MD3PAD 175-177

[Toby G Levy]

        Chapter 17 begins on page 175 with Mason on the boat leaving
Maskelyne to fend for himself on the windy side of the island. Mason is
amazed at the absence of wind. He is dropped off in Break-neck valley, a
couple of miles from town.

        Mason soon finds himself in front of the Jenkin's Ear Museum.
The ear of Robert Jenkins was presented to parliament in 1739 and
resulted in war against Spain. Jenkins came to St Helena as governor in
1741 and lost the ear in a gambling debt to Nick Mournival, who we were
introduced to about 60 pages back as Florinda's fiance.

        In order to enter the museum, Mason must crawl though a very
small gate. He is worried that he is too fat to fit through it. But he
gets through it and is greeted by Nick Mournival. Mason asks after
Florinda and Mournival says that she has left him for a "chicken-nabob."

        Mournival "operates the show" in the museum, which consists of
the sequence of events surrounding the famous ear.  Mason finds personal
significance in the fact that Jenkins was on a ship named Rebecca when
his ear was chopped off. Finally a life-sized portrait of Jenkins as
governor of St Helena is displayed.