The unrushed ways and the tweedy elegance of Virginia's Hunt Country have hardly changed in a century or more. The First Families of Virginia have gradually given ground to wealthier Yankees, to be sure, but the invaders have been eager to preserve the pastoral traditions and manored customs of another era. The stately homes are well kept, and some of the nation's finest horses are pastured behind dazzling whitewashed fences. Except for its new French chef, the Red Fox Tavern in the hamlet of Middleburg (pop. 663) is much as it was when Mosby's Rangers made it a regular stop during the War Between the States. And the young George Washington would respond to the thunder of hoofbeats, echoing through the Blue Ridge foothills, just as he did in his own fox-hunting days down the road, over what was known as West's Ordinary.
But the Hunt Country is undergoing a profound change that began one snowy weekend in February, when a Marine helicopter dropped out of the skies and deposited the President of the U.S. at Glen Ora, the 400-acre 19th century estate that he has rented as an off-duty retreat. For the most part, the local gentry have responded graciously to the newest invasion ("My God," said Mrs. Kingman Douglass, the former Adele Astaire, "shouldn't we be proud?''). And yet, with motorcades of the Sunday curious beginning to appear on winter's traces, with newsmen swarming around the Red Fox bar, and with Secret Service men staked out disconcertingly in the woodlands and the greening fields, there was a certain uneasiness in the neighborhood. From Middleburg last week, Mrs. Robert Phillips, a Glen Ora neighbor, reported for TIME on the situation in the Hunt Country:
The fox-hunting members of the three local hunts were a little disturbed, in a permissive sort of way, when they found that Mrs. Kennedy had chosen Glen Ora. This was a natural reaction, since all of this group had chosen their region for their fox hunting and for their own privacy. The area reeks with Phippses, Ise-lins, Du Fonts, Mellons and Warburgs and others of well-known wealth (those of not-so-well-known wealth, but trying hard to be known, have also chosen the area around Middleburg). They were afraid that hill-topping (following hounds in a car or on foot) would become a national sport, like baseball. Hilltoppers can cut off a fox, cut off scent and get annoyingly in the way. So far, there has been no such disturbance on Mrs. Kennedy's few hunting days.
"Beautifully Turned Out." It is becoming obvious that both Kennedys intend using Glen Ora a lot more than the public or press expected. Mrs. Kennedy was here for nine days running, with only one short trip to Washington, when she brought young John out to the country.
Following their first weekend, she was reported to have a cold and cancelled Washington engagements. Actually, she rode both that Saturday and then on Monday.
Mrs. Kennedy hacked on the dirt roads around Glen Ora, on paths cleared of snow on the farm, and on Monday, Feb.
27, she hunted with the Orange County Hunt, to which she subscribes ($300 a year, plus the same amount for a groom or Secret Service man). Hounds met at Roger Lambdon's Gotland farm, and Mrs.