(MDMD Chapt. 4) A Publick and Notorious Ingagement

[John Bailey]

OK, time to get going with this thing, a week late I suppose, but no-one's 
scheduled for Chapter 6 so we can just cover them all at once to get back on 
track. Anyone want to get onto that Chapter, feel free. I won’t summarise 
Chapters 4 & 5 in a separate post as people have already started posting on 
it and I’ll be covering most of it in each of my posts.

Thanks Terrance for pointing out the very readable account of the various 
parties (including Mason & Dixon) who undertook Transit obs in 1761 and ’69, 
where mention is made of the Seahorse and le Grand, as well as several 
tidbits which don’t make it into the novel.

Briefly, these include…

It seems Mason was arranged to go to St Helena as Neville Maskelyne’s second 
for a while, at least until it was decided that it would be worth having a 
second expedition stationed at Bencoolen. I don’t recall this mentioned in 
the novel, anyone else? It would certainly have added an interesting dynamic 
to the already…strained relationship between these two.

Also, there are several quotes from the correspondence between M&D and the 
Navy, Royal Soc. Etc which indicate that our terrible twosome where 
threatened quite explicitly…

‘The Society’s reply minced no words. It warned that “their refusal to 
proceed upon this Voyage, after having so publickly and notoriously ingaged 
in it ... [would] be a reproach to the Nation in general, to the Royal 
Society in particular, and more Especially and fatally to themselves.... 
[It] cannot fail to bring an indelible Scandal upon their Character, and 
probably end in their utter Ruin.” In case this wasn’t clear, the Society 
went on to say it would “with the most inflexible Resentment” take Mason and 
Dixon to court and prosecute them “with the utmost Severity of the Law.”’

Great stuff.

I won’t give away too much for those that are first-timers but this page 
also notes that the news that Bencoolen had been taken by the French was not 
to be had until much later, after arrival at a certain 
Southern-Hemispherical town…

All at http://www.sigmaxi.org/amsci/other/Fernie/marginalia9709.html


_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp