M&D Spoiler - Chapter 64 (& others)

[Greg Montalbano]

While vacationing with my lovely & talented wife, we stayed at a rustic,
dramatic cabin clinging to the cliffs overlooking Cuffeys Bay in the tiny
town of Elk, California.  I'd just finished reading Chapter 64 -- Capt.
Zhang's telling of the story of Hsi & Ho -- when, casting about the cabin
bookshelf for some light reading, I came across STEELE'S NEW ASTRONOMY,
printed in 1884 by the A & S Barnes Co.
In the introductory material dealing with astronomy throughout history &
throughout the world, I found this passage dealing with China:

"They have also the first record of an eclipse of the sun (BC 21280;  and
one of their emperors put to death the chief astronomers Ho and Hi for
failing to announce the solar eclipse of 2169 BC."

Scanning the volume for other M&D-isms, I found, under the Transit of Venus:

"Le Gentil, sent out by the French Academy to observe the transit of 1761 in
the East Indies, was prevented from making his first port by the war with
England.  High winds afterward kept him out at sea till the transit was
over.  He then resolved to remain abroad until after the transit of 1769.
Eight long years passed, and the morning of June 3, 1769, dawned bright and
beautiful.  Le Gentil, with his instruments all in place, was counting the
moments for the long-awaited transit to begin;  when, suddenly, the sky grew
black with clouds and a tropical storm, the first in days, swept by.
Meantime, Venus came and went, and the ill-fated Le Gentil had again lost
the opportunity of years.  Prostrated by his bitter disappointment, it was
two weeks before he could hold his pen to write the story of his second
failure."

But the discovery that pleased me the most was in the section dealing with
Pope Gregory's calendar reform:

"Protestant England did not accept the change intil 1752.  The difference
then amounted to 11 days.  This sweeping change was received in England with
great dissatisfaction.  Prof De Morgan narrates the following:  'A worthy
couple in a country town, scandalized by the change of the calendar,
continued for many years to attempt the observance of Good Friday on the old
day.  To this end they would walk seriously and in full dress to the church
door, on which the gentleman rapped with his stick.  On finding no
admittance, they walked as seriously back again and read the service at home.  
'There was a widespread superstition that, when Christmas day began, the
cattle fell on their knees in their stables.  It was asserted that, refusing
to change, they continued their prostrations according to the Old Style.  In
England, the members of the Government were mobbed in the streets by the
crowd, which demanded the eleven days of which they had been illegaly
deprived.' "