Surveying Described

[Richard Romeo]

In Walkin the Line, a book about the M&D Line I mentioned a few days ago, 
one of the ladies the author meets takes him to something called "The 
Ticking Tombstone", where she relates the legend that one of M&D's group 
that was purported to have swallowed a time piece, which never stopped 
working even after his was buried, hence the ticking.
The book ends with a visit to Staindrop where one of Dixon's grand nephews 
gives the author the published UK newspaper article (Manchester Guardian? 
may need to look again) sometime in the 1910s about Dixon and the slave 
driver, and the famous whip.


It is very odd that a book published after M&D was published (this guy was a 
former journalist) has not reference to it or Pynchon at all.  There are 
quotes from Maya Angelou, John Updike, among others.

The book has a politically correct feel to it, and overall the writing is 
not very engaging, but it is worth a look, if only for many of the 
interesting anecdotes regarding the Underground Railroad and the Civil War 
and Reconstruction.

Rich


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