MDDM Ch. 51 The Field-Book

[Dave Monroe]

Well, troublingly, can't find my copy of ...

The Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.
   Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society,
   1969 [1763-68].

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> 496-7 "Staphel Shockey" and family (?)
> 
> 497.3-13 "-- So it reads in the Field-Book." Does
> it?

But from Charles Clerc, Mason & Dixon & Pynchon
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2000), Ch.
VI, "Fact & Fiction," pp. 57-85 ...

"... both Mason and Pynchon make much to-do of a
subterranean cave that, unfortunately, no longer
exists, having been destroyed in recent times by rock
quarrying.  The surveyors pause at 96 miles, three
Chains, near the home of Mr. Staphel Shockey who tells
them about the cavern.  The following day (September
22, 1765) they visit it, along with Shockey and his
children.

[...]

   "Pynchon cut two lines from the original: one on
Anglican services held in the cave in winter, and then
Mason';s description of a long narrow passage, a river
beyond, and additional smalll rooms.  Otherwise, novel
and Journal match perfectly." (p. 68)

Now, not only is Clerc's book excellent for such fact
(and fiction) checking (I've used it constantly here),
but it also includes as an appendix The Journal
itself, sans entries consisting solely of technical
data.  Ch XI, pp. 153-229 ...

September [1765]

"21 Continued the Line./ 95 miles 38 chains crossed a
spring running into Antietam. / 96 miles 3 chains. 
Mr. Staphel Shockey's House 7 chains North.

"22 (Sun.) Went to see a cave (near the Mountain about
6 miles South of Mr. Shockey's.)  The entrance is an
arch about 6 yards in length and four feet in height,
when immediately there opens a room 45 yards in
length, 40 in breadth and 7 or 8 in height.  (Not one
pillar to support nature's arch): There didvine
service is often (according to the Church of England)
celebrated in the Winter Season.  On the sidewalls are
drawn by the Pencil of Time, with the tears of the
Rocks: The imitation of Organ, Pillar, Columns and
Monuments of a Temple; which, with the glimmering
faint light; makes the whole an awful, solemn
appearnace: Striking its Visitants with a strong and
melancholy reflection: That such is the abodes of the
Dead: Thy inevitable Doom, O stranger; Soon to be
numbered as one of them.  From this room there is a
narrow passage of about 100 yards at the end of which
runs a fine river of water: On the sides of this
passage are other rooms, but no so large as the
first." (p. 182)

But Staphel Shockey I've found nothing further on. 
Just a guy whose house the surveyors happened upon,
apparently ...

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