George Mason to Martin Cockburn (August 25, 1786)

[25 August 1786]

D[EA]R SIR

Gunston-Hall Saturday Morning I think it wrong to part with any of the Books out of our Possession. Mr. Barnes will soon return home, and lives at a great distance. We don't know into what Hands the Books may fall afterwards. It will be right to furnish Mr. Barnes with a Copy of the List of Ballances, as soon as it can be drawn off; but no original Books or Papers [ . . . ] ought to go out of our Hands. My Sons are from Home, or I wou'd set one of them about making out a Copy of the List of Ballances; as I presume you can't do it, at present.

I have been extreamly ill, with the convulsive Cholic, all Night; & am now hardly able to sit up, to write these two or three Lines. I am Dr. Sir Yr. affect. & Huble. Sert.

G Mason