M&D Deep Duck Ch. 3: Innocent merriment

[Monte Davis]

15.10: "Mason explains, though without his precise reason for it, that, for
the past Year or more, it has been his practice to attend the Friday
Hangings at that melancholy place ..." (Tyburn)

Anybody care to venture a "precise reason"? This first meeting is in 1760
or 1761, so his habit might date to his wife Rebekah's death in 1759
(although later we'll get reasons to think he had tended to the
 Melancholick well before that). And yes, the Tyburn hangings were an
acknowledged Sight of London.

Is that enough to explain it? Mason is rather gentle, neither sadistic nor
vindictive; I for one don't see an obvious or direct connection between
mouning and a desire to watch excutions.
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