Southwest of Mount Vernon, on a bend in the Potomac River, is the 1775 brick mansion Gunston Hall , which belonged to a statesman and contemporary of George Washington, George Mason. Mason penned the lines ‘all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights’ – words adapted by Thomas Jefferson for the Declaration of Independence. Dating from 1755, the mansion is an architectural masterpiece, with elegantly carved wooden interiors and meticulously kept formal gardens.
