[PW] 1764 Gentleman's Magazine

[Graeme Rymill]

>I suspect that this is the article that Pynchon referenced (although
the novel does >refer to it as a letter).

I wondered about that too. However my reading of the relevant section
from Mason & Dixon is that they are reading a letter from a colleague.
The letter has a "page" enclosed from the Gentleman's Magazine. That
page presumably was the page the poem appears on.

Incidentally Mason & Dixon collect their mail in late February of 1765
according to the novel Mason & Dixon. (I don't have the book with me so
this is from recent memory). The colleague's letter brings first news of
Maskelyne's appointment. The royal warrant appointing Maskelyne was
dated the 8th February 1765. I don't believe mail would arrive from
London to Newark in such a short period of time. Average sailing times
are discussed in "Trafalgar and Nelson" at
http://cce.nwc.navy.mil/newportlinks/museum/documents/trafalgarexhibit.p
df in the section on "How and when the news of Trafalgar reached
America" 

"A century earlier in 1705, the average age of London date-lined news in
Boston newspapers was about 163 days, but this had declined to about 85
days in 1745. With the establishment of regular sailing packets between
New York and Liverpool in 1818, the average sailing time was 37 days.
This declined to an average of 34 days by 1857."

So either Pynchon got the timing wrong or if he is correct then
Maskelyne's appointment was known well before the official announcement.

Graeme Rymill
University of Western Australia Library