The Fairfax Line was a surveyor's line run in 1746 to establish the limits of the "Northern Neck land grant" (also known as the "Fairfax Grant") in colonial Virginia.
The land grant, first contrived in 1649, encompassed all lands bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, up to 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2). By 1719, the lands had been inherited by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781). By that time the question of the boundaries of the designated lands had also become highly contentious. It was decided that a line between the sources of the North Branch Potomac River and the Rappahannock River would constitute the western limit of Lord Fairfax's lands.
Famous quotes containing the word line:
“What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist’s presence makes itself felt above that of the model.... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul’s style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)