MDDM18: The Southernmost Publick Service

[Dave Monroe]

"'Why not use the south Wall?' inquire several of
them, far too 'pert for their sizes and ages,  'The
south Wall lies within private property,' replies the
Mayor's Assistant, '-- so, as the southernmost Publick
Surface, the Parties have agreed upon this north Wall
here, facing the Street.'" (M&D, Ch. 30, p. 296)

>From Edwin Danson, Drawing the Line (New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 2001), Ch. 8, "The Southernmost Point of
the City," pp. 79-92 ...

"Before Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon arrived in
Philadelphia, the commisioners had agreed, on the
advice of the city's officials, that the legal origin
for the West Line survey, 'the southrnmost point in
the City of Philadelphia,' was to be the north wall of
a house on the south side of Cedar Street (now South
Street) near it's junction with Second Street. 
Exactly fifteen miles south of this point, according
to Lord Hardwicke's ruling, the West Line dividing
Maryland from Pennsylvania would commence...." (p. 84)

While all the URLs for the online maps of this
intersection I've come up with so far are just too
damn long, well, speaking of just too damn long, can't
help but remark that Lord Hardwicke sounds like some
sort of eighteenth-century nom-de-porn.  Okay ...

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