Vine Hill in Middleburg

Winter is a good time to visit an indoor museum and we had never been to the National Sporting Library and Museum, so last week we drove to Middleburg, which is less than an hour from home. Part of the art collection is housed in historic Vine Hill which was built in 1804. During the Civil War, Union General James Barnes briefly used Vine Hill as his headquarters and a few letters to him were found hidden in a wall when the house was remodeled to be part of the museum a couple of years ago.

The art collection centers around "sporting" which in Virginia's hunt country refers to fox hunting and other horse-related sports. Not all the art was of horses though. One temporary exhibit featured the wildlife art of illustrator Bob Kuhn and another one showed the work of Abbott Handerson Thayer, who not only painted wildlife but also researched animal camouflage and passed on his discoveries for military use during World War I.

Middleburg is surrounded by pretty countryside with rolling hills, stone fences, and horses grazing in fields. The gentleman-farmers who own these idyllic places include some of the country's rich and famous.