MD3PAD 73-75

[Toby G Levy]

        Mason uses profane language and pretends to worry that Dixon
will complain to his superiors about it. They then lapse into paranoid
reveries about how they wound up working for the Royal Astronomer in
South Africa.

What does Mason mean when he says to Dixon "however briskly you may
belabor me with Mr. Peach..."  This is the first time Mr. Peach is
mentioned.  There is a Samuel Peach who appears in the chapter in which
Mason tells of meeting his future wife for the first time at the rolling
of the giant cheese.  Is this the same Mr. Peach?

vw#22: Nervus Probandi - Latin: nervus = sinew, tendon, probandi = of
proof

v#23: Stuffata - stew??? (I'm not sure)

        Dixon goes over the chain of events that brought them there.
Originally Mason was to be Maskelyne's assistant. Maskelyne was related
to Lord Clive, and executive in the East India Company. Suddenly
Maskelyne's assistant is declared to be Waddington and Mason is to head
his own observation team. Waddington is described as a math teacher and
follower of the Piggotts, who attempt to determine longitude by tracking
the path of stars across the moon's path.

        In a parenthetical passage lasting about half a page, Mason
jumps ahead to a later meeting in January with Maskelyne who describes
Waddington as melancholy. Maskelyne announces that Mason and Dixon will
observe the transit of Venus from the island of St. Helena.

Mason is described by Dixon on page 75 as "friend of the Peaches..."

The scene shifts back to the teller of the story, Reverend Wicks who
said that Mason and Dixon should have gotten more compensation for their
labor if they had demanded it.  Ethelmer says in effect that the dead
can't take money with them so what does it matter now?  Tenebrae
chastises Ethelmer for his negativity toward the Reverend.