title: Loren Dean

text: Dean has supported filmmakers behind the scenes as well. In 1999, he was a juror for the third annual Shorts International Film Festival.


title: Loren Dean

text: Loren Dean has been repeatedly impersonated by suspected con artist Loren Dean Breckenridge III. The Sheriff's Department in Orange County, California, has accused Breckenridge of impersonating Dean and defrauding drug rehabilitation centers across the United States, as well as committing the theft of $75,000 in Marin County, California. Breckenridge was later arrested for impersonating White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on television gardening programmes. He has developed a diverse writing and broadcasting career.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Alan Fred Titchmarsh was born on 2 May 1949 in Ilkley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He is the son of Bessie ("née" Hardisty), a textile mill worker, and Alan Fred Titchmarsh senior, a plumber. In 1964, after leaving school at 15, with one O-level in Art, Titchmarsh went to work as an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council, before leaving in 1968, at 18, for Shipley Art and Technology Institute in Shipley in the West Riding of Yorkshire to study for a City and Guilds in horticulture.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh went on to study at Hertfordshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture for the National Certificate in Horticulture, before finally moving to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to study for a Diploma in Horticulture. After graduating he stayed on at Kew, employed as a supervisor and later as a staff trainer. He left to pursue a career in gardening journalism in 1974. His interest in English literature and writing prompted him to apply for a job as assistant editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing and he began to write gardening books of his own, publishing his first in 1976.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh's first few television appearances were on the long-running BBC television show "Nationwide" as a horticulture expert. This led to his being invited to present coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show for BBC television in 1983. Titchmarsh hosted this every year until 2013. He also appeared on other BBC shows, such as "Breakfast Time" and "Open Air" as either a guest presenter or as a gardening expert.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 1991, Titchmarsh was brought in to host the long-running BBC television talk show "Pebble Mill", which he did until its cancellation in 1996. In 1991, he presented a 6-part series in which he followed in the footsteps of the pilgrims, travelling around Britain and Ireland in the process.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 1996, Titchmarsh took over as host of another long-running BBC series, "Gardeners' World", the show being filmed in his own garden. In 1997, he took gardening to the masses with BBC One television series, "Ground Force", in which he and fellow presenters Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh would perform a makeover on a garden. The show has travelled as far as the United States and South Africa, where one episode saw the "Ground Force" team make over Nelson Mandela's garden.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Staying involved in gardening programmes after "Gardeners' World", Titchmarsh has presented two series of "How To Be A Gardener".


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Away from gardening, Titchmarsh has had spells presenting "Songs of Praise" and a series of programmes on BBC Radio 2 in which he played a selection of light classical music, as well as a BBC nature documentary series, "British Isles - A Natural History". In recent years, he has done less television and radio and spent more time on his career as a novelist and renewed interest in writing gardening books.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh has appeared in an advertisement for the Yorkshire Tourist Board (now Welcome To Yorkshire) as part as of a series which included contributions from other Yorkshire-born celebrities including Brian Blessed, Melanie Brown, Darren Gough and Brian Turner. He occasionally does other voiceover work for advertisements as well as voicing the title character in "Gordon the Garden Gnome", a cartoon series for the CBeebies channel. In autumn 2007, Titchmarsh hosted a follow-up series to "British Isles – A Natural History" entitled "The Nature of Britain" focusing on British plant and animal species.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Other work includes hosting a 2005 special edition of the "Antiques Roadshow", entitled the "20th Century Roadshow", which focused on modern collectibles, performing in the 2006 Children's Party at the Palace for the Queen's 80th birthday, and guest hosting an episode of "The Paul O'Grady Show" while O'Grady was off for medical reasons.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2007 Titchmarsh hosted "The Great British Village Show", in which gardeners and cooks from all over Britain competed to be the best at growing pumpkins, runner beans and tomatoes, and at knitting, baking cakes and making jam. In September 2007 Titchmarsh began presenting his afternoon ITV chat show "The Alan Titchmarsh Show" which aired in the 3.00 pm afternoon slot. The show ended in November 2014.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2010 Titchmarsh presented the first series of "Popstar to Operastar" with Myleene Klass. Since 2011, he has presented gardening show "Love Your Garden".


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: On 1 June 2012 he presented "Elizabeth: Queen, Wife, Mother" on ITV and was criticised the following day, for his obsequiousness, in a review by Sam Wollaston for "The Guardian".


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2013, Titchmarsh, then aged 64, responded to complaints that older women were discriminated against on television by stating he would like to hear less "whingeing". "They don't complain in their early days when they are disporting themselves on sports cars", he stated in an interview with "The Observer". This drew criticism from media figures who had been protesting against the difficulties faced by older women in the media, including from Miriam O'Reilly, winner of an age discrimination case against the BBC.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In spring 2013 Titchmarsh was a reporter on BBC Two programme "The Great British Winter". In December 2014 Titchmarsh presented a two-part series for ITV called "The Queen's Garden" that was filmed over a time period of one year.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In January 2015 Titchmarsh presented "Britain's Best Back Gardens". In February 2016, Titchmarsh began presenting the daytime game show "Masterpiece" for ITV.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In February 2017, the Channel Five programme "Secrets of the National Trust" started airing with Alan Titchmarsh as the main presenter alongside other well known celebrities.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 1988 Titchmarsh was offered a slot on BBC Radio 2 hosting a gardening show with Gloria Hunniford called "House in a Garden".


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In January 2006, Titchmarsh was given a permanent slot on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday evenings with the show "Melodies for you" consisting of light classical and popular music, following the traditional style of Sunday-night broadcasting on Radio 2. In August 2011, Titchmarsh left Radio 2. Since January 2012, he has hosted a Saturday morning show on Classic FM.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: His first novel, "Only Dad", was published in November 2001. A further six books have since been published. Running parallel to the fiction work, Titchmarsh published a new series of gardening guides, the "How to Garden" series, in April 2009. His second autobiographical work is "Nobbut A Lad: A Yorkshire Childhood" from October 2006, a follow-up to his first autobiography, "Trowel & Error", published in 2002. "When I Was A Nipper" was published on 30 September 2010.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh has been married to Alison since 1975 and they have two children, Polly (born 1979) and Camilla (born 1981).


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In addition to his extensive television and writing work, Titchmarsh is also trustee of a charity, 'Gardens for Schools', and others, including 'Seeds for Africa'. Gardens for Schools helped fund gardens and green spaces in and around schools, while Seeds for Africa encourages sustainable vegetable gardening. It provides community groups with the tools, seeds and training they need to start their own vegetable gardens including providing water installation and preparing the land. Gardens for Schools has since been merged with the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. Away from horticulture, Titchmarsh has been involved with the Cowes inshore lifeboat, where he was patron until 2008, and with the National Maritime Museum, where he was a trustee until December 2008.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2004 Titchmarsh became the president of Perennial, officially known as the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society. Perennial is one of the UK's oldest charities and was created in 1839 to help gardeners and horticulturists facing times of difficulty.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2010 Titchmarsh became president of the plant conservation charity Plant Heritage (previously the NCCPG).


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In August 2014 Titchmarsh was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to "The Guardian" expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue. Titchmarsh is a monarchist.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh is an occasional practitioner of church bellringing. In 2011 he rang a quarter peal in Holybourne, Hampshire, to celebrate the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 2011 he participated in an Elm Tree Planting Ceremony to promote urban greening in London. He returned to the Marylebone and Fitzrovia area to plant a project's 1000th new tree in 2022.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh moved to his home, a grade II listed Georgian farmhouse in Hampshire, in 2002. He also has a coastal home, near Cowes on the Isle of Wight, where he spends about a third of the year.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to horticulture and broadcasting. He was made a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of the County of Hampshire in 2001. In 2008, Titchmarsh served as High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: In 1999, Titchmarsh was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) degree by the University of Bradford. He was made Patron at Writtle College, a university college in Essex, in 2001 and had a building named after him at the college in 2011 (the 'Titchmarsh Centre for Animal Studies'). In 2004, he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest award the RHS can bestow. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Winchester, and in 2014 was designated as the Chancellor of the university. He was honoured by the City of Westminster at a tree planting and plaque ceremony in 2011 and 2022.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh has launched his own range of gardening tools, developed in conjunction with manufacturer Bulldog Tools. He has worked with Digitalis Media to launch "Gardeners' Heaven", the online retail arm of his website, which supplies his tools as well as other popular gardening products.


title: Alan Titchmarsh

text: Titchmarsh played the Pope in "Sister Act: The Musical" at the Minack Theatre, Porthcurno, Cornwall in the BROS Theatre Company Production on 29 May 2019. He appeared in the final act of the show.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The name "Saitama" originally comes from the of what is now the city of Gyōda in the northern part of what is now known as Saitama Prefecture. "Sakitama" has an ancient history and is mentioned in the famous 8th century poetry anthology "Man'yōshū". The pronunciation has changed from Sakitama to Saitama over the years.


title: Saitama (city)

text: With the merger of Urawa, Ōmiya, and Yono it was decided that a new name, one fitting for this newly created prefectural capital, was needed. The prefectural name was changed from "kanji" into "hiragana", thus was born. It is the only prefectural capital in Japan whose name is always written in "hiragana", and belongs to the list of hiragana cities.


title: Saitama (city)

text: However, Saitama written in "hiragana" () actually finished in second place in public polling to Saitama written in "kanji" (). Despite this, government officials decided to name the new city Saitama in "hiragana", not "kanji". In third place in the poll was . In fourth was , written with an alternative "kanji" for "sai" () which means "colorful". The "sai" () used in the prefectural name is a rare form of a common character () that means 'cape' or 'promontory'.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The city is located 20 to 30 km north of central Tokyo, roughly at the center of the Kantō Plain. Situated in the southeast of Saitama Prefecture, the city is topographically comprised by lowlands and plateaus, at mostly less than 20 m above sea level, with no mountain ranges or hills within the city boundaries. The western portion of the city lies on the lowland created by the Arakawa River along with those created by small rivers such as the Moto-Arakawa River, Shiba River, and Ayase River. The rest of the area mostly resides on the Ōmiya Plateau lying in the north-south direction. Dispersed in this region, major rivers flow southward, almost paralleling to one another.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Saitama has a Humid subtropical climate (Köppen "Cfa") characterized by warm summers and cool winters with light to no snowfall. The average annual temperature in Saitama is . The average annual rainfall is with September as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around .


title: Saitama (city)

text: The city was founded on May 1, 2001, and was designated on April 1, 2003 as a government ordinance. For the histories of Urawa, Ōmiya and Yono before the merger, see:


title: Saitama (city)

text: On April 1, 2005, Saitama absorbed the city of Iwatsuki to its east, which became a new ward, Iwatsuki-ku.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Saitama has a mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral city council of 64 members. Saitama contributes 14 members to the Saitama Prefectural Assembly. In terms of national politics, the city is divided between the Saitama 1st district, Saitama 5th district and Saitama 15th districts of the lower house of the Diet of Japan.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The executive mayor, who is directly elected, is Sōichi Aikawa, an independent backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. On May 24, 2009, Aikawa lost his bid for reelection against Hayato Shimizu, who was backed by the opposition DPJ.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Saitama's economy is principally constituted by commercial business. The city is one of many commercial centers of the Greater Tokyo area and serves Saitama Prefecture, North Kanto, and northeast Honshu.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Saitama is also home to various manufacturers, exporting automotive (Honda manufactures the Honda Legend at Sayama Plant), food, optical, precision and pharmaceutical products. Calsonic Kansei, a global automotive company is headquartered in the city. Iwatsuki is famous for manufacturing of "hinamatsuri" dolls and ornate "kabuto" (samurai helmets).


title: Saitama (city)

text: The political and administrative center of the city is Urawa Ward (Urawa Station area), and the economic, commercial, and transportation center is Omiya Ward (Omiya Station area). Located approximately 20 km to 35 km from central Tokyo, Saitama City is a satellite city and bed town in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with a day-night population ratio of 92.8 in 2010, which is less than 100 despites being the prefectural capital and an ordinance-designated city (the southeastern part of Saitama Prefecture). (The southeastern area of Saitama Prefecture tends to be a suburb of Tokyo, and the day/night population ratio is particularly low in Minami ward and Midori ward, which are close to the center of Tokyo). Of the 747,000 commuters permanently residing in the city, 175,000, or 23.5%, commute to the Tokyo Special Wards area, making the city home to many so-called "Saitama Tomin". On the other hand, the former Urawa and Omiya cities were designated as core business cities in 1988, and in 2000, Saitama New Urban Center was opened and local branches of various central government offices were relocated from Tokyo.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The southern part of the city, which is closer to Tokyo, tends to have a higher population density than the northern part. In addition, population tends to be concentrated along the Keihin Tohoku Line, Utsunomiya Line, Takasaki Line, and Saikyo Line, which directly connect to central Tokyo, and where both conditions overlap, there is a series of high population density areas of over 20,000 people/km2 from Minami ward to Urawa and Chuo ward.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Urban functions such as administration, commerce, and business are concentrated around major stations such as Urawa, Omiya, and Saitama-new urban stations, which have formed the central urban area since the time of the former Urawa and Omiya cities (the center of the former Yono City is Yono-honmachi Station). The former Omiya City developed as a railroad town and commercial center, and Omiya Station in particular is one of the busiest and most prominent terminal stations in the Tokyo metropolitan area, with all Shinkansen bullet trains stopping there. The Urawa area is also known as an educational district with Saitama University and Saitama Prefectural Urawa High School, as well as an upscale residential area. The Iwatsuki Station area on the Tobu Noda Line (Tobu Urban Park Line) is also a part of the former Iwatsuki City's central urban area.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Representative station is Urawa Station. Saitama is a regional transportation hub for both passengers and freight train lines. Ōmiya Station, part of the Shinkansen high-speed train network, serves as the biggest railway hub in the prefecture.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The closest major airports are Haneda Airport and Narita International Airport, both about two hours away. Honda Airport in Okegawa is for general aviation and offers no scheduled transport services. Commuter helicopter flights to Narita Airport are offered from Kawajima.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Saitama was one of the host cities for the playoffs and the final of the official 2006 Basketball World Championship.


title: Saitama (city)

text: It is home to two J. League football teams: the Urawa Red Diamonds, formerly owned by Mitsubishi, and Omiya Ardija, formerly owned by NTT.


title: Saitama (city)

text: The city and Tokorozawa are home to the Japan Professional Basketball League team the Saitama Broncos.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Since 2013, the city has hosted the Saitama Criterium cycling race sponsored by the Tour de France, held at the end of October.


title: Saitama (city)

text: Most of Saitama Prefecture's mass media presence is concentrated in this city. See Mass media in Saitama Prefecture for details.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Bloons Tower Defense (also known as Bloons TD or BTD) is a series of tower defense games under the "Bloons" series created and produced by Ninja Kiwi. The game was initially developed as a browser game, built upon the (now unusable) Adobe Flash platform and released in mid 2007. Later games in the series expanded to support various mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DSi, Windows, Linux and MacOS.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: In the game, players attempt to prevent Bloons (the in-game name for balloons) from reaching the end of a set course by placing towers or road items along it that can pop the bloons in a variety of ways, typically by utilizing the power of monkeys. A handful of towers can stall the bloons and give the other towers more time to pop them by freezing and gluing the bloons. Money is gained by popping bloons, completing rounds, and collecting bananas from existing banana farms which can be spent on new towers, upgrades for existing ones, or temporary items such as exploding pineapples and road spikes.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The main objective of "Bloons TD" is to prevent Bloons (in-game name for balloons) from reaching the end of a defined track on a map that consists of one or more entrances and exits for the bloons. The game is a tower defense game and thus the player can choose various types of towers and traps to place around the track in order to defend against the bloons, gaining 1 in-game dollar for every layer of bloon popped. If a bloon reaches the end of a path, the player loses lives (or in later games, health); once these are all depleted, the game ends. The bloons always follow the map's set path on the track until they either reach the exit(s), are popped, or are moved to an earlier part of the track by a tower's ability.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: There are two classes of bloons in the game: regular (unnamed in the game) and MOAB-class. As of "Bloons TD 6", the regular bloons consist of: red, blue, green, yellow, pink, black, white, lead, zebra, rainbow, purple, and ceramic bloons. MOAB-class bloons are in the shape of a blimp and consist of: the MOAB (Massive Ornary Air Blimp), the BFB (Brutal Flying Behemoth), the DDT (Dark Dirigible Titan), the ZOMG (Zeppelin Of Mighty Gargantuaness), and the BAD (Big Airship of Doom). Tougher variants of most bloon types contain a number of specified weaker ones. In later versions of the game, regular bloons possess sometimes special characteristics such as camo (which most towers cannot detect), regrowth (the ability for the bloons to slowly grow back to their original size), and fortified (which doubles the health of the toughest bloons), that resist certain tower types. With each level, the intensity of bloon waves proportionately increases.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Towers are the main defensive utility in the "Bloons TD" series. Each tower has its own unique purpose, power, and use, with some being powerful against specific bloons but unable to target others effectively. Every tower can be upgraded to increase power and other capabilities by spending the in-game currency, known simply as 'money', which is earned by popping bloons and at the end of each round. In "Bloons TD 4" onwards, certain towers such as banana farms can be placed to produce additional money during a round (end of the round in "Bloons TD 4").


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: In later games, there are multiple difficulty levels; for instance, in "BTD5", there are four difficulty levels and in "Bloons Monkey City" there are six. The higher the difficulty the player plays on, the fewer lives they have and the more each tower and upgrade cost. There are also different types of maps rated by difficulty; in general, there are more types of maps in newer games.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: There are currently six released numbered games in the "Bloons TD" series apart from various add-on packs and spin-offs such as "Bloons TD 4 Expansion" and "Bloons Monkey City". The newest release, "Bloons TD 6", was released on June 14, 2018. The series was retitled from "Bloons Tower Defense" to "Bloons TD" in 2009 due to infringement on the "Tower Defense: Lost Earth" trademark owned by Com2uS.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: There are currently six mainline games, and many spin-off games based primarily on the "Bloons Tower Defense" series.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons Tower Defense" is the first game in the "BTD" series, released on August 16, 2007, as a free flash browser game. In the game players have to defend against colored bloons with monkeys, dart throwers, and other towers positioned around the map. Bloons have varying numbers of layers, with each layer being pierced revealing the layer underneath until the bloon has been completely popped. If all 40 lives are lost, the game is over. If all 50 waves are passed, the player will win the game.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons Tower Defense 2" was released soon after in October 2007, adding new towers, multiple map options, new bloons, and an option for the game's difficulty.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 3" was released on September 5, 2008, months after the release of "Bloons Tower Defense 2", named differently due to a trademark dispute with Com2uS. As with the second game, new towers, bloons, and maps were added.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: A version based on this game was released for iOS titled "Bloons TD"; made available on October 3, 2009, from the iOS App Store. This version had extra maps styled in snow and beach themes, and included OpenFeint achievements.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The game included five map packs, containing a total of 15 different levels to play, with packs unlocked by completing the previous levels. This version of the game was also released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Another version of the game, simply titled "Bloons TD", was released for DSiWare in 2011, containing 50 rounds to complete.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 4" was released on October 26, 2009, as an online freemium game with a proprietary iOS version released on December 7, 2010, developed in conjunction with Digital Goldfish. A "sandbox mode" allows experimentation with weapons and enemies, and an "apopalypse mode" makes the gameplay continuous without pausing between levels.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The gameplay underwent changes including a graphical update, the ability to save the current game, and the introduction of an unlock-based leveling system. The tower upgrading system received various changes including increasing the number of upgrades per tower, and new maps and game modes were added.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: iPhone and iPad versions of this title have been purchased over one million times. A version of the game was also released as a DSiWare game in 2012.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 4" later received a standalone "expansion pack" called "Bloons TD 4 Expansion" which added the Dartling Gun and Spike Factory towers, both of which would remain in future games, 4 new tracks, a new game mode called "Deflation", and a new "Tower Specialties" game mechanic.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The original (Flash and freemium) "Bloons TD 5" was released on December 13, 2011. The proprietary version of "BTD5" was released on iOS worldwide on November 15, 2012, for iPhones and iPods with improved graphics and additional upgrades, tracks, towers, and bloon types. On November 19, 2014, it was released on Steam.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 5 Deluxe" was released on January 27, 2012, for USD$24.99, or $19.99 during the promotional pre-order period. This offline Flash version of the game added 2 new towers (the "Bloonchipper" and "Monkey Engineer"), 6 new tracks, 4 ported tracks from "Bloons TD 4", a "moving tower platform" mechanic, three new "Special Agent" towers and four additional "Special Missions". All of the game's premium features, which were paid for with the "NinjaKiwi Coin" digital currency in "BTD5", were also made into free unlockable options that could be unlocked with the in-game earnable currency. This version of the game also has high-resolution graphics. Following an update for the mobile version of "BTD5", a new tower was also added to "BTD5 Deluxe" called the "Monkey Sub". The submarine was also later added to the online version on July 22, 2015. "Bloons TD 5 Deluxe" was discontinued and made no longer available for purchase in November 2014 in favour of the newer Steam port, which all owners of Deluxe received for free through e-mail.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: As with previous games of the series, the player has to protect the exit(s) against enemy Bloons (not to be confused with Balloon) by using various monkeys and monkey-operated machines placed in strategic locations to fight them off effectively. Compared to earlier versions of the series, there is a wider variety of different towers and their upgrades.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: This game also has an unlimited round free play mode, which can have bloons with increasing strengths until the Z.O.M.G type M.O.A.B-class bloon. Speed and health ramping also buff the blimp hp throughout the rounds. The Steam/Mobile version has two special mode bosses, the Dreadbloon and Blastapopoulos. The iOS, Android, and Steam versions have 15 languages: English, Arabic, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. On March 3, 2017, it was released for Microsoft's Xbox One, later releasing for PlayStation 4 on May 9, 2017, and Nintendo Switch on June 13, 2018, all of which cost $14.99 USD.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: This game also has daily challenges. There are 2347 daily challenges on web. The first challenge (Monkey Lane, Easy) was released on January 27, 2012, and 'The Final (New) Daily Challenge' was released on June 30, 2018.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 6" is the newest game in the main "Bloons TD" series. After being announced on March 28, 2017, it was released for the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store on June 14, 2018. A Steam version was released on December 17, 2018. Unlike all earlier games, "Bloons TD 6" does not have a Flash-based counterpart on the Ninja Kiwi website.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Along with 3D graphics, new features added include three new bloon types, each with unique properties such as immunity to magic and fire, extra health, or immunity to slowing and knockback, as well as 2 new towers (Druid and Alchemist) and 7 new upgrades for existing towers (adding up to a total of 15 per tower, 3 paths, 5 tiers). Some maps contain obstacles that block the sight of certain towers. Some obstacles are able to be removed by paying a sum of in-game money.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Bloons TD 6 also included the addition of heroes, which are in game characters that can be unlocked or bought with in-game money. These heroes level up automatically as the game goes on and do not have to be upgraded by the player.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Bloons TD 6 features multiple new game modes including Double HP MOABs, Half Cash, and C.H.I.M.P.S. If the player completes all of the game modes on one map, a black bar will be shown around the map on the map selection page. However, if the player quits to the main menu during a C.H.I.M.P.S. mode game, the border will be gold instead.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Apart from the main series, Ninja Kiwi has made several "BTD" games that include the core gameplay of "BTD" but are not numbered sequels.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD Battles" was released on December 12, 2012, and later to Android and iOS platforms in-between November 5 and 6, 2013, respectively. On April 20, 2016, it came to Steam as a ported version.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The gameplay is similar to that in "Bloons TD 5" but two players compete against one another in one of four game modes. In Assault Mode and Battle Arena, each player normally progresses through the levels that are usually equal to 2x-1 in terms of BTD5 levels. For example, round 7 in BTD Battles would be round 13 in BTD5. However, the players are also given the ability to purchase additional bloons, sending them to the opponent and overwhelming them.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: In "Defense" mode, the players play a natural game with the screen split vertically. Players can spend money to increase their income. In "Card Battles" mode, the players choose from a selection of cards to use in their games. The cards have two functions: sending bloons to the enemy player, which, like in Assault Mode, will give the player who sends the bloons extra income; and placing down a tower. All three game mode objectives are to outlast the opponent in surviving the bloon attacks. Using the games' skill-based matching system, players can be automatically matched with one another. The last mode is Club Battles, in which players can play with up to three of the six game-modifying "cards". The card selection can be chosen ahead of time when playing against a friend in a private lobby, but is random when playing other opponents. Players earn a club ticket every day at 7 PM, or they can receive one club ticket from the daily wheel. Another mode is Battle with Friends, in which a player can play one of the four game modes with a friend, not a random player, by entering a code for the player's private lobby.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons Monkey City" was released on November 25, 2013. Like "Bloons TD Battles", the core gameplay is similar to that of "BTD5", however, the player has to maintain a city, expanding the city by capturing bloon-infested areas called tiles. One important goal of the game is levelling up the city. Players earn XP for the city by capturing tiles, completing missions or building towers. Earning higher levels with XP grants access to certain unique game features, like Monkey vs. Monkey, Monkey Knowledge, etc.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Monkey vs. Monkey, allows players to fight each other; raids can be launched using the resource "Bloontonium". This can be acquired by capturing certain tiles or with Bloontonium generators. If the opponent fails to defend against the raid in the set time period, the attacker gains city cash, another resource in the game used to build towers, bloonstones, the 'premium currency' of the game, and city honor, which has no primary purpose in the game other than achievements.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: One primary difference between this game and the others in the "Bloons" series is the addition of buildings. Buildings in "Bloons Monkey City" are required in order to use and upgrade towers. Some buildings serve as prerequisites to other buildings, while others are prerequisites to using certain bloons in raids. The number of towers the player can use in a game is determined by how many of the corresponding type of building the player possesses. Some buildings unlock new monkeys, while upgrade buildings unlock upgrades to be researched for these monkeys. There are also special starred tiles that are required to capture in order to unlock the Monkey Engineer, the Bloonchipper, the Heli-Pilot, and the Monkey Sub. They also unlock permanent boosts (Special Items) to attack speed or pierce for specific towers or how long their effect lasts like the Glue Gunner. Special buildings are required to unlock the tier four upgrades, camo bloon defense, and MOAB-class bloon popping power (the Sun God and Robo Monkey also require buildings). This game contains 3,000 tiles in each city (9 of which are already captured, leaving 2991 tiles for the player to capture), and a new MOAB-class bloon, the DDT (or Dark Dirigible Titan).


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: In mid-2014, Ninja Kiwi released a new mode known as Contested Territory, a mini-game which offers bonus rewards, and pits players against each other, all of whom compete to survive the most rounds for the longest time on a trickier-than-normal track. This game was released on browsers, but a port to iOS and Android was released on December 3, 2014, and February 18, 2015, respectively. The Steam version was released on April 10, 2020.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons Adventure Time TD" is a crossover game between Ninja Kiwi's "Bloons TD" series and Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time" series that was announced via the Cartoon Network International News Site and the Ninja Kiwi blog on March 8 and 9, 2018, respectively.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The game soft launched on July 14, 2018, in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and Singapore on Android and iOS and later launched internationally. The game features characters from Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time" such as Finn the Human, Jake the Dog, and Princess Bubblegum as well as new monkey heroes like Max, Cassie, and C4 Charlie.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The gameplay is similar to other games in the series, with a new weapon and item mechanic as well. There are at least 15 adventures and 50 maps to play in that act as the playing stage of the game.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD Battles 2", the sequel to "Bloons TD Battles", was released on November 30, 2021. It was first leaked in Ninja Kiwi's YouTube video for "Bloons TD 6"s 24.0 update, on an iPad on the side. On October 22, 2021, another trailer was released titled "The rules of the Arena" detailing more gameplay.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The gameplay is similar to the original "Bloons TD Battles". Two players compete with each other, with three monkey types and a Hero, defending against pregenerated rounds and Bloon sends from the other player. The game also has 3-D graphics and more Bloon types, similar to "Bloons TD 6." Players must create a defense consisting of monkeys and machines that protects against waves of Bloons, which otherwise results in a loss of lives if the bloons reach the exit(s).


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: In "Bloons TD Battles 2", the player must outsmart the opponent by sending Bloons at the opponent while simultaneously defending against their sent Bloons. Winning allows the player to advance to higher arenas, which sends them to arenas of higher prestige. Reaching the maximum arena, Hall of Masters, allows the player to rank up on the public leaderboard.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Optionally, players can unlock cosmetics that can be bought for visual appeal, using a currency called Monkey Money.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: Shortly after the release of "Bloons Tower Defense", Lore Sjöberg of Wired described the game as cheerful and addictive, calling it "pop culture at its best". In 2012, Justin Davis of IGN described "Bloons Tower Defense" as one of the best free tower defense games, despite its "amateurish" artwork. He later noted the first entry's lack of depth, and that the sequel improved this.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: IGN editor Daemon Hatfield said that he thought "Bloons TD 3" succeeded in standing out in the crowded genre by having sufficient core game mechanics and adding an individual twist. The game's iOS version received mixed reviews with some authors praising the unique towers and good gameplay, though the user interface, controls, and lack of leaderboards were criticized. The DS version received similar reception, with Lucas Thomas of IGN describing it as "a pretty good take on good old Bloons TD." Eurogamer's Kristan Reed gave the PSP version 8/10, describing it as "transfixing", though he said that the music appeared to be designed to "drive you insane".


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: GameZebo editor Jim Squires gave "Bloons TD 4" a 3.5/5 rating, praising it on its well designed maps and towers and for having a large amount of content, but he criticized the game for not "bringing anything new to the genre." "GamePro" editor Ryan Rigney gave "Bloons TD 4" a 2/5 rating, stating that it had the same "Bloons Tower Defense" gameplay as the previous titles, and "the screen eventually gets so hectic that it's no longer fun to play"; an issue which many other reviews also responded negatively to.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 5" was received similarly to its previous version, with reviewers commenting positively on the number of maps, towers, and levels, but criticising the lack of innovation to the tower-defense genre and performance issues at higher levels. Both "Bloons TD 4" and "Bloons TD 5" featured among the top 10 paid iPhone apps in the iOS App Store, with "Bloons TD 4" selling over 1 million copies. "Bloons TD" remained in the top 100 apps for at least 3 months, and "Bloons TD 5" was the 8th most purchased iPhone app in 2013. Overall, the game series has been played over 1 billion times across web and mobile devices.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: "Bloons TD 6" received praise for its extended gameplay variety, but has also been criticized for its lack of replayability despite the increased number of unique elements in the game.


title: Bloons Tower Defense

text: The success of the "Bloons TD" franchise had been given praise by digital investment company Modern Times Group, with special note on Ninja Kiwi's continuous work to "pioneer" the tower defense genre in an economically viable but quality format. Modern Times Group announced that it had acquired Ninja Kiwi on March 24, 2021.


title: Juhi Babbar

text: Juhi Babbar is an Indian film and television actress. She has also contributed to theatre both as an actor and director. She is the daughter of famous Bollywood actor Raj Babbar and the second wife of Indian TV actor and anchor Anup Soni.


title: Juhi Babbar

text: Juhi's first husband was Bejoy Nambiar, a screenplay writer, whom she married on 27 June 2007. The couple divorced in January 2009. She then fell in love with the TV actor Anup Soni, whom she met while both of them were working in a play produced by Juhi's mother Nadira Babbar. Soni was at that time married to Ritu and was the father of two daughters by her. On 14 March 2011, after his divorce was finalized, Juhi and Anup Soni were married. Juhi and Soni have a son, born in 2012.


title: Juhi Babbar

text: Juhi made her film debut in "Kash Aap Hamare Hote" opposite Sonu Nigam. In 2005, she did a Punjabi film with Jimmy Shergill, "Yaara Naal Baharan". The film did well in Punjab and with the overseas Punjabi audience. Juhi then did a silent film with Malayalam actor Mohanlal. In 2006, she was seen in the film "Unns" with actor Sanjay Kapoor and Rituparna Sengupta. She appeared in her next film "It's My Life" as Sonia Jaisingh opposite actors Harman Baweja, Genelia D'Souza and Nana Patekar. In 2009, Juhi played the role of a house wife in the TV comedy "Ghar Ki Baat Hai" produced by Shah Rukh Khan.


title: Straw

text: Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number of different uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket making.


title: Straw

text: Straw is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bale, or bundle, of straw tightly bound with twine, wire, or string. Straw bales may be square, rectangular, or round, and can be very large, depending on the type of baler used.


title: Straw

text: Dried straw presents a fire hazard that can ignite easily if exposed to sparks or an open flame. It can also trigger allergic rhinitis in people who are hypersensitive to airborne allergens such as straw dust.


title: Straw

text: In addition to its current and historic uses, straw is being investigated as a source of fine chemicals including alkaloids, flavonoids, lignins, phenols, and steroids.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The anatomy of spiders includes many characteristics shared with other arachnids. These characteristics include bodies divided into two tagmata (sections or segments), eight jointed legs, no wings or antennae, the presence of chelicerae and pedipalps, simple eyes, and an exoskeleton, which is periodically shed.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders also have several adaptations that distinguish them from other arachnids. All spiders are capable of producing silk of various types, which many species use to build webs to ensnare prey. Most spiders possess venom, which is injected into prey (or defensively, when the spider feels threatened) through the fangs of the chelicerae. Male spiders have specialized pedipalps that are used to transfer sperm to the female during mating. Many species of spiders exhibit a great deal of sexual dimorphism.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders, unlike insects, have only two main body parts (tagmata) instead of three: a fused head and thorax (called a cephalothorax or prosoma) and an abdomen (also called an opisthosoma). The exception to this rule are the assassin spiders in the family Archaeidae, whose cephalothorax is divided into two parts by an elongated "neck". In the majority of spiders, the abdomen is not externally segmented. The exception is the Liphistiidae, a basal family, which retains this more primitive character; hence they are sometimes called segmented spiders. The abdomen and cephalothorax are connected by a thin waist called the pedicel. Unlike insects, spiders have an endoskeleton in addition to their exoskeleton.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The cephalothorax, also called prosoma, is composed of two primary surfaces: a dorsal carapace and a ventral sternum. Most external appendages on the spider are attached to the cephalothorax, including the eyes, chelicerae and other mouthparts, pedipalps and legs.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Like other arachnids, spiders are unable to chew their food, so they have a mouth part shaped like a short drinking straw that they use to suck up the liquefied insides of their prey. However, they are able to eat their own silk to recycle proteins needed in the production of new spider webs. Some spiders, such as the dewdrop spiders ("Argyrodes"), even eat the silk of other spider species.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders typically have eight walking legs (insects have six). They do not have antennae; the pair of appendages in front of the legs are the pedipalps (or just palps). Spiders' legs are made up of seven segments. Starting from the body end, these are the coxa, trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, metatarsus and tarsus. The tip of the tarsus bears claws, which vary in number and size. Spiders that spin webs typically have three claws, the middle one being small; hunting spiders typically have only two claws. Since they do not have antennae, spiders use specialised and sensitive setae on their legs to pick up scent, sounds, vibrations and air currents. Some spiders, such as the Australian crab spider, do not have claws.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The pedipalps have only six segments: the metatarsus is missing. In adult males, the tarsus of each palp is modified to carry an elaborate and often species-specific structure used for mating (variously called a palpal bulb, palpal organ or copulatory bulb). The basal segments of the pedipalps, the coxae, next to the mouth, are modified to assist with feeding, and are termed maxillae, although they are not homologous with the maxillae of mandibulate arthropods. In mesothele and mygalomorph spiders, the maxillae are only slightly modified; in araneomorph spiders, the anterior edge is often saw-like and is used in cutting up prey.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders usually have eight eyes, each with a single lens rather than multiple units as in the compound eyes of insects. The specific arrangement of the eyes is one of the features used in classifying different species. Most species of the Haplogynae have six eyes, although some have eight (Plectreuridae), four (e.g., Tetrablemma) or even two (most Caponiidae). Sometimes one pair of eyes is better developed than the rest, or even, in some cave species, there are no eyes at all. Several families of hunting spiders, such as jumping spiders and wolf spiders, have fair to excellent vision. The main pair of eyes in jumping spiders even sees in color.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Net-casting spiders of genus "Deinopis" have their posterior median eyes enlarged into large forward-facing compound lenses. These eyes have a wide field of view and are able to gather available light more efficiently than the eyes of cats and owls. This is despite the fact that they lack a reflective layer (tapetum lucidum); instead, each night, a large area of light-sensitive membrane is manufactured within the eyes, and since arachnid eyes do not have irises, it is rapidly destroyed again at dawn.


title: Spider anatomy

text: However, most spiders that lurk on flowers, webs, and other fixed locations waiting for prey tend to have very poor eyesight; instead they possess an extreme sensitivity to vibrations, which aids in prey capture. Vibration sensitive spiders can sense vibrations from such various mediums as the water surface, the soil or their silk threads. Changes in the air pressure can also be detected in search of prey.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The cephalothorax is joined to the abdomen by a thin flexible pedicel. This allows a spider to move its abdomen in all directions, and thus, for example, to spin silk without moving the cephalothorax. This waist is actually the last segment (somite) of the cephalothorax (the pregenital somite) and is lost in most other members of the Arachnida (in scorpions it is only detectable in the embryos).


title: Spider anatomy

text: The abdomen is also known as the opisthosoma. On the ventral side of the abdomen are two hardened plates covering the book lungs. These are called the epigastric plates. A fold, known as the epigastric furrow, separates the region of the book lungs and epigyne from the more posterior part of the abdomen. In the middle of this furrow is the opening of the oviduct (in females) and at either end are the lung slits. In most spiders the external segmentation is no longer visible, but is still noticeable internally. The first abdominal segment behind the pedicel contains both the openings to a pair of book lungs (absent in a few species) and the gonopore (genital opening). Then follows a segment with a second pair of book lungs (replaced with trachea in most modern spiders). The next two segments carry the spinnerets. In the majority of spiders the spinnerets have migrated to the posterior end of the body. The remaining abdominal segments are more difficult to distinguish.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The abdomen has no appendages except from one to four (usually three) modified pairs of movable telescoping organs called spinnerets, which produce silk. Originally, the common ancestor of spiders had four pairs of spinnerets, with two pairs on the tenth body segment and two pairs on the eleventh body segment, located in the middle on the ventral side of the abdomen. The suborder Mesothelae is unique in having only two types of silk glands – thought to be the ancestral condition. All other spiders have the spinnerets further towards the posterior end of the body where they form a small cluster, and the anterior central spinnerets on the tenth segment are lost or reduced (suborder Mygalomorphae), or modified into a specialised and flattened plate called the cribellum (suborder Araneomorphae). The cribellum (usually separated into a left and a right half) produces a thread made up of hundreds to thousands of very fine dry silk fibers (about 10 nm thick) around a few thicker core fibers, which then are combed into a woolly structure by using a group of specialized hairs (setae) on their fourth pair of legs. It is suspected their woolly silk is charged with static electricity, causing its fine fibres to attach to trapped prey. Once all araneomorph (modern) spiders had a cribellum, but today it only remains in the cribellate spiders (although it is sometimes missing even here), which are widespread around the world. Often, this plate lacks the ability to produce silk, and is then called the colulus; an organ that zoologists have not identified a function for. The colulus is reduced or absent in most species. The cribellate spiders were the first spiders to build specialized prey catching webs, later evolving into groups that used the spinnerets solely to make webs, instead using silk threads dotted with droplets of a sticky liquid (like pearls on a necklace) to capture small arthropods, and a few large species even small bats and birds. Other spiders do not build webs at all, but have become active hunters, like the highly successful jumping spiders.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders, like most arthropods, have an open circulatory system, i.e., they do not have true blood, or veins which transport it. Rather, their bodies are filled with haemolymph, which is pumped through arteries by a heart into spaces called sinuses surrounding their internal organs. The haemolymph contains hemocyanin, a respiratory protein similar in function to hemoglobin. Hemocyanin contains two copper atoms, tinting the haemolymph with a faint blue color.


title: Spider anatomy

text: The heart is located in the abdomen a short distance within the middle line of the dorsal body-wall, and above the intestine. Unlike in insects, the heart is not divided into chambers, but consists of a simple tube. The aorta, which supplies haemolymph to the cephalothorax, extends from the anterior end of the heart. Smaller arteries extend from sides and posterior end of the heart. A thin-walled sac, known as the pericardium, completely surrounds the heart.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Spiders have developed several different respiratory anatomies, based either on book lungs or on tracheae. Mesothele and mygalomorph spiders have two pairs of book lungs filled with haemolymph, where openings on the ventral surface of the abdomen allow air to enter and oxygen to diffuse in and carbon dioxide to diffuse out. This is also the case for some basal araneomorph spiders like the family Hypochilidae, but the remaining members of this group have just the anterior pair of book lungs intact while the posterior pair of breathing organs are partly or fully modified into tracheae, through which oxygen is diffused into the haemolymph or directly to the tissue and organs. This system has most likely evolved in small ancestors to help resist desiccation. The trachea were originally connected to the surroundings through a pair of spiracles, but in the majority of spiders this pair of spiracles has fused into a single one in the middle, and migrated posterior close to the spinnerets.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Among smaller araneomorph spiders there are species in which the anterior pair of book lungs have also evolved into tracheae, or are simply reduced or missing. In a very few species the book lungs have developed deep channels, apparently signs of evolution into tracheae. Some very small spiders in moist and sheltered habitats do not have any breathing organs at all, as gas exchange occurs directly through their body surface. In the tracheal system oxygen interchange is much more efficient, enabling cursorial hunting (hunting involving extended pursuit) and other advanced characteristics, such as having a smaller heart and the ability to live in drier habitats.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Digestion is carried out internally and externally. Spiders do not have powerful chelicerae, but secrete digestive fluids into their prey from a series of ducts perforating their chelicerae. The coxal glands are excretory organs that lie in the prosoma, and open to the outside at the coxae of the walking legs. In primitive spiders, such as the Mesothelae and the Mygalomorphae, two pairs of coxal glands open onto the posterior side of the first and third coxae. They release a fluid only during feeding and play an important role in ion and water balance. Digestive fluids dissolve the prey's internal tissues. Then the spider feeds by sucking the partially digested fluids out. Other spiders with more powerfully built chelicerae masticate the entire body of their prey and leave behind only a relatively small amount of indigestible materials. Spiders consume only liquid foods. Many spiders will store prey temporarily. Web weaving spiders that have made a shroud of silk to quiet their envenomed prey's death struggles will generally leave them in these shrouds and then consume them at their leisure.


title: Spider anatomy

text: Almost all spiders reproduce sexually. They are unusual in that they do not transfer sperm directly, for example via a penis. Instead the males transfer it to specialized structures (palpal bulbs) on the pedipalps and then meander about to search for a mate. These palps are then introduced into the female's epigyne. This was first described in 1678 by Martin Lister. In 1843 it was revealed that males build a nuptial web into which they deposit a drop of semen, which is then taken up by the copulatory apparatus (the palpal bulb) in the pedipalp. The structure of the copulatory apparatus varies significantly between males of different species. While the widened palpal tarsus of the southern house spider, "Kukulcania hibernalis" (Filistatidae), only forms a simple bulb containing the coiled blind duct, members of the genus "Argiope" have a highly complex structure.


title: George Mason

text: George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his "Objections to this Constitution of Government" (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.


title: George Mason

text: Mason was born in 1725, most likely in what is now Fairfax County, Virginia. His father died when he was young, and his mother managed the family estates until he came of age. He married in 1750, built Gunston Hall and lived the life of a country squire, supervising his lands, family and slaves. He briefly served in the House of Burgesses and involved himself in community affairs, sometimes serving with his neighbor George Washington. As tensions grew between Great Britain and the North American colonies, Mason came to support the colonial side, using his knowledge and experience to help the revolutionary cause, finding ways to work around the Stamp Act of 1765 and serving in the pro-independence Fourth Virginia Convention in 1775 and the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776.


title: George Mason

text: Mason prepared the first draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776, and his words formed much of the text adopted by the final Revolutionary Virginia Convention. He also wrote a constitution for the state; Thomas Jefferson and others sought to have the convention adopt their ideas, but they found that Mason's version could not be stopped. During the American Revolutionary War, Mason was a member of the powerful House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly, but to the irritation of Washington and others, he refused to serve in the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, citing health and family commitments.


title: George Mason

text: In 1787, Mason was named one of his state's delegates to the Constitutional Convention and traveled to Philadelphia, his only lengthy trip outside Virginia. Many clauses in the Constitution bear his stamp, as he was active in the convention for months before deciding that he could not sign it. He cited the lack of a bill of rights most prominently in his "Objections". He also wanted an immediate end to the slave trade and a supermajority requirement for navigation acts, fearing that restrictions on shipping might harm Virginia. He failed to attain these objectives, and again at the Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788, but his prominent fight for a bill of rights led fellow Virginian James Madison to introduce the same during the First Congress in 1789; these amendments were ratified in 1791, a year before Mason died. Obscure after his death, Mason has come to be recognized in the 20th and 21st centuries for his contributions to the early United States and to Virginia.


title: George Mason

text: Mason's great-grandfather George Mason I had been a Cavalier: militarily defeated in the English Civil War, some Cavaliers emigrated to the colonies in the 1640s and 1650s. He had been born in 1629 at Pershore, in the English county of Worcestershire. The immigrant George Mason settled in what is now Stafford County, Virginia, having obtained land as a reward for bringing his family and servants to the colony, under headright which awarded 50 acres for each person transported into the Colony of Virginia. His son, George Mason II (1660–1716), was the first to move to what in 1742 became Fairfax County, then at the frontier between English and Native American controlled areas. George Mason III (1690–1735) like his father and grandfather served in the House of Burgesses and also as county lieutenant. George Mason IV's mother, Ann Thomson Mason, was the daughter of a former Attorney General of Virginia who had immigrated from London and was of a Yorkshire family.


title: George Mason

text: Colonial Virginia at the time had few roads, and boats carried most commerce on Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries, such as the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Most settlement took place near the rivers, through which planters could trade with the world. Thus, colonial Virginia initially developed few towns, since estates were largely self-sufficient and could get what they needed without the need to purchase locally. Even the capital, Williamsburg, saw little activity when the legislature was not in session. Local politics was dominated by large landowners like the Masons. The Virginia economy rose and fell with tobacco, the main crop, which was raised mostly for export to Britain.


title: George Mason

text: George Mason, fourth of that name, was born into this environment on December 11, 1725. Although the family continued to own property in Stafford County (where his father and grandfather were born and which previous generations had represented in the House of Burgesses), he likely was born at his father's plantation on Dogue's Neck (later Mason Neck), His parents also lived on their lands across the Potomac in Maryland, which his mother inherited, so that also could have been his birthplace.


title: George Mason

text: On March 5, 1735, George Mason III died when his boat capsized while crossing the Potomac. His widow Ann raised their son George (then 10) and two younger siblings as co-guardian with Virginia lawyer John Mercer. Mercer was their uncle by marriage, the husband of George Mason III's sister Catherine. Ann Mason selected property at Chopawamsic Creek (today in Prince William County, Virginia) as her dower house and there lived with her children and administered the lands that her elder son would control upon reaching his 21st birthday, per primogeniture. At age twenty-one, Mason inherited his father's large estate—thousands of acres of farmland in Virginia and Maryland, as well as thousands of acres of uncleared land in the western country. Mason also inherited his father's slaves—said to number about three hundred.


title: George Mason

text: In 1736, Mason began his education with Mr. Williams, hired to teach him for the price of of tobacco per annum. His studies began at his mother's house, but the following year he was boarded out to a Mrs. Simpson in Maryland, with Williams continuing as teacher through 1739. By 1740, Mason was again at Chopawamsic, under the tutelage of a Dr. Bridges, likely Charles Bridges, who helped develop the schools run in Britain by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, and who came to America in 1731. In addition, Mason and his brother Thomson doubtlessly could consult Mercer's library, one of the largest in Virginia. Conversations with Mercer and book-lovers who gathered around him could have continued his education informally.


title: George Mason

text: Mercer was a brilliant man of strong opinions, who expressed his views in ways that sometimes gave offense; Mason proved similar in brilliance of mind and ability to anger. Mason attained his majority in 1746 and continued to live at Chopawamsic with his siblings and mother.


title: George Mason

text: The obligations and offices that came with being one of the largest local landowners descended on Mason as they had on his father and grandfather. In 1747, he was named to the Fairfax County Court. Mason was elected as a vestryman for Truro Parish, serving 1749–1785. He took a position among the officers of the county militia, eventually rising to the rank of colonel. In 1748, he sought a seat in the House of Burgesses; the process was controlled by more senior members of the court and he was not then successful, but he would win in 1758.


title: George Mason

text: The county court heard civil and criminal cases, and also decided matters such as local taxes. Membership fell to most major landowners. Mason was a justice for much of the rest of his life, though he was excluded because of nonattendance at court from 1752 to 1764, and he resigned in 1789 when continued service meant swearing to uphold a constitution he could not support. Even while a member, he often did not attend. Joseph Horrell, in a journal article on Mason's court service, noted that he was often in poor health and lived the furthest of any of the major estateholders from the Fairfax County courthouse, whether at its original site near today's Tyson's Corner or later in newly founded Alexandria. Robert Rutland, editor of Mason's papers, considered court service a major influence on Mason's later thinking and writing, but Horrell denied it, "if the Fairfax court provided a course for Mason's early training, he chiefly distinguished himself by skipping classes."


title: George Mason

text: Alexandria was one of the towns founded or given corporate status in the mid-18th century in which Mason had interests; he purchased three of the original lots along King and Royal Streets and became a municipal trustee in 1754. He also served as a trustee of Dumfries, in Prince William County, and had business interests there and in Georgetown, on the Maryland side of the Potomac (today in the District of Columbia).


title: George Mason

text: On April 4, 1750, Mason married Ann Eilbeck, only child of William and Sarah Eilbeck of Charles County, Maryland. The Masons and Eilbecks had adjacent lands in Maryland and had joined together in real estate transactions; by his death in 1764, William Eilbeck was one of the wealthiest men in Charles County. At the time of his marriage, Mason was living at Dogue's Neck, possibly at Sycamore Point. George and Ann Mason would have nine children who survived to adulthood. Ann Mason died in 1773; their marriage, judging by surviving accounts, was a happy one.


title: George Mason

text: Mason began to build his home, Gunston Hall, likely beginning in 1755. The exterior, typical of local buildings of that time, was probably based on architectural books sent from Britain to America for the use of local builders; one of these craftsmen, perhaps William Waite or James Wren, constructed Gunston Hall. Mason was proud of the gardens which still surround the house. There were outbuildings, including slave quarters, a schoolhouse, and kitchens, and beyond them four large plantations, forests, and the shops and other facilities that made Gunston Hall mostly self-sufficient.


title: George Mason

text: Mason avoided overdependence on tobacco as a source of income by leasing much of his land holdings to tenant farmers, and he diversified his crops to grow wheat for export to the British West Indies as Virginia's economy sank because of tobacco overproduction in the 1760s and 1770s. Mason was a pioneer in the Virginia wine industry, subscribing along with other Virginians such as Thomas Jefferson to Philip Mazzei's scheme for growing wine grapes in America.


title: George Mason

text: Mason sought to expand his land and wealth. He greatly expanded the boundaries of Gunston Hall estate, so that it occupied all of Dogue's Neck, which became known as Mason's Neck. One project that Mason was involved in for most of his adult life was the Ohio Company, in which he invested in 1749 and became treasurer in 1752—an office he held forty years until his death in 1792. The Ohio Company had secured a royal grant for to be surveyed near the forks of the Ohio River (today the site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). War, revolution, and competing claims from Pennsylvania eventually defeated the Ohio Company's plans. Although the company failed, Mason acquired considerable western lands independently. His defense against the Pennsylvania claims, "Selections from the Virginia Charters" (1772), originally intended to promote the Ohio Company's claims, was widely applauded as a defense of the rights of Americans against royal decrees. Involvement with the Ohio Company also brought Mason into contact with many prominent Virginians, including his Fairfax County neighbor, George Washington.


title: George Mason

text: Mason and Washington were friends for many years until they finally broke over their differences regarding the federal constitution. Peter R. Henriques, in his journal article on their relationship, suggests that Mason cultivated the friendship more than Washington did, as Mason sent many more letters and gifts and stayed more often at Washington's plantation, though the last can be explained in part as Mount Vernon lay on the road from Gunston Hall to Alexandria. Henriques suggests that as Mason was older, intellectually superior, and the owner of a flourishing plantation as Washington struggled to establish Mount Vernon, it would not have been in the future president's character to be close to Mason. Washington had a deep respect for Mason's intellectual abilities, several times asking for his advice, and writing in 1777 when learning that Mason had taken charge of an issue before the General Assembly, "I know of no person better qualified ... than Colonel Mason, and shall be very happy to hear he has taken it in hand".


title: George Mason

text: Despite his involvement in western real estate schemes, Mason saw that land was being cleared and planted with tobacco faster than the market for it could expand, meaning that its price would drop even as more and more capital was tied up in land and slaves. Thus, although a major slaveholder, he opposed the slave system in Virginia. He believed that slave importation, together with the natural population increase, would result in a huge future slave population in Virginia; a system of leased lands, though not as profitable as slave labor, would have "little Trouble & Risque [risk]".


title: George Mason

text: Little is known of Mason's political views prior to the 1760s, when he came to oppose British colonial policies. In 1758, Mason successfully ran for the House of Burgesses when George William Fairfax, holder of one of Fairfax County's two seats, chose not to seek re-election. Also elected were Mason's brother Thomson (for Stafford County), George Washington (for Frederick County where he was stationed as commander of Virginia's militia as the French and Indian War continued) and Richard Henry Lee, who would work closely with Mason through their careers.


title: George Mason

text: When the house assembled, George Mason was initially appointed to a committee concerned with raising additional militia during that time of war. In 1759, he was appointed to the powerful Committee on Privileges and Elections. He was also placed on the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, which mostly considered local matters. Mason dealt with several local concerns, presenting a petition of Fairfax County planters against being assessed for a tobacco wharf at Alexandria, funds they felt should be raised through wharfage fees. He also played a major role as the Burgesses deliberated how to divide Prince William County as settlement expanded; in March 1759, Fauquier County was created by legislative act. In this, Mason opposed the interest of the family of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, who wanted existing counties expanded instead, including Fairfax. This difference may have contributed to Mason's decision not to seek re-election in 1761. Mason biographer Jeff Broadwater notes that Mason's committee assignments reflected the esteem his colleagues held him in, or at least the potential they saw. Broadwater did not find it surprising that Mason did not seek re-election, as he did not attend the sessions between 1759 and 1761.


title: George Mason

text: Although the British were victorious over the French in the war, King George III's government felt that the North American colonies were not paying their way, since little direct tax revenue from the colonies was received. The Sugar Act of 1764 had its greatest effect in New England and did not cause widespread objection. The Stamp Act the following year affected all 13 colonies, as it required revenue stamps to be used on papers required in trade and in the law. When word of passage of the Stamp Act reached Williamsburg, the House of Burgesses passed the Virginia Resolves, asserting that Virginians had the same rights as if they resided in Britain, and that they could only be taxed by themselves or their elected representatives. The Resolves were mostly written by a fiery-spoken new member for Louisa County, Patrick Henry.


title: George Mason

text: Mason slowly moved from being a peripheral figure towards the center of Virginia politics, but his published response to the Stamp Act, which he opposed, is most notable for the inclusion of his anti-slavery views. George Washington or George William Fairfax, the burgesses for Fairfax County, may have asked Mason's advice as to what steps to take in the crisis. Mason drafted an act to allow for one of the most common court actions, replevin, to take place without the use of stamped paper, and sent it to George Washington, by then one of Fairfax County's burgesses, to gain passage. This action contributed to a boycott of the stamps. With the courts and trade paralyzed, the British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 but continued to assert the right to tax the colonies.


title: George Mason

text: Following the repeal, a committee of London merchants issued a public letter to Americans, warning them not to declare victory. Mason published a response in June 1766, satirizing the British position, "We have, with infinite Difficulty & Fatigue got you excused this one Time; do what your Papa and Mamma bid, & hasten to return your most grateful Acknowledgements for condescending to let you keep what is your own." The Townshend Acts of 1767 were Britain's next attempt to tax the colonies, placing duties on substances including lead and glass, which provoked calls from the northern colonies for a boycott of British goods. Virginia, more dependent on goods imported from Britain, was less enthusiastic, and as local planters tended to receive goods at their river landings, a boycott would be difficult to enforce. In April 1769, Washington sent a copy of a Philadelphia resolution to Mason, asking his advice on what action Virginia should take. It is unknown who adapted that text for use in Virginia (Broadwater concludes it was Mason) but Mason sent Washington a corrected draft on April 23, 1769. Washington took it to Williamsburg, but the governor, Lord Botetourt, dissolved the legislature because of the radical resolutions it was passing. The Burgesses adjourned to a nearby tavern and there passed a non-importation agreement based on Mason's draft.


title: George Mason

text: Although the resolution was not as strong as Mason had liked—he wanted Virginia to threaten to cut off tobacco—Mason worked in the following years for non-importation. The repeal of most of the Townshend duties (excepting that on tea) made his task more difficult. In March 1773, his wife Ann died of illness contracted after another pregnancy. Mason was the sole parent to nine children, and his commitments made him even more reluctant to accept political office that would take him from Gunston Hall.


title: George Mason

text: In May 1774, Mason was in Williamsburg on real estate business. Word had just arrived of the passage of the Intolerable Acts, as Americans dubbed the legislative response to the Boston Tea Party, and a group of lawmakers including Lee, Henry, and Jefferson asked Mason to join them in formulating a course of action. The Burgesses passed a resolution for a day of fasting and prayer to obtain divine intervention against "destruction of our Civil Rights", but the governor, Lord Dunmore, dissolved the legislature rather than accept it. Mason may have helped write the resolution and likely joined the members after the dissolution when they met at the Raleigh Tavern.


title: George Mason

text: New elections had to be held for burgess and for delegate to the convention which had been called by the rump of the dissolved House of Burgesses, and Fairfax County's were set for July 5, 1774. Washington planned to run for one seat and tried to get Mason or Bryan Fairfax to seek the other, but both men declined. Although the poll was postponed to July 14 because of poor weather, Washington met that day with other local leaders (including, likely, Mason) in Alexandria and selected a committee to draft a set of resolutions, which Washington hoped would "define our Constitutional Rights". The resulting Fairfax Resolves were largely drafted by Mason. He met with Washington on July 17 at Mount Vernon and stayed the night; the two men rode together to Alexandria the following day. The 24 propositions that made up the Resolves protested loyalty to the British Crown but denied the right of Parliament to legislate for colonies that had been settled at private expense and which had received charters from the monarch. The Resolves called for a continental congress. If Americans did not receive redress by November 1, exports, including that of tobacco, would be cut off. The freeholders of Fairfax County approved the Resolves, appointing Mason and Washington to a special committee in the emergency. According to early Virginia historian Hugh Grigsby, at Alexandria, Mason "made his first great movement on the theatre of the Revolution".


title: George Mason

text: Washington took the Resolves to the Virginia Convention in Williamsburg, and although delegates made some changes, the adopted resolution closely tracks both the Fairfax Resolves and the scheme for non-exportation of tobacco Mason had proposed some years earlier. The convention elected delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia, including Lee, Washington, and Henry, and in October 1774, Congress adopted a similar embargo.


title: George Mason

text: Much of Mason's efforts in 1774 and 1775 was in organizing a militia independent of the royal government. Washington by January 1775 was drilling a small force, and he and Mason purchased gunpowder for the company. Mason wrote in favor of annual election of militia officers in words that would later echo in the Virginia Declaration of Rights, "We came equal into this world, and equals shall we go out of it. All men are by nature born equally free and independent."


title: George Mason

text: Washington's election as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress created a vacancy in Fairfax County's delegation to the third Virginia Convention, and he wrote from Philadelphia in May 1775, urging that it be filled. By this time, blood had been shed between colonial and Briton at the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Mason attempted to avoid election on the grounds of poor health and that he was needed to parent his motherless children. Nevertheless, he was elected and journeyed to Richmond, which, being further inland than Williamsburg, was deemed better protected from possible British attack.


title: George Mason

text: When the Richmond convention began in July 1775, Mason was assigned to crucial committees, including one attempting to raise an army to protect the colony. According to Robert A. Rutland, "Sick or healthy, Mason was needed for his ability." Mason sponsored a non-exportation measure; it was passed by a large majority, though it had to be repealed later in the session to coordinate with one passed by Maryland. Despite pressure from many delegates, Mason refused to consider election as a delegate to the Continental Congress in place of Washington when the latter became commanding general of the Continental Army, but he could not avoid election to the Committee of Safety, a powerful group that took over many functions in the governmental vacuum. When Mason proffered his resignation from this committee, it was refused.


title: George Mason

text: Illness forced Mason to abstain himself from the Committee of Safety for several weeks in 1775, and he did not attend the fourth convention, held in December 1775 and January 1776. With independence from Britain widely accepted as necessary among prominent Virginians, the fifth convention, to meet in May 1776 at Williamsburg, would need to decide how Virginia would be administered henceforth, as the royal government was dead in all but name. Accordingly, the convention was seen as so important that Lee arranged for his temporary recall from Congress to be a part of the convention, and Jefferson tried but failed to arrange to leave Congress as well. Other notables elected to the convention were Henry, George Wythe, and a young delegate from Orange County, James Madison. Mason was elected for Fairfax County, though with great difficulty.


title: George Mason

text: That convention, in May 1776, unanimously instructed Jefferson and other Virginia delegates to Congress to seek "a clear and full Declaration of Independency". At the same time, the convention resolved to pass a declaration of rights. Ill health delayed Mason's arrival until May 18, 1776, after the vote, but he was appointed to a committee led by Archibald Cary, which was to compose a declaration of rights and constitution. Mason was skeptical that the thirty-person Cary Committee could collectively compose anything worthwhile, but he was surprised at how quickly it moved—though his membership had a role in that speed. On May 24, convention president Edmund Pendleton wrote to Jefferson about the committee's deliberations, "as Colo.[nel] Mason seems to have the ascendancy in the great work, I have Sanguine hopes it will be framed so as to Answer it's end, Prosperity to the Community and Security to Individuals".


title: George Mason

text: Mason, working in a room at the Raleigh Tavern, drafted a declaration of rights and plan of government, likely to prevent frivolous plans with no chance of adoption from being put forward. Edmund Randolph later recalled that Mason's draft "swallowed up all the rest". The Virginia Declaration of Rights and the 1776 Constitution of Virginia were joint works, but Mason was the main author. Mason likely worked closely with Thomas Ludwell Lee; the earliest surviving draft shows the first ten articles in Mason's handwriting, with the other two written by Lee. The draft for the Declaration of Rights drew on Magna Carta, the English Petition of Right of 1628, and that nation's 1689 Bill of Rights. Mason's first article would be paraphrased by Jefferson soon after in drafting the American Declaration of Independence.


title: George Mason

text: From the first article, cataloguing the rights of man, Mason derived the following articles, which make clear that the role of government is to secure and protect those rights, and if it fails to do so, the people have a right to amend or abolish it. Property could not be taken for public use without the owner's consent, and a citizen could only be bound by a law accepted by that person or by elected representatives. If accused, a person had the right to a speedy and local trial, based on an accusation made known to him, with the right to call for evidence and witnesses in his favor.


title: George Mason

text: When the convention began to debate the declaration, it quickly bogged down on the first sentence of Article 1, which some feared would imply that slaves were their masters' equals. This was resolved by the convention adding the words "when they enter into a state of society", thus excluding slaves. Mason spoke repeatedly in the five days of debate, using oratory one hearer described as "neither flowing nor smooth, but his language was strong, his manner most impressive, and strengthened by a bit of biting cynicism when provocation made it seasonable". The Declaration of Rights was passed by the convention on June 12, 1776.


title: George Mason

text: In later years, there was a flurry of contradictory statements from convention members (including Mason) about who composed which articles. Randolph credited Henry with Articles 15 and 16, but Article 16 (dealing with religious freedom), had been written by Madison. Mason had imitated English law in drafting language requiring toleration of those of minority religions, but Madison insisted on full religious liberty, and Mason supported Madison's amendment once made.


title: George Mason

text: The committee draft, likely for the most part written by Mason, received wide publicity (the final version much less so) and Mason's words "all men are born equally free and independent" were later reproduced in state constitutions from Pennsylvania to Montana; Jefferson tweaked the prose and included the sentiments in the Declaration of Independence. In 1778, Mason wrote that the Declaration of Rights "was closely imitated by the other United States". This was true, as seven of the original states, and Vermont, joined Virginia in promulgating a bill of rights. Four in addition specified rights that were protected, within the body of their constitutions. Feelings were so strong in Massachusetts that voters there in 1778 rejected a constitution drafted by a convention, insisting that a bill of rights had to come first.


title: George Mason

text: Even before the convention approved the Declaration of Rights, Mason was busy at work on a constitution for Virginia. He was not the only one occupying himself so; Jefferson sent several versions from Philadelphia, one of which supplied the constitution's preamble. Essex County's Meriwether Smith may have prepared a draft, but the text is unknown. As an original writing in Mason's hand is not known, the extent to which the final draft was written by him is uncertain. Nevertheless, William Fleming on June 22, 1776, sent Jefferson a copy of the draft before the Cary Committee, telling him "the inclosed printed plan was drawn by Colo. G. Mason and by him laid before the committee".


title: George Mason

text: Mason had submitted his plan sometime between June 8 and 10, 1776. It named the new state the "Commonwealth of Virginia", a name chosen pointedly by Mason to indicate that power stemmed from the people. The constitution provided for a popularly elected House of Delegates, chosen annually by men who owned or leased property, or who had fathered three or more Virginians. Most governmental power resided in the House of Delegates—the governor could not even veto a bill and could only act as head of the state militia on the advice of his Council of State, whose members were elected by the legislature. The draft was considered by the committee, and it issued a report on June 24, at which time Jefferson's preamble and several amendments authored by him were included—George Wythe, who advocated for Jefferson's draft before the committee, found discussion far enough advanced that members were only willing to yield to Jefferson on a few points. The entire convention considered the document between June 26 and 28, and it was signed on June 29. Richard Henry Lee wrote the day prior to the constitution's passage by unanimous vote, "I have had the pleasure to see our new plan of Government go on well. This day will put a finishing hand to it. 'Tis very much of the democratic kind."


title: George Mason

text: When the convention chose Patrick Henry as Virginia's first post-independence governor, Mason led the committee of notables sent to inform Henry of his election. There was criticism of the constitution—Edmund Randolph later wrote that the document's faults indicated that even such a great mind as Mason's was not immune from "oversights and negligences": it did not have an amending process and granted two delegates to each county regardless of population. The 1776 constitution remained in force until 1830, when another convention replaced it. According to Henry C. Riely in his journal article on Mason, "The Virginia Constitution of 1776, whatever may have been the question raised long afterwards as to the contribution of other great leaders, stands, on the authority of Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph—to mention only the highest authority—as his creation."


title: George Mason

text: Mason devoted much effort during the American Revolutionary War to safeguarding Fairfax County and the rivers of Virginia, since the British several times raided areas along the Potomac. Control of the rivers and of Chesapeake Bay was urgent as Virginians tried to obtain hard currency by trading tobacco to the French and other European nations. The export of tobacco, generally via the West Indies, allowed Mason and others to obtain, via France and Holland, British-made items such as cloth, clothing patterns, medicines, and hardware.


title: George Mason

text: Mason served as a member of the House of Delegates from 1776 to 1781, his longest continuous political service outside Fairfax County, which he represented in Richmond. The other Fairfax County seat turned over several times—Washington's stepson Jackie Custis was elected late in the war—but Mason remained the county's choice throughout. Nevertheless, Mason's health often caused him to miss meetings of the legislature, or to arrive days or weeks late. Mason in 1777 was assigned to a committee to revise Virginia's laws, with the expectation that he would take on the criminal code and land law. Mason served a few months on the committee before resigning on the ground he was not a lawyer; most of the work fell to Jefferson (returned from Philadelphia), Pendleton, and Wythe. Illness caused by a botched smallpox inoculation forced Mason to miss part of the legislature's spring 1777 session; in his absence delegates on May 22 elected him to the Continental Congress. Mason, who may have been angry that Lee had not been chosen, refused on the ground that he was needed at home and did not feel he could resign from the General Assembly without permission from his constituents. Lee was elected in his place.


title: George Mason

text: This did not end the desire of Virginians to send Mason to the Continental Congress. In 1779, Lee resigned from Congress, expressing the hope that Mason, Wythe, or Jefferson would replace him in Philadelphia. General Washington was frustrated at the reluctance of many talented men to serve in Congress, writing to Benjamin Harrison that the states "should compel their ablest men to attend Congress ... Where is Mason, Wythe, Jefferson, Nicholas, Pendleton, Nelson?" Washington wrote to Mason directly,


title: George Mason

text: In spite of Washington's pleas, Mason remained in Virginia, plagued by illness and heavily occupied on the Committee of Safety and elsewhere in defending the Fairfax County area. Most of the legislation Mason introduced in the House of Delegates was war related, often aimed at raising the men or money needed by Congress for Washington's Continental Army. The new federal and state governments, short on cash, issued paper money. By 1777, the value of Virginia's paper money had dropped precipitously, and Mason developed a plan to redeem the notes with a tax on real estate. Mason was three weeks late in arriving at Richmond because of his illness, to the frustration of Washington, who had faith in Mason's knowledge of financial affairs. Washington wrote to Custis, "It is much to be wished that a remedy could be applied to the depreciation of our Currency ... I know of no person better qualified to do this than Colonel Mason".


title: George Mason

text: Mason retained his interest in western affairs, hoping in vain to salvage the Ohio Company's land grant. He and Jefferson were among the few delegates to be told of George Rogers Clark's expedition to secure control of the lands north of the Ohio River. Mason and Jefferson secured legislation authorizing Governor Henry to defend against unspecified western enemies. The expedition was generally successful, and Mason received a report directly from Clark. Mason sought to remove differences between Virginia and other states, and although he felt the Mason-Dixon line (not named for George Mason), the 1780 settlement of the boundary dispute with Pennsylvania, was unfavorable to Virginia, he voted for it enthusiastically. Also in 1780, Mason remarried, to Sarah Brent, from a nearby plantation, who had never been married and was 52 years old. It was a marriage of convenience, with the new bride able to take some of the burden of parenting Mason's many children off his hands.


title: George Mason

text: By the signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, life along the Potomac had returned to normal. Among the visits between the elite that returned with peace was one by Madison to Gunston Hall in December 1783, while returning from Congress in Philadelphia. The 1781 Articles of Confederation had tied the states in a loose bond, and Madison sought a more sound federal structure, seeking the proper balance between federal and state rights. He found Mason willing to consider a federal tax; Madison had feared the subject might offend his host and wrote to Jefferson of the evening's conversation. The same month, Mason spent Christmas at Mount Vernon (the only larger estate than his in Fairfax County). A fellow houseguest described Mason as "slight in figure, but not tall, and has a grand head and clear gray eyes". Mason retained his political influence in Virginia, writing Patrick Henry, who had been elected to the House of Delegates, a letter filled with advice as that body's 1783 session opened.


title: George Mason

text: Mason scuttled efforts to elect him to the House of Delegates in 1784, writing that sending him to Richmond would be "an oppressive and unjust invasion of my personal liberty". His refusal disappointed Jefferson, who had hoped that the likelihood that the legislature would consider land legislation would attract Mason to Richmond. The legislature nevertheless appointed Mason a commissioner to negotiate with Maryland over navigation of the Potomac. Mason spent much time on this issue and reached agreement with Maryland delegates at the meeting in March 1785 known as the Mount Vernon Conference. Although the meeting at Washington's home came later to be seen as a first step towards the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Mason saw it simply as efforts by two states to resolve differences between them. Mason was appointed to the Annapolis Convention of 1786, at which representatives of all the states were welcome, but like most delegates he did not attend. The sparsely attended Annapolis meeting called for a conference to consider amendments to the Articles of Confederation.


title: George Mason

text: To deter smuggling, Madison proposed a bill to make Norfolk the state's only legal port of entry. Five other ports, including Alexandria, were eventually added, but the Port Act proved unpopular despite the support of Washington. Mason, an opponent of the act, accepted election to the House of Delegates in 1786, and many believed that his influence would prove decisive for the repeal effort. Mason did not come to Richmond during the initial session because of illness, but he did send a petition as a private citizen to the legislature. The Port Act survived, though additional harbors were added as legal entry points.


title: George Mason

text: Although the Annapolis Convention saw only about a dozen delegates attend, representing only five states, it called for a meeting to be held in Philadelphia in May 1787 to devise amendments to the Articles of Confederation which would result in a more durable constitutional arrangement. Accordingly in December 1786, the Virginia General Assembly elected seven men as the commonwealth's delegation: Washington, Mason, Henry, Randolph, Madison, Wythe, and John Blair. Henry declined appointment, and his place was given to James McClurg. Randolph, who had just been elected governor, sent three notifications of election to Mason, who accepted without any quibbles. The roads were difficult because of spring flooding, and Mason was the last Virginia delegate to arrive, on May 17, three days after the convention's scheduled opening. But it was not until May 25 that the convention formally opened, with the arrival of at least one delegate from ten of the twelve states which sent representatives (Rhode Island sent no one).


title: George Mason

text: The journey to Philadelphia was Mason's first beyond Virginia and Maryland. According to Josephine T. Pacheco in her article about Mason's role at Philadelphia, "since Virginia's leaders regarded [Mason] as a wise, trustworthy man, it is not surprising that they chose him as a member of the Virginia delegation, though they must have been surprised when he accepted". Broadwater suggests that Mason went to Philadelphia because he knew the federal congress needed additional power and because he felt that body could act as a check on the powers of state legislatures. As the Virginians waited for the other delegates to arrive, they met each day and formulated what became known as the Virginia Plan. They also did some sightseeing and were presented to Pennsylvania's president, Benjamin Franklin. Within a week of arrival, Mason was bored with the social events to which the delegates were invited, "I begin to grow tired of the etiquette and nonsense so fashionable in this city".