MDDM Ch. 24 Summary, Notes

[jbor]

We shift to a recount of Dixon's early years in Staindrop, Wicks apparently
narrating a later conversation between Chas and Jere. Jere's father's
admiration of his mother's shoes at a Quaker meeting was supposedly the
beginning of their romance and betrothal, and the story had been passed down
to the children as something of a family legend.

Episodes from his parents' courtship, and Jere's childhood, are depicted:
the tangled history of Mary's and George's parents and step-parents; Mary
becoming the ward of her uncle (interrupted by a cryptic aside from Wicks to
Tenebrae, and her protest); Jere their youngest child, teased by his older
brother and sisters, and relishing the attention; his mother's wisdom.

We jump then to a description of Jeremiah as a young man, working as a
surveyor, his fondness for Ale, in awe of some of the local superstitions,
going off the rails somewhat after his father's death ("turning into a
Country Lout" 241), and, simultaneously introverted, hard at work honing his
drawing skills and sketching the contours of an imaginary territory in his
mind. At that time he also began to frequent the local mining pubs at night,
eager to hear about his father from the men who had worked with George Snr.

Another jump, to the present time of the narrative, and Dixon is now the
story-teller at "The Jolly Pitman", oft-times again amongst some of his
father's friends. An invitation from one of these men, Mr Snow, to go on his
barge, results in Jere hitching a lift out to the coal ship which is to
transport him back to London

As they travel out to the harbour a wet sea-fog ("Fret") descends, and they
are suddenly under attack by a fleet of canoes manned by what seem to be the
ghosts of Geordie miners and keelmen, some of whom were hanged, or
transported to America, "after the strikes of '43 and '50" (244). A
cacophony of bells rings out, and the ghosts taunt the three men on the
barge. When the fog lifts the faces of the ghosts are silent, resentful,
familiar even so. Dixon, unnerved, ponders the significance of this ominous
prophecy of America.

Finally, safe aboard the little Collier-Brig, the *Mary and Meg*, Jere is
sailing back down the coast to London to meet up again with Mason.

***

239.3 "Quarterly Meeting" of the Quakers

239.5 "quaquaversal array" quaquaversal. adj. *Geology* directed outward in
all directions from a common centre [18th c. from Latin]

239.20 "'gannin straights'" courting seriously, a dialectal precursor of
'going steady' perhaps

http://www.geordiepride.demon.co.uk/dictionary.htm

Most of the dialect words and phrases in this section are referenced here.

242.5 "Humlock" Scottish name for hemlock

http://www.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/usedata/maxvals=10/firstval=
1?UNIQUE_COMMON_NAME=Humlock

242.11 "Levigating, elutriating ... " levigate vb. *Chem.* 1. to grind into
a smooth powder or smooth paste [18th c. from Latin]
                                      elutriate vb. to purify or separate (a
substance or mixture) by washing and straining and decanting [18th c. from
Latin]

243.3 "Keel" a large boat for carrying coal on the Tyne. It is the first
English word to be written down (by Gildas the 6th century British
historian).

243.7 "Keel-Bullies" Lightermen that carry coals to and from the Ships, so
called in Derision.

http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/dict/K/

243.9 "Staithes, penned upon the sunrise"

staithe or staith: Loading gantry, usually at or near a colliery, for
loading coal into boats or ships

http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/jim.shead/Glossary-S-Z.html

Imagery of drawing permeates this section, tying in both with Dixon's
youthful preoccupation as a mapmaker-fantasist (242), and, reflexively, with
the craft of the story-teller.

243.18 "Huddock" the cabin of a keel boat

243.22 "young Dodd the Peedee" ?

243.26 "the Bell of the Tagareen Man"

"A tagareen man had a floating shop which he towed about the tiers of ships,
announcing his presence by a bell. His dealings were carried on by barter or
cash, as may be convenient; and old rope, scrap-iron or other similar,
unconsidered trifles, would be exchanged for the crockery or hardware with
which the boat was stocked." (_Heslop's Northumberland Words_, 1892)

Today a tagareen man is a scrap dealer.

243.29 "Pirogues" pirogue (or piragua) n. any of various kinds of dugout
canoes [17th c. from French, via Spanish *piragua*, from a Carib language]

244.24 "Basin-crops" style of haircut, fringe of hair

244.26 "strikes of '43 and '50"

The only references I could find were to strikes in the 19th century. I'm
not sure whether to put this down as another error or anachronism, like the
mention of the famous oarsman, Harry Clasper (1812-1870) on p. 100, who
Terrance looked up recently. I'm not even really sure if it's miner's
strikes or dock- or river-worker's strikes I should be searching for.

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/street/kch66/bond.html

http://www.dmm.org.uk/history/index.htm

http://www.thenortheast.fsnet.co.uk/NWdur-.htm

Whichever, it's a spooky scene, and what's interesting - and perhaps part of
some deliberately contrived uncertainty about which workers and which
strikes - is that the notion of the men's "late-Day Invisibility" persists
after the fog has lifted. (244.34)

244.29 "Black-jacks big as Washing-tubs" blackjack n. a large leather
tankard, or can for beer, so called from the outside being tarred [16th c.]

best