This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 Excerpt: ... for communicating with them, nothing is necessary but enterprise and energy on the part of its inhabitants to render Elkton an important place. On leaving Elkton station, after crossing Big Elk Creek, Gray"s Hill stands prominently in view on the right. We almost immediately commence the ascent of Iron Hill, so called; Iron Hill proper being six miles distant. The grade up this ascent is about forty feet to the mile, and is the "heaviest grade" upon the road, the summit of Iron Hill being the highest point attained by it between Philadelphia and Baltimore. At a distance of about four miles from Elkton, in an open field on the left, and plainly visible within a hundred yards of the railroad, are seen two stones, which mark not only the dividing line between the states of Maryland and Delaware, but also the real position of a boundary of which much is said and comparatively little known. A yellow house immediately north of them, will serve the traveller as a landmark. "Mason and Dixon"s Line" having become familiar as a household word in this country, a slight sketch of its origin and history will not be inappropriate in this place The mere fact that it points out the boundary between two States of this confederacy, would be insufficient to elevate it to a dignity beyond that of similar conventional barriers elsewhere, but it has assumed a far higher grade of importance in the political world, from having furnished, in a portion of its length, a line of demarcation between slaveholding and non-slaveholding territory. This circum Wo are Indebted to an able and interesting address by the Hon. J. H. B. Latrobe, for a great portion of the data for this sketch. THE TANGENT POINT. stance has nearly buried in oblivion its original and simple cha...