Your letter of July 27. has been recieved here, with the copies of the Quaeres proposed for Bedford and Albemarle counties. in the former county I am so total a stranger that I know not a single person to whom I could commit it’s paper with any confidence of answers to it’s enquiries. but I will put it into the hands of some one better acquainted with the characters of the county.   I shall not return, until autumn, to Albemarle. I must therefore inclose that paper to Colo Randolph, who knows better than I do who, there, may be most likely to collect the materials you desire. as to myself the hand of time presses so heavily on me, that I am becoming daily more & more averse to any exertion, even to that of keeping up ordinary correspondence.

The Sextant was safely recieved, and I am happy that it was useful to you. to the part which you contribute, I hope, will be added still the county surveys, the most familiarly useful of any thing which can be done for our geography. Accept the assurance of my great respect and esteem