Sailing to Philadelphia
by Mark Knopfler
I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth
He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
A Mason-Dixon Line
Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forests of the Iroquois
Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning has begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
A Mason-Dixon Line
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The ceremony put on in 2013 by the Surveyors Historical Society, the M-D Line Association, and other organizations at Mason's grave in Philadelphia included a duo singing that song. That was when they unveiled an original M-D line stone that had been displaced, recovered and placed with a plaque at his previously unmarked grave.
Mason had come back to Philadelphia late in life, and succumbed to illness within a few months. The tale is that his friend and scientific colleague Benjamin Franklin funded his burial but was too thrifty to buy a stone. It is within sight of Ben's grave.
Dan Patterson, post: 440011, member: 1179 wrote: Sailing to Philadelphia
Nice! Thanks for that!
