Country Zest & Style Winter 2024 Edition

A New Book Celebrates Historic Huntland

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By Marc Leepson

hristmas Morning 2007 dawned cold, gray, and dreary in the Northern Virginia Piedmont. Betsee Parker—female horse owner, ordained Episcopalian minister, committed preservationist and philanthropist, and recently widowed with a young child—made her way to Huntland, the historic country property north of Middleburg she had purchased seven weeks earlier.

Parker was alone at her home in nearby Delaplane, and decided to “go out there and see how quiet it was. The quiet of the land is so lovely there because there are dirt roads around it and at [nearby] Foxcroft the girls weren’t in school, so that road was very quiet. I just wanted to hear how quiet it was.”

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MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE| Winter 2024