MDDM Last Transit Ch. 74

[jbor]

717.7 Cherry Island

In the Solomon Islands, now known as Anuta:

http://www.commerce.gov.sb/Tourism/maps.htm

718.4 Some horrible Boswell pursues them, asking questions - a journalist,
of course

719.8 The Natives [...] many times contriv'd their own Deaths when all else
had fail'd to deliver them....

Cf. the racial suicide of the Herero treated in _GR_ and historical sources
mentioned in Pynchon's letter to Thomas Hirsch

719.12 Mason agrees to observe the Transit from South Ulster

The transit of Venus in 1769 was also observed from Ireland using special
instruments brought from London for the purpose. They were carried out at
Cavan, a townland near Strabane, by Charles Mason (of Mason-Dixon Line
fame).

http://star.arm.ac.uk/history/history.html

719.26 the often-observ'd Magenta and Green  NB

720.8 hypnagogickally  hypnagogic adj. of or relating to the state just
before one is fully asleep [19th C. from French]

720.9 "Sandwich"

http://www.nzgirl.co.nz/articles/357

The point here seems to be that the house servants choose to eat sandwiches
because they can be made in silence.

720-21 NB another incarnation of the ongoing debate about historical "truth"

721.12 "the Reverend Dr Taylor"

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Taylor.html

Cf. also Zeno's Paradox (and, perhaps, Pynchon's forthcoming novel)

http://occawlonline.pearsoned.com/bookbind/pubbooks/thomas_awl/chapter1/medi
alib/custom3/topics/sequences.htm

721.16-19 "other sorts of *Defective Zero* [...] seeking God there" etc

http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/leftow.html

721.22 Oakboys

Two years after the Munster unrest erupted a brief tumultuous spasm of
popular agitation burst out in mid and south Ulster. The Oakboys or Hearts
of Oak ­ a reference to the sprigs of oak which these agrarian rebels wore
on their hats ­ first appeared in 1763 in north Armagh. On this occasion the
main grievance was an increase in county cess (or tax) for road-building. As
with the Whiteboys, the movement quickly spread. Oakboy incidents were
reported in counties Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan and Cavan. Again the
payment of tithes was opposed. The movement differed from other protest
movements in the period, however, in the openness of its tactics. Mobilising
at the signal of blowing horns, the Hearts of Oak marched with military
precision, to the accompaniment of fife and drum.

http://free.freespeech.org/republicansf/1798/dfender.htm

721.24 Lord Pennycomequick  ?

722.1 "a Morning Coat"

http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/rd/rd8.html

722.23 "Mr. Halfpenny's _Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste_"

William Halfpenny. Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste. London, 1752.
Courtesy of the Rhode Island School of Design Library.
Many pattern-books of "Chinese" designs were published during the 1750s.
Volumes such as this one and a smaller number of Gothic design books
represent a reaction against Palladian rules. In Britain the primary
influence of these designs was upon garden buildings, but they were seldom
put to use in America until after the Revolution, when Thomas Jefferson and
others used Chinese trellis for roof parapets and stair balustrades. The
dining room at Gunston Hall has unique Chinese woodwork. Pagoda-like
canopies, similar to that shown in this plate, were placed over the doors
and mantel by Buckland, but were removed during a 1950s restoration because
they were thought to be Victorian accretions. Except at Gunston Hall, no
work by Buckland in the Gothic or Chinese style survives.

http://www.worldbookdealers.com/articles/nw/nw0000000443.asp

722-723 Mason's reunion with Armand  ?  the Oven  ?

724.6 Baron von Boppdörfer

[fictitious?] 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. (HyperArts)

724.9 dressed all in the local Frieze, Mason, by Neep-Lantern light

frieze n. a heavy woollen fabric with a long nap, used for caots etc

neep n. dialect name for a turnip

724.11 Keadew and Kinnypottle

Keadew or Keadue is a village in the north of County Roscommon:

    Close by the village is the Holy Well of Saint Lasair ...

http://roscommon.local.ie/content/21837.shtml

Kinnypottle is the name of a river in County Cavan:

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~cavanno1/historical%20Buildings.htm

724.15 ... very much closer to the Earth, he begins to see Lights  ?

724.23 Tath  ?

tàth 
cement, join (M`F., Lh.), Irish táthaim, táth, solder or glue, Welsh todi,
construc, join: *táto-, *stâto-, constitute, root sta, stand?

http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/mb38.html

725.1 Cavan

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~cavanno1/cavanintroduction.htm

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gchung/coyle/cavan.htm

County Cavan is in Ulster province; Keadue, in County Roscommon, is not far
away to the south-west. There may be another Keadew in County Fermanagh to
the north.

http://www.local.ie/general/map/

725.22 the Holy Wells of Gloucestershire

The healing power of wells was also accessed through what appears to be a
British equivalent of dream-incubation. The Asclepian temples at which this
form of therapy was practised in the Classical world were situated at sacred
wells and springs; here the sick would fast and take part in rituals
designed to invoke a healing dream. In Roman Britain a dream-temple was
built at Lydney Park in Gloucestershire over several springs ....

http://www.chalicecenter.com/holywells.htm

http://www.peterp.co.uk/ch4/fig53.htm

best