Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

L

2012-08-20T03:01:17Z

Gorddev: Changed Linkman entry to Link-men. Corrected entry..

'''Labyrinths'''<br />
25; 208; 362; 409; 411; 413; 427; 514; 612; 653;

'''Lacaille, Monsieur'''<br />
59;

'''Lagoo, 2-A'''<br />
420; French spy from Canada

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

'''Lambton, Lord'''<br />
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 Lambton|Biblical Correspondence]]

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

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

'''Lamination'''<br />
389-90

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

'''Lapis'''<br />
689; 689

'''Laplace, Pierre Simon, Marquis de (1749-1827)'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
546; region of northern Europe above the arctic circle, encompassing far-northern areas of Finland, Norway and Sweden

'''Larrk of the Sanguine'''<br />
247; Mason's pronounciation of Lark, his sarcastic description of Dixon as a singing bird of confidence

'''Larry, Mr.'''<br />
303; "Irish Wig-Maker at Bermondsley"

'''Lascar'''<br />
37

'''Latimers'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
39; sick bay on a ship

'''Leadenhall Street'''<br />
10; 162; 539; Address of the East India Company

'''Lead Mines'''<br />
547; "spherickal caverns"

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

'''Lehigh'''<br />
306; near where the Indians who were slaughtered "were peacefully settl'd"

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

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

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

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

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

'''Lepton, Lord'''<br />
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")'''<br />
6; sister of Wicks Cherrycoke and wife of J.W. LeSpark

'''LeSpark, Ives'''<br />
9; brother of John Wade and Lomax; 96; 56; 263

'''LeSpark, John Wade'''<br />
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'''<br />
47; brother of J. Wade and Ives; 759

<div id="lethe"></div>'''Lethe'''<br />
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'''<br />
251

'''Lewis'''<br />
269; selling watches

'''Ley-builders'''<br />
681; "put up Cairns"

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

'''Leyden-Jar'''<br />
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'''<br />
390

<div id="ley-lines"></div>'''Ley-Lines'''<br />
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'''''<br />
33; the French ship that attacks the ''Seahorse''; 247; 688

'''Li'''<br />
627;

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

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

'''Link-men'''<br />
362;477 (Linkmen); OED defines linkman as a man employed to carry a torch (1716,1762). 477 Dixon refers to fireflies as 'tiny Linkmen'

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

'''Litharge'''<br />
227; lead monoxide

'''''Litteraria Expeditione et Soforthia, De'''''<br />
222; mock-Latin title of supposed Jesuit-related book; perhaps an indirect reference to 'Dialogo dei due massimi sistemi del mondo', the book that got Galileo into trouble

'''Little Bear'''<br />
653; Ursa Minoris

'''Lloyd'''<br />
617

'''Locust-Street'''<br />
266; in Philadelphia

'''Lomax, Uncle'''<br />
47; ''See'' [[#lomax|LeSpark, Lomax]]

'''Longitude Act of 1714'''<br />
141; offered a large cash prize for a reliable method for finding longditude at sea

'''Longitude (Question of)'''<br />
712;

'''Long Reach'''<br />
245; "above Gravesend"

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

'''López, Don Vicente'''<br />
338

'''Lord Bishop's Castle'''<br />
754; at Bishop Auckland

<div id="lost"></div>'''Lost Tribes of Israel'''<br />
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'''<br />
127

<div id="love"></div>'''"Love in a Cottage"'''<br />
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"'''<br />
711

'''Loxley, Benjamin'''<br />
296; carpenter

'''Loxodrome'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
54; on St. Helena

'''Luddite'''<br />
312-13; [not found at this page ref: please check]

'''Ludgate'''<br />
10

'''Lunarians'''<br />
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'''<br />
201; observations made by Lunarians

'''Lunettes'''<br />
269; French, eye-glasses

<div id="luo-pan"></div>'''''Luo-Pan'''''<br />
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'''<br />
576; friend of Tom Hynes'

'''Lyra'''<br />
673; constellation

{{MD Alpha Nav}}

B

2012-08-20T02:39:38Z

Gorddev: Separated Bishop of Durham Clause from Bishop of Durham. Added entry for Bishop of Durham Clause.

'''B. of L.'''<br />
728; Board of Longditude (specified 730)

<div id="babylon"></div>'''Babylon'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
198; disreputable characters

'''Baker, William'''<br />
672; M-D Line crewman killed by falling tree

'''Baker's Peel'''<br />
653; Crannarain ("Baker's Peel") is an Irish name for Ursa Major

'''Baltimore, Lord'''<br />
257

'''Banks, Joseph (1743-1820)'''<br />
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'''<br />
56; a gondoliers song, or a piece of music with a similar rhythm

'''Barkley'''<br />
577;

'''Barnes, Moses'''<br />
7; overseer of the axmen on M-D Line crew; 323; 435; 445; "Camp-Lawyer" 611

'''Barnett'''<br />
577;

'''''Bas-mondaine'''''<br />
668; French: The lower classes.

'''Batavia'''<br />
77; present-day Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia

'''Bathsheba'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
161;

'''Bayley'''<br />
738

'''Beck, Zepho'''<br />
618

'''Beck, Rhodie'''<br />
619; wife of Zepho

'''becoach-and-six'''<br />
324 to harness together a Pack of lawyers like a six-horse coach

'''Bedlamite'''<br />
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'''''<br />
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 wherever he could find it. 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'''''<br />
416; Italian: "A beauty that beckons..."

'''Bencoolen'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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'''<br />
438; in the running for Astronomer Royal

<div id="bevis"></div>'''Bevis, John (1695-1771)'''<br />
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'''<br />
Garden in Genesis, 134; "an Israelite in whom
there is no guile" 278 (Pynchon says John 1:49, but it's actually John 1:47); reference to Exodus 3:14 (first edition has 4:14, but this is corrected in later printings, so apparently a typo), 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'''<br />
285

'''Big Dipper'''<br />
652; Bear's Tail, 652; Ursa Major, 653

'''Birch, Mr. Tom'''<br />
75; 247; 270; 603

<div id="bird"></div>'''Bird, John'''<br />
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'''<br />
43;

'''Bishop of Durham Clause'''<br />
282; A clause from Charles II's <i>Charter of Carolina </i> (1663) that invokes the extra authority traditionally given to the Prince Bishops of Durham by Westminster to rule their hinterlands.

'''Bisley'''<br />
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'''<br />
492

'''Black Boys'''<br />
490; 601

'''Black Dog'''<br />
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.'''<br />
117; Landlord of The Moon tavern

<div id="blackhole"></div>'''Black Hole of Calcutta'''<br />
152; 404; 483; ''The Black Hole of Calcutta, or, The Peevish Wazir'', 562; 665

'''Black Joke, The'''<br />
583; fiddle tune played at Hynes/Wheat wedding

'''Black-Powder'''<br />
402; "thick-set Irishman" on Long Island; 564

'''Black Watch Plaid'''<br />
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. Amalgamated into other regiments in 2007.

'''Bland, Margaret "Meg"'''<br />
751; Dixon's live-in lover in later years

'''Blinky'''<br />
35

<div id="bliss"></div>'''Bliss'''<br />
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.'''<br />
518; at Jesuit College; 534

'''Blue Jamaica, The'''<br />
268; Ben Franklin's local tavern

'''Blue Mountain'''<br />
513; a range in SE Pennsylvania, part of Kittatinny
Mountain.

'''Boatswain's Pipe'''<br />
26; (pronounced "Bo's'n"): a two-note whistle used to announce senior officers coming aboard.

'''Bobotie'''<br />
[[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'''<br />
145; this is British slang that means, basically, "no problem" or "there you are"

'''''Bocsánat'''''<br />
591; Hungarian: "excuse me" or "I'm sorry"

'''bodice-ripper'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
75; a large needle, in this case for Tenebrae's embroidery.
''"For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?"''; Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1.

'''Bodley, Mr.'''<br />
558

'''Boet'''<br />
155; type of Dutch clock

'''Boggs, Robert'''<br />
441; on M-D Line crew; 492

'''Bombazine'''<br />
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'''<br />
37

'''''Bonhomie'''''<br />
558; French: Easy good nature

<div id="bonk"></div>'''Bonk, Police Agent'''<br />
59; of the V.O.C.; 102; in drag, 154; 183; ['Bonking' is UK slang for sexual intercourse]

'''Boötes'''<br />
653; Greek: "the ploughman"; the constellation which contains the bright star, Arcturus

'''Boppdörfer, Baron von'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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'''<br />
60

<div id="bouguer"></div>'''Bouguer, Pierre (1698-1758)'''<br />
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'''<br />
"all boundaries shall be erased" 406; 429; Schuylkill, 433; Susquehanna, 467;
512-13; Susquehanna, 639

'''Bouquet, General Henry (1719-65)'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
236

'''Braddock, Edward (1695-1755)'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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'''<br />
143; only child of James Bradley & Susannah Peach; infatuated with Rebekah, 186

'''Brain, Mr.'''<br />
228; proprietor of Cudgel & Throck

'''Brain, Mrs.'''<br />
235

'''Brannon's'''<br />
564; where Dixons with dancing girls in New York

'''Break-Neck Valley'''<br />
174; on St. Helena

'''Breech-clout'''<br />
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; 'breeches' is an archaic term for trousers.

'''Breguet's Palsy'''<br />
122; imaginary disease of clocks. 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'''<br />
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'''<br />
15

'''Briget'''<br />
129; St. Helena prostitute

'''''Brilliant'''''<br />
49; Frigate traveling with the ''Seahorse'' to Tenerife

'''Brum Kiddy'''<br />
767; A native of Birmingham [Brummagem, Brum - the city name as pronounced in the dense local accent]

'''Bryant, Alexander'''<br />
333; farmer; 441; 460

'''Brynjolf, Bishop'''<br />
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)'''<br />
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'''<br />
543; 615

'''Bukhara'''<br />
669; ancient city in Uzbekistan, on the Silk Road and famous for its carpets (now more often Bokhara)

'''Bull's Eye'''<br />
87; a crown-piece (coin); 91; 99

'''Bumboats'''<br />
403(a) a scavenger's boat removing rubbish and filth from ships moored in the River Thames (b) a boat bearing fresh provisions to the ships. [The character 'Buttercup' in the comic opera 'HMS Pinafore' is described as "A Portsmouth bumboat-woman"]

'''Burgesses'''<br />
395; a burgess was a borough magistrate or Member of Parliament; members of a privileged class

'''Bush'''<br />
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'''<br />
307

'''Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of (1713-92)'''<br />
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'''<br />
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'''<br />
395; surveyor who kept detailed Field-Book; "running the Line 'twixt Virginia
and Carolina" 671

==References==
<references/>

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