four years. But for the most part they were but tentative, being intended only for places of landing and shipment, having but little territory assigned to them, and being as easily unmade as made. The excessive number of the towns was however for a long time a great hindrance to their growth and development, on account of the division of interests it occasioned, and the rivalries and jealousies which consequently arose.
As the settlements extended northward it was impossible that the advantages to be derived from the establishment of a port near the head of the bay could long escape the consideration of the colonists; and in looking for a place adapted for that purpose, their attention would naturally be drawn to the Patapsco River, in which, at a distance of only about fourteen miles from the bay, they found, at tide water, a safe and commodious harbor, easy of access, and navigable by the largest vessels. Accordingly, in 1729,^' an act was passed by the Assembly "for erecting a town on the north side of Patapsco in Baltimore County, and for laying out into lots sixty acres of land in and about the place where one John Flemming now lives." The "sixty acres" which were thus assigned as the dimensions of the town, were purchased by the Commissioners appointed for that purpose, at forty shillings per acre, or about ten dollars of our present money.
The metes and bounds of the town as originally laid out are thus described in Griffith's Annals, viz: " Commencing at a point near the northwest intersection of what are now called Pratt and Light streets, and running northwesterly along or near Uhler's alley towards the great eastern road, and a great gully, or drain, at or near Sharpe street, then across Baltimore street east of the gully northeasterly with the same road afterwards called the Church Road, and now McClellan's alley, to the precipice which overhung the falls at or near the southwest corner of St. Paul street [now Saratoga] and St. Paul's lane, then with the bank of that stream, southerly and easterly, various courses unto the low grounds ten perches west of Gay street, then due south along the margin of those low grounds to the bank on the north side of the river, and then by that bank various courses, nearly as Water street runs, westerly and southerly, to the first mentioned point." Although the position selected for Baltimore indicates that its founders had in view the facilities for trade which it enjoyed, the small amount of land originally taken, and the nature of the ground selected, surrounded as it was by hills, water courses and marshes, clearly show that they had no anticipation of what were actually to be the size and importance of the city they were founding. The hills with which the city abounds, and which at this day contribute so much to its picturesqueness, have rendered the work of extending and grading streets in many instances both difficult and expensive. "The precipice overhanging the falls"[1] alluded to, has either entirely disappeared, or been converted into graded declivities. Through the city of to-day flow no less than three streams, known as Jones' Falls, Harford Eun and Chatsworth Eun, (but of these only
- ↑ Jones' Falls, a stream that flows through the midst of the city.
