As we begin the New Year we wanted to take a moment to look back, so we’ve pulled together the best from 2017 and put them all in one place. Keswick Life wishes you – a 2018 that’s quite simply, the best!
By Winkie Motley
January
As is the tradition, on the cover, was an excellent review of where we have been in 2017! As we began the New Year we wanted readers to take a moment to look back, so we’d pulled together the best from 2017 and put them all in one place. We wished everyone a new year that’s quite simply the best. Key parts of each month’s issue for 2017 were summarized with the highlights to bring it all back to the time or place that has gone too soon or perhaps not soon enough. Most importantly, we took the journey together, as Keswickians.
Bradford and Bryan Manning knew they were going on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ” but they did not know what the host exactly had in store for them. The brothers, ‘Keswick sons’, who live with a degenerative eye disease called Stargardt disease, launched their clothing company, “Two Blind Brothers,” this summer.
It’s been 60 years since William Faulkner first came to the University of Virginia as the Balch Writer-in- Residence. In February, the University is marking the diamond anniversary of the Nobel Prize-winning writer’s arrival on Grounds with an exclusive new exhibition. The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library will open “Faulkner: Life and Works” in February Extraordinary!
February
Unseasonable warmth brings early Spring. We’ve had 80 degrees in March for Keslife. A record heat in February with 9 days of temperatures over 70 in Keswick. Get out and enjoy. Guest columnist Sharon H. Merrick’s piece R.E. Lee, a Hip Hip Musical is timely and from some of the recent headlines here in our part of the world. Sharon quips, “Well it certainly worked for Alexander Hamilton; catapulted into acceptance by the 21st Century!”
Mary Morony’s piece, ‘Beware of a Wife Bearing Gifts’ is a laugh, the writer nails the human interest aspect in all her work. She takes us on a journey, asks us to ponder and sometimes ask ourselves tough questions. Are you set in your ways? Is it getting worse with age? Are you ready, really ready, for change?
March
Garden Week In Full Bloom. Keswick Life details all the happenings of the locations in the Keswick environs open during this historic week.
Neighbor Jay Golding, while shopping for show horses in Germany, discovered something that really peaked his interest, see it first in Keswick Life!
Mary Motley Kalergis spent years traveling to hunt clubs all over America with her camera and tape recorder to create an oral history of American foxhunting. Check out her portraits and interviews in the new book “Foxhunters Speak”.
April
We’ve got the Keswick Horse Show this month, ”Welcome Lindsay” the sponsor of this year’s show and hear all about her plans in Keswick.
Keswick Hunt Club adds three new members to their Board of Governors, and three new Master of Foxhounds add their names to the previous twenty-two – read all about them and catch them out and about in the Keswick environs.
Maggie Boylen, our new Keswick resident, is looking forward to her move to Kesmont to open her new showhunter barn.
May
An Insider’s Guide to the 8th Annual Grace Church Country Fair and Farm Tour.
Our beloved Keswick Horse Show the 113th annual has come and gone. Presenting sponsor, The Lindsay Maxwell Charitable Foundation, received great accolades for event this year! Get all the details on the Eastminster Dog Show,a fundraiser for the CASPCA, and see who was a top dog!
June
Summer is Officially Here! We have a great issue for of summer fun, things to do and hot dogs on the grill!
The 8th Annual Grace Church Historic Farm Tour. The Church Grounds were transformed with a wonderful 4-H show, terrific vendors, food vendors and the Grace Grill as well as an exciting new Children’s English Country Fair.
Jamie Pollard Grigg and Matthew Parker Manning were married on April 8, 2017 at Keswick Hall and Golf Club – we have an exclusive first look at the festivities!
The Lerner House, across the street from the Orange Village Shopping Center on Madison Road, was recently purchased by Dogwood Village to make room for the future expansion of its facility. Dogwood Village Health and Rehab Center says with only 153 beds, it wants to give its residents more options. Dogwood purchased the Lerner home and its eight acres for $787,500
General Motors Recently Opened the Restored Durant-Dort Factory One and we have a great story and invited “Keswickian“ Duke (Daniel Durant Merrick)as great-grandson of Billy Durant, read all the details of this historic event for one of our own.
July
Trainspotting!
On July 17th, 2017, for the first time in 55 years, the southbound Amtrak train from Washington, DC to Charlottesville, stopped at the former Keswick Station, actually Hunt Club Road.
On July 6 the Budweiser company announced their new look saying, “Our new state bottles and cans celebrate the homes of our breweries and the communities that support them,” said Ricardo Marques, vice president, Budweiser. “Since 1876, Budweiser has been proudly brewed across America, and this summer, we’re inviting local consumers to raise a cold one…”!
The Roanoke Shenandoah Valley Horse Show returned to the Virginia Horse Center on Wednesday, June 21, for the second year in a row. During this year’s competition, Ceil Wheeler and her own Callaway’s Brioni took home the tricolor! Read all about Keswick winners, including Peggy Augustus’ Stellar Wind!
August
Huntsman Arrives! Paul Wilson has arrived, with his wife Yvonne and teenaged son Giacomo. Paul grew up near Newcastle in the northeast of England, around Terriers and Sighthounds from an early age. Read all the details on page 10, and be sure to give Paul a warm greeting from Keswick Life! Tony Vanderwarker was not here when the chaos unfolded on that Friday and Saturday. He writes, “We watched on TV as outsiders marched through our university, chanting noxious slogans, their torches giving off not light, but hate and asks the questions “What will the world think of us after all this?”
Over the summer we have seen our fellow Keswickians sharing their adventures on social media, we picked a few of them to share with you here in this month’s Keswick Scene,. “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
September
New Wahoowa Prez! The University of Virginia Board of Visitors on Friday unanimously voted to name James E. Ryan as the University’s next president. A widely respected and accomplished educator and legal scholar, Ryan earned his law degree from UVA and previously served on the School of Law faculty. Since 2013, he has served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Charles William Eliot Professor,
Two-time Eclipse winner Good Night Shirt (Concern— Hot Story, Two Punch) was recently inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. The chestnut gelding, bred in Maryland by Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bowman, is owned by Harold A. “Sonny” Via Jr.
Virginia will display their crafts during the 23rd annual Artisans Studio Tour on November 11 and 12, 2017. The self-guided tour, free and open to the public, is an opportunity to talk to professional artisans in a studio environment and experience their passion for creating.
October
In 1901, William duPont purchased the Montpelier estate, located four miles west of the Town of Orange, in Virginia’s Piedmont Region. It was the lifelong home of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, and his wife Dolley. Mr. duPont’s daughter, Marion duPont Scott, an accomplished horsewoman, inherited the property from her parents and resided at Montpelier until her death in 1983. Mrs. Scott with the help of her brother, William duPont, Jr., transformed Montpelier into a first class Thoroughbred breeding and racing facility, building a state of the art steeplechase course and a flat training track. In 1929, Marion duPont Scott started The Montpelier Hunt Races on the front lawn of James Madison’s home. Keswick Life puts you in the front row with photo journals from the Hunt Club’s 2017-18 Season Opening Meet held at Cloverfields featuring green KHC caps for all (a few yellow were seen amongst the crowd) and the Club’s 2017 Puppy Show, in honor of Hugh C. Motley, a fundraiser for the benefit of the hounds.
November
Traditions Live On. Shortly after World War II, a group of Virginia Foxhunters decided to hold a hunter trial for horses that had regularly been hunted for the past season, representing each hunt in the Commonwealth. The Master from each hunt nominated two horses and riders to represent their Hunt .Will Coleman won the championship in 2016, therefore the Keswick Hunt was the host this year. The 2017 edition of The 63rd Virginia Field Hunter Championship trials was held at the Coleman’s Tivoli Farm in Gordonsville, Virginia on Sunday, November 5th.Twelve Virginia Hunts participated with Mo Baptiste from the Piedmont FoxHounds in Upperville emerging as Champion.
Meet the faces who make up the paddock at the historic 2017 Montpelier Races! Keswick Life puts you in the pew at a local wedding~ On October 21st Holly Gumble, daughter of Ned and Heidi Gumble of Keswick married Jacob Ballarotto of Philadelphia.
December
Out in the Cold! The Iconic Keswick Hall closed for renovations in 2018. They look forward to welcoming us back when they reopen, planned for the spring of 2019.
As Keswickians settle into the post holiday blues and the wicked cold of the first week of January I wondered if some of us were thinking back to the season of giving. It seems as though the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. Gifts from handcrafted blankets to riding lessons. The items in the winter gift guide all share one guiding principal, authentic country living. Plenty of useful stuff, all perfect for the tough-to-shop for Keswickian.