248 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1738. 



sail, Samul Bunting and John Davis are appointed undertakers, 

 to look after the said inlargement and sett the work." This was 

 an enlargement of the old house on the hill within the grave- 

 yard. 



Folly has her votaries in all ages, but the particular manner 

 in which they make their oblations to the fantastic deity, is 

 varied by time and circumstances. It may be inferred from a 

 minute of Darby Meeting, that one of the modes selected at 

 this particular period of our history, was "the vain practice of 

 firing guns at marriages." As but a single instance of dealing 

 for this grave offence is recorded, and the offender in that case 

 made the required acknowledgment, it may be concluded, that, 

 as a general rule, this vain practice prevailed among those out- 

 side of the staid Society of Friends. 



Slight shocks of an earthquake had been experienced in 1726, 

 and again in 1732. On the 7th of December, 1738, a severe 

 shock was felt, "accompanied by a remarkable rumbling noise; 

 people waked in their beds, the doors flew open, bricks fell from 

 the chimneys ; the consternation was serious, but happily no great 

 damage ensued."' 



The provisional agreement that had formerly been entered 

 into between the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland, 

 in respect to the boundary, was directed by the King and Council 

 to be enforced; and in compliance with this direction, and as a 

 part thereof, it became necessary to run a temporary east and 

 west line between the Provinces, fifteen miles and a quarter south 

 of the latitude of the most southern part of Philadelphia, to the 

 Susquehanna River, and west of that river fourteen and three- 

 quarter miles south of the said latitude. The limited scope of 

 this work will exclude any extended account of the survey of this 

 line, or that upon nearly the same ground, but of much greater 

 notoriety, known as Mason s and Dixon s, yet as the line of lati- 

 tude of the most southern part of Fhiladelphia upon w^iich it was 

 based, passed through our county, it would not be proper to leave 

 the matter wholly unnoticed. 



To run this line, Lawrence Growden and Richard Peters were 

 appointed Commissioners on behalf of Pennsylvania, and Col. 

 Levin Gale and Samuel Chamberlaine, on the part of Maryland. 

 Benjamin Eastburn acted as surveyor on behalf of the former, 

 and William Ramsey on behalf of the latter. On the 8th of 

 December a true meridian line was fixed in the city of Philadel- 

 phia, and when tried the next day, the magnetic variation was 

 found to be five degrees and twenty-five minutes westerly. On the 

 11th of the month, a true west line was run to the distance of 

 about two miles, when, from the severity of the weather, the sur- 



' Smith's Hist. N. J. 427. 



