MD3PAD 337-339

[Toby G Levy]

        Wicks imagines a playful conversation between King Charles and
William Penn concerning the border of the colony granted to Penn.

        Mason and Dixon have to spend a couple of nights meeting with
the commissioners in New Castle, Delaware, which is just south of
Wilmington and is right on the Delaware river, just before it empties
into the Delaware Bay. Their hosts inform Mason and Dixon that there
used to be regular assaults by the Spanish and French via the river, and
it became necessary for them to protect themselves by staying up all
night.  They do not sleep easy and dream of all night parties with large
stuffed sandwiches.

        Another verse from Tox's Pennsylvaniad is thrown in near the top
of page 339.

        Back to the story, it is now July and the Mason and Dixon crew
are working northward through swamps and in hot weather. The line
reminds Dixon of an ancient Roman road in England. By August they have
moved 81 miles to the north, and they are just about at the Tangent
point. They take the next three months to pin the point down exactly.

Toby