Blinky''' 
35

<div id="bliss"></div>'''Bliss''' 
436; "The Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (28 November 1700 – 2 September 1764) was a noted English astronomer of the 18th century, serving as Astronomer Royal between 1762 and 1764. Bliss was born in the Cotswolds village of Bisley in Gloucestershire and studied at Pembroke College, Oxford. He graduated B.A. in 1720 and M.A. in 1723.Rector of St Ebb's church in Oxford, he succeeded Edmond Halley as professor of geometry at Oxford University in 1742 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He succeeded James Bradley to become the fourth Astronomer Royal in 1762." -- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Bliss Wikipedia]

He died in Oxford but was buried close to Halley in St Margaret's churchyard in Lee in south-east London.

'''Blondelle, S.''' 
518; at Jesuit College; 534

'''Blue Jamaica, The''' 
268; Ben Franklin's local tavern

'''Blue Mountain''' 
513; a range in SE Pennsylvania, part of Kittatinny
Mountain.

'''Boatswain's Pipe''' 
26; (pronounced "Bo's'n")

'''Bobotie''' 
[[Chapter 8: 77-86|82]]; South African dish: curried, minced meat with other various ingredients (e.g., dried fruits, onions), "baked with an egg-based topping … known in the [[Cape of Good Hope]] since the 17th century" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobotie Wikipedia]

'''Bob's Your Uncle''' 
145; this is British slang that means, basically, "no problem" or "there you are"

'''''Bocsánat''''' 
591; Hungarian: "excuse me" or "I'm sorry"

'''bodice-ripper''' 
Slang for a romantic-erotic novel, especially one with a historical plot; Vrou
Vroom, 86; "Bodices are for ripping, and there's an end upon it." 419

<div id="bodine"></div>'''Bodine, Fender-Belly''' 
21; Foretopman on ''Seahorse''; 28; 55; 566; his "Bi-Lunar Exhibition" at Ft. George, 570; Bodine's descendant, Pig Bodine, in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=B#bodine ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and [http://www.thomaspynchon.com/v/alpha/b.html#bodine ''V.'']

'''Bodkin''' 
75; the stilletto pin worn by ladies in their hair

'''Bodley, Mr.''' 
558

'''Boet''' 
155; type of Dutch clock

'''Boggs, Robert''' 
441; on M-D Line crew; 492

'''Bombazine''' 
251; One of the oldest fabrics known, this was a fine silk or wool fabric of plain or twill weave for formal dresses. In black, it was the traditional mourning cloth. Now made from silk warp and worsted weft with imitations made from viscose or cotton. May be fairly crisp. Used mainly for evening and wedding-gowns, if silk or viscose it is lustrous. The name comes from Latin "bombycinum" which means a silky in texture. <ref>[http://www.resil.com/otd.html The Online Textile Dictionary]</ref>

'''Bongo''' 
37

'''''Bonhomie''''' 
558

<div id="bonk"></div>'''Bonk, Police Agent''' 
59; of the V.O.C.; 102; in drag, 154; 183

'''Boötes''' 
653; Greek: "the ploughman"; the constellation which contains the bright star, Arcturus

'''Boppdörfer, Baron von''' 
724; author of ''Über Bernouillis Brachistochronsprobleme'', 1702; "brachistochrone" is the curve providing the quickest descent (for an object
sliding down the curve) between two given points. Over the course of three
generations, the Bernoulli family produced many of the leading 18th century
mathematicians.

'''Boscovich, Father Roger Joseph (1711-87)''' 
44; Croatian mathematician and astronomer; 215; 222; 223; 269; 450; ''De Solis et Lunae Defectimus'', 474; 546; Theory of Repulsion, 604; [[Father Boscovich|Much More]]

<div id="boswell"></div>'''Boswell, James (1740-95)''' 
718; a Scottish writer born in Edinburgh. Although he studied law and was a member of both the Scottish and English bars, he devoted his life primarily to literary pursuits. He met [[S#sjohnson|Dr. Samuel Johnson]] in 1763 and from 1772 to 1784 was his close friend and biographer. He became a member of Johnson's literary club in 1773; 744

'''Botha Brothers''' 
60

<div id="bouguer"></div>'''Bouguer, Pierre (1698-1758)''' 
Pierre Bouguer succeeded his father Jean Bouguer at the age of 15 as royal professor of hydrography. He was a scientist who was the first to attempt to measure the density of the Earth using the deflection of a plumb line due to the attraction of a mountain. Bouguer, together with [c.html#condamine">La Condamine], made measurements in Peru in 1740 publishing his results in ''La Figure de la terre'' (1749). A more successful use of this method by the astronomer Maskelyne placed the density between 4.5 and 5. In mathematics Bouguer studied pursuit curves in 1732. He also wrote on naval manoeuvres and navigation and, in ship design, derived a formula for calculating the metacentric radius (a measure of ship stability); LeMaire in Lapp-Land with, 544

'''boundaries''' 
"all boundaries shall be erased" 406; 429; Schuylkill, 433; Susquehanna, 467;
512-13; Susquehanna, 639

'''Bouquet, General Henry (1719-65)''' 
Took part in 1758 attack on Fort Duquesne, and crushed Chief Pontiac's 1763 rebellion; his "Proclamation" 277; 307; his "Edict" 616; Colonel, 617; his Scheme, 617; "Success at Bushy Run" 661

'''Bourbons''' 
224; French Royal house, who at this time also ruled Spain. Was on
the wane under Louis 15th (1715-1774) and 16th (1774 to 1793 when he was beheaded). They were heavily influenced by the Calvinist Huguenots, hence their dislike for the Jesuits.

'''Bourquelet''' 
236

'''Braddock, Edward (1695-1755)''' 
309; a Scottish soldier who came to America; he was Commander-in-Chief of the British-American forces when he led the attack Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh), on July 9, 1755, where he was ambushed and slain; George Washington was on that expedition, and it was supposedly there where he learned to not wear a redcoat; 330; 501; his Vistoe, 613; 697; [[Charles Mason's Journal|Mason's Journal Entry]]

<div id="bradley"></div>'''Bradley, Dr. James (1693-1762)''' 
45; Astronomer Royal at the time a request for an English surveying team to
determine the Pennsylvania/Maryland border was made. Bradley was the
director of the the Greenwich Observatory. He recommended Charles Mason who
had been his assistant observer from 1756 to 1760, working closely with
Bradley on a catalogue of positions of the moon. In 1729 he published his
discovery of the [[Aberration of Light|aberration of light]], providing the first observational proof of the Copernican hypothesis that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not vice versa); 75; Astronomer Royal (A.R.), 137; 141; 173; 181; 182; death of, 184; 209
213; 437; 557; Star Catalogue, 461; 772

'''Bradley, Miss''' 
143; only child of James Bradley & Susannah Peach; infatuated with Rebekah, 186

'''Brain, Mr.''' 
228; proprietor of Cudgel & Throck

'''Brain, Mrs.''' 
235

'''Brannon's''' 
564; where Dixons with dancing girls in New York

'''Break-Neck Valley''' 
174; on St. Helena

'''Breech-clout''' 
520; clout is an Olde English word for a piece of cloth. Breech is an mid-16th Century word for the buttocks, otherwise archaic except in the sense of a baby's buttocks before or at birth

'''Breguet's Palsy''' 
122; Frenchman Breguet (1747-1823) designed a clock with a hairspring ending in an overcoil, i.e., raised and bent in towards the center to improve timekeeping (a hair spring is not the main spring which drives the clock it regulates the motion of the balance wheel which serves to control the speed of the clock).

<div id="brest"></div>'''Brest''' 
27; town located on the northwest tip of France and still the site of a French naval station; "Brest fleet" refers to the French fleet under the command of Count de [c.html#conflans">Conflans] that was trapped in [[Q#quiberon|Quiberon Bay]] and destroyed by [[H#hawke|Admiral Hawke's fleet]]

'''Bridgeport Dagger''' 
15

'''Briget''' 
129; St. Helena prostitute

'''''Brilliant''''' 
49; Frigate traveling with the ''Seahorse'' to Tenerife

'''Brum Kiddy''' 
767

'''Bryant, Alexander''' 
333; farmer; 441; 460

'''Brynjolf, Bishop''' 
612; his gift of ancient Vellum Manuscript to Frederick the Third:

:"This Gudbrand was born in 1639 (ob. 1719), and was thus forty-three years of age when Jon Eggertsson secured the manuscript of our story in Iceland. Gudbrand's father was in his day by a long way the most learned man in Iceland, his great rival, Bishop Brynjolf, appearing on the scene first towards the close of Arngrim's life. He was a collector of manuscripts and author of standard works upon the history and antiquities of his country." <ref>[http://omacl.org/Heitharviga/preface.html The Online Medievel and Classical Library]</ref>

<div id="bubb"></div>'''Bubb Dodington, George (1691-1762)''' 
113; aka Baron Melcombe; friend of Florinda's; famous for his
Machiavellian political diary (publ. 1784), and for being the patron
of a number of poets and writers, chiefly James Thomson, Edward Young
and Henry Fielding. [[P#pope|Pope]] hated him, and immortalised him
in the "Epistle to Arbuthnot": But still the great have kindness in reserve/He help'd to bury whom he helped to starve" (ll.247-248); his name became a byword for aristocratic hauteur, tactless arrogance and amorality (c.f., Pope's 4th Moral Essay and the first Epilogue to the Satires); thus the irony in Mason's comments on him on p.114 is quite overt.

'''Buddhists''' 
543; 615

'''Bukhara''' 
669

'''Bull's Eye''' 
87; a crown-piece (coin); 91; 99

'''Bumboats''' 
403(a) a scavenger's boat removing rubbish and filth from ships moored in the River Thames (and also bearing provisions) (b) a boat bearing fresh provisions to the ships.

'''Burgesses''' 
395

'''Bush''' 
132; "from Bush to Oast unmediated"; this would refer to the brewing of beer, from the hops to the oast which is a conical kiln used for drying hops, malt or tobacco.

'''Bushy Run''' 
307

'''Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of (1713-92)''' 
367; Bute, a Scotsman, had tutored young George since childhood, and was appointed secretary of state in 1761 when George ascended to the throne. He was George's confidant and constant companion until he was essentially cut off from the king in 1765 by those who did not approve of the consequences of his influence.

'''Butter-Bag Castle''' 
69; "butter-bag" is slang for "female breast" and was, like "butter-box", in the 16th-18th centuries, somewhat derogatory slang for a Dutchman

'''Byrd, Colonel''' 
395; surveyor who kept detailed Field-Book; "running the Line 'twixt Virginia
and Carolina" 671

==References==
<references/>

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