7. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 183-214

One: Latitudes and Departures; 18-21

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Mason and Dixon return to London, where "They address the Council of the Royal Society, and find they have nothing but good to say of all they have met at St. Helena and the Cape." Dixon makes his way home, as does Mason, though more reluctantly: He wants to see his sons, but "he dreads the Re-Union." His son William is five, and Doctor Isaac (apparently his real name) is three. They are shy when he arrives, bringing them toy ships that he picked up at the last minute.

James Bradley, the royal astronomer to whom he was assistant, dies on the thirteenth of July, and Mason decides to go to his funeral, remembering how close -- perhaps too close? -- he and Rebekah were to Bradley and Susannah. But Bradley's family -- Susannah's brother Sam Peach and seventeen-year-old Miss Bradley -- "advise him, as gently as they've ever known how, that Bradley wish'd only the Family near." Mason feels like "a Warrior who has just lost his Lord."

Bradley married Susannah Peach in the year of a comet, 1744, and she died in 1757, "another Comet-year." Mason reflects that two years separated her death from Rebekah's and that those years "were rul'd by the Approaching Comet of Dr. Halley." Bradley's death leaves his valuable "Volume of Observations Lunar, Planetary, and Astral" in the hands of the Peach family, and Mason wonders if Susannah had been "but a means of getting those Obs into the Peach family, and the eager Mittens of Sam Peach, Sr." He wonders if, because of his contributions to them, he should put in his own claim, but decides that he had really given them to Bradley "for nothing more than, 'Thank you, Mr. Mason, and well done.'"

He goes to a bar, where he finds a heated topic, related to Bradley's death, is the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in Britain, which took place in 1752 and necessitated skipping eleven days -- so that Wednesday,  Sept. 2, 1752 was followed by Thursday, Sept. 14, 1752. "Mason pretends to examine his shoe-buckle, trying not to sigh too heavily. Of the many Classics of Idiocy, this Idiocy of the Eleven Days has join'd the select handful that may never be escap'd." Mason's own father had argued with him about whether losing eleven days made one younger or older. In the pub, a Mr. Swivett is complaining, "Not only did they insult the God-given structure of the Year, they also put us on Catholic Time. French Time." For the audience in the pub, Mason crafts a fiction that the time was not lost; it was given to a race of beings with a different approach to time than ours. They continue to inhabit the lost eleven days, "and wherever they are, temporally, eleven days to the Tick behind us. 'Tis all an Eden there, Lads, and only they inhabit it, they and their Generations." And he buys everyone another round.

Mason's sons "live with their Aunt Hester, Mason's sister, and her husband, Elroy." Returning there, he is set upon by Delicia Quall, who "suffers from that uncontroll'd Need to be a Bride, known to Physicians as Nymphomania, in whose cheerful Frenzy nuances vanish, and ev'ry unattach'd man is a potential Husband." He tells them all that "there's something else up" and that he "may be off again, and fairly soon." His sister Anne, just "turn'd seventeen and eager to be out of the House, where she is an unpaid 'round-the-clock Menial" asks where he's going, and Mason says, "America." He explains, "They want Boundary-Lines, hundreds of Miles long, as perfect as they can get 'em. For that, someone must take Latitudes and Longitudes, by the Stars." Hester informs him that if he's away when the boys come of age, they'll be apprenticed to his father at the mill.

So Mason goes to see his father, who says that he told Elroy that since he's been paying for their upkeep he feels entitled to "their services, when they're old enough to work." But Mason can't tell whether his father is joking or not. Mason's father also says that when he heard of Bradley's death, he knew that Mason would be going to America. He had warned Mason that Sam Peach was not a friend of his.

"In fact, far from the Ogre or Troll his son makes him out to be, Charles Sr. is a wistful and spiritual person. He believes that bread is alive." This creeps out his son a bit:

The baker's trade terrified the young man. He learn'd as much of it as would keep him going, -- but when he began to see into it, the smells, the unaccountable swelling of the dough, the over door like a door before a Sacrament, -- the daily repetitions of smell and ferment and some hidden Drama, as in the Mass, -- was he fleeing to the repetitions of the Sky, believing them safer, not as saturated in life and death? If Christ's Body could enter Bread, then what else might? -- might it not be as easily haunted by ghosts less welcome? Alone in the early empty mornings even for a few seconds with the mute white rows, he was overwhelmed by the ghostliness of Bread. 

Mason had wooed Rebekah with his own fantasies of escape from this provincial life, planning to take her with him when he went to view the transit of Venus. But he also knew that even astronomy was subject to the whims of politics. And now he meets with Maskelyne about the proposed survey in America.

6. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 158-182

One: Latitudes and Departures; 15-17

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Maskelyne now insists that he and Mason must move to the other side of the island, which is exposed "to an unremitting and much-warn'd-against Wind," because he needs to correlate readings from that side with the one from the leeward side. And in fact the windy side is so bleak that the soldiers stationed on it set up "various Suicide-Banks and Madness-Pools," and "the Post-Surgeon ... tries never to stir too far from the deepest rooms of the Fort, where the Wind may oppress him least, and is careful to include it in each daily Prayer, as if 'twere a Deity in itself, infinitely in Need, ever demanding." Maskelyne encounters there a German soldier named Dieter who "Enlisted in ignorance that anyplace like this could exist" and desperately wants to leave. Dieter, having learned that Maskelyne is Clive of India's brother-in-law, begs his help in making his escape. But Maskelyne says he can't prevail upon Clive in the matter and offers to pay the twenty pounds Dieter needs to buy his way out of his contract.

Things go badly for Mason, too: He begins seeing the ghost of his dead wife. He's afraid to tell Maskelyne who, he fears, might use it against him someday. But he's sure that once Dixon arrives, he'll tell him the whole story. He'll tell Dixon how he met Rebekah on May Day at "the annual cheese-rolling," when the Gloucester cheeses are "blessed and ritually rolled thrice 'roud the churchyard, and thence down a Hill." Except that this year someone has taken it upon himself to create a giant cheese, an "Octuple Gloucester, ... but actually octupled in all dimensions, making it more like a 512-fold or Quincentenariduodecuple Gloucester, -- running to nearly four tons in weight when green and even after shrinkage towering ten feet high." It is loaded onto a sturdy wagon for transport.

Mason has come to Randwick Church, the site of the cheese-blessing, hoping to see Susannah Peach, daughter of Samuel Peach, "a silk merchant of some repute, and a growing power within the East India Company." His infatuation is such that he has gone to her house when she wasn't there and "knelt by her Bed and press'd his face to the Counterpane of Silk to inhale what he could of her Scent." But while he is waiting, the wagon carrying the cheese breaks down and the great orange wheel starts rolling toward where Mason is standing: "The Victim of a Cheese malevolent, being his last thought before abrupt Rescue by way of a stout shove, preceded by an energetick Rustling of Taffeta. It is Rebekah, and "If she was not, like Susannah, a Classick English Rose, neither was she any rugged Blossom of the Heath."

Here Cherrycoke's audience interrupts, or rather Uncle Ives does: "There are no records of her in Gloucestershire.... Mason was baptiz'd at Sapperton Church, as were his children, -- yet he and Rebekah were not married there. So mayn't they have met elsewhere as well, even a Greenwich?"

Cherrycoke resumes his narrative, with another appearance by Rebekah's ghost to Mason in the wind. After she disappears, he is unable to sleep. Maskelyne finally awakens in the middle of the day to ask him if he had come into the tent about dawn. Mason, not willing to talk to him about his visions, denies it. But Maskelyne asks, "Might it've been Dieter, d'ye think?" And then confusingly asks Mason to forget about Dieter, so that Mason "is abruptly certain that Dieter is a Ghost as well." He realizes that he has to get away from both the wind and Maskelyne for the sake of his sanity, so he builds a bonfire to signal a ship to pick him up.

The fishing boat carries him to a port two or three miles from James's Town, where the absence of the wind "stuns him." Walking toward the town, he spots a sign advertising "the Jenkin's Ear Museum, dedicated to the eponymous Organ whose timely Display brought England in against Spain in the War of '39." Mason decides to visit the museum, but discovers it is surrounded by a wall whose only entrance seems to be through "a tiny Portico and Gate, no more than three feet high." He enters "a sort of Ramp-way leading downward, with just enough height to crawl" and finds himself in a room carved out of the volcanic rock. He is greeted by the museum's proprietor, Nick Mournival, who proclaims, "Helen of Troy's face may've launch'd a thousand ships, -- this is but one Ear, yet in its Time, it sent navies into combat 'round the Globe." He recognizes Mournival as a friend of Florinda, whom he met in a tavern. He endures Mournival's spiel until he finally shows the Ear, which Mason is startled to perceive is listening. Mournival explains that Ear "can't get enough of human speech ... 'tis Ear's great Hunger, that never abates."

"Ear?"
"Oh? What would you call her? 'Nose?'" 

Encouraged by Mournival to whisper his fondest wish into Ear, Mason decides against wishing for Rebekah's return to life and asks, "A speedy and safe passage for Mr. Dixon, back to this place. For his personal sake, of course, but for my Sanity as well." Then, having paid Mournival, he escapes from the museum, though he later can't remember how, "Unless the real Mason is yet there captive in that exitless Patch, and I but my Representative."

Dixon finally hears this tale when they are "a few days out in their Passage back to England." And he tells Mason, "as near as I can calculate, at exactly the instant you spoke into this Object, I heard, as out of a speaking-trumpet, your message." But Mason quickly realizes Dixon is teasing: "Ahrr! You almost persuaded me, -- why can you never just let it be? -- you had the hook right in my Mouth, Sir."

They speculate on why Maskelyne stays on St. Helena, and decide that he may be hoping for some astronomical breakthrough.

They would rather discuss Maskelyne's Affairs, than what waits in England, in their own Futurity. Through his Correspondence, Maskelyne has heard of one Possibility, tho' 'tis far from a Reduction to Certainty. Following the Chancery decision the year before, as to the Boundaries between the American Provinces of Pennsylvania and Maryland, both Proprietors have petition'd the Astronomer Royal for assistance, using the most modern means available, in marking these out, -- one of them being a Parallel of Latitude, five degrees, an Hundred Leagues, of Wilderness East to West.

Mason suggests that Maskelyne would "rather see us permanently abroad," but he doubts, when Dixon suggests it, that they would send them again as a team.

5. Mason & Dixon, by Thomas Pynchon, pp. 125-157

One: Latitudes and Departures; 13-14

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Returning from seeing Dixon off, Mason encounters Maskelyne, and they fall into conversation. Mason asks, "if someone wish'd to disappear for a while, yet remain upon the Island," where would they go, and observes from Maskelyne's answer that he has "certainly thought this out." Maskelyne demurs: "No need for me to disappear. Oh, Dear, the Royal Soc's quite forgotten about old N.M., Esq. Lounging his life away waiting at the King's Expense for the Home Planet to move along." His assistant on St. Helena, Robert Waddington, had left as soon as he could after the transit took place, saying that further observations weren't in his contract. Mason agrees to help, though as Maskelyne observes, St. Helena is "not ev'ryone's Brochette of Curried Albacore, is it?" And Maskelyne's manner leaves Mason "sweating heavily, thinking, Dixon has left me alone with a dangerously insane person. And why did Waddington really have to leave so quickly?"

They go together to a tavern whose proprietor, Mr. Blackmer, is one of those people who pride themselves on knowing everything about everyone on an island where "anyone newly arriv'd is feasted upon with an eagerness match'd only in certain rivers of South America." Blackmer is, of course, delighted to point out Maskelyne as "Clive of India's brother-in-law." This celebrity allows Maskelyne "to run up a Tab, already legendary even in a hard-drinking port like this, that might finance a small War."

Then they go to the Upper Observatory, where Mason tries to get a look at the plumb-line suspension that Dixon noted was defective. But aware that Maskelyne remains touchy about his failure to observe the transit -- a cloud had appeared just before it began -- Mason tries not to irritate him. Maskelyne makes envious remarks about how Mason and Dixon had been "chosen for the Cape" -- even though it was second choice after the original Sumatran posting -- and "had the Pearl of the Lot" of places assigned for observing the transit. And he goes on about "being confin'd upon the Summit of a living Volcanoe whose History includes violent Explosion, hey? which might indeed re-awaken at any moment, with nought to escape to in that lively Event, but thousands of Leagues of Ocean, empty in ev'ry direction."

One day they visit the last orange grove left standing on the island, and Maskelyne speculates that St. Helena may have been the Earthly Paradise that St. Brendan claimed to have discovered, and that the Serpent dwells within the volcano. They talk a bit about how astronomy is confused with astrology, and Maskelyne confesses to have drawn people's charts at Cambridge for sixpence. Mason replies, "You got sixpence? I never did better than three." Maskelyne quotes Kepler as saying "that Astrology is Astronomy's wanton little sister, who goes out and sells herself that Astronomy may keep her Virtue." He offers to do Mason's chart if Mason will do his. "Mason blinks. Is it the Altitude? Hardly do to get into a Kick-up with Clive of India's brother-in-law, he supposes." And anyway, "what else is there to do in this miserable Place, but smoke Pipes and discuss God, -- as newly met guests at some Assembly might discuss a common Acquaintance but lately withdrawn?"

Maskelyne tells him that despite his relationship to Clive he rarely sees him. "He's not yet ready to make use of me, that's all. Someday he must ... I've been paid for ... it shan't cost him anything." Mason recalls how Maskelyne had written to Bradley, the astronomer royal whose assistant Mason was, and how confusing the letter was. Bradley and his wife, Susannah Peach, had only one child, a girl, though he wanted a son. And Mason recalls how "craz'd had he been after Susannah Peach." And Mason casts Maskelyne's horoscope, telling him, "Refrain from struggle, allow your Life to convey it to you when it will, and as in all else, Bob's your Uncle. Or in this case, Brother-in-Law."

Meanwhile, back in Cape Town, Dixon finds himself being shot at by Cornelius Vroom, "as if the Dutchman has decided to accept him as a fair substitute for Mason," there having been some gossip about Johanna's pursuit of Mason. They adjourn to a tavern where Cornelius recounds "the Vrooms' domestic Sadness." They then go to a brothel, where Dixon is surprised to see "Austra, in a black velvet Gown and a leather collar, being leash-led by a tiny, expressionless Malay Sylph." Cornelius refers to it as "our Garden of Amusement." One room is where "the town Madmen are kept."

Sometimes for their amusement the Herren will escort a particularly disobedient employee to a Madman's cell, push her inside, and lock the door. Next to each cell is a Viewing Room where the gentlemen may observe, through a wall of Glass disguis'd as a great Mirror, the often quite unviewable Rencontre. 

Another room is rumored to be "nine by seven feet and five inches, being with Dutch parsimony reduc'd to a quarter-size replica of the cell at Fort William, Calcutta, in which 146 Europeans were oblig'd to spend the night of 20-21 June 1756 ... the sex Entrepreneurs reasoning that the combination of Equatorial heat, sweat, and the flesh of strangers in enforc'd intimacy might be Pleasurable."

Apropos of this erotic re-creation of the Black Hole of Calcutta, Cherrycoke quotes from his journal:

 The British in India encourage the teeming populations they rule to teem as much as they like, whilst taking their land for themselves, and then restricting the parts of it the People will be permitted to teem upon. Yet hear the Cry, O Lord, when even a small Metaphor of this continental Coercion is practis'd in Reverse, as 'twas in the old B.H. of C.  "Metaphor!" you cry, -- "Sir, an hundred twenty lives were lost!" I reply, "British lives. What think you the overnight Harvest of Death is, in Calcutta alone, in Indian lives?"

When Cornelius leaves for a room he fancies, Dixon wanders about in search of Austra, but encounters only former police agent Bonk, who has resigned his position and is joining the trek to the interior. At dawn, he carries home "an equally, tho' perhaps not likewise, exhausted Cornelius." The daughters emerge to greet them, and Dixon remarks on their superstitious character.

One by one the girls have grown up believing the Vroom Clock, a long-case heirloom brought from Holland, to be a living Creature, conscious of itself, and of them, too, with its hooded Face, its heartbeat, the bearing of a solemn Messenger.... When Mason and Dixon arrived with the Ellicott Clock, the Girls assum'd it was a Traveling Companion of the Englishmen.

Now Greet warns him that since he's brought a new clock, "They think Charles and you've something to do with the Longitude" and that the clock may arouse suspicion that they have "a British State Secret." But Greet is also putting the moves on Dixon, ripping open her bodice. Dixon backs off, and she says, "Mr. Mason was never so cold." "Mason is naturally affectionate," he replies. "Tho' he appears not to to know one end of a Woman from another, yet 'tis all he thinks about, when he has a moment to think." He asks if she is going to betray him to the "Company Castle" -- i.e, the Dutch authorities. She just tells him to "Go carefully."

And in fact, Dixon is under suspicion for being "'connected dangerously,' allowing him to go on as ever at the Cape, running before any wind of Sensory delight, as the Church-Faithful carouse, Slaves conspire their Freedom, and Functionaries flee the Castle, and head for open Country."