Mount Airy As a High Calling, and Believes Every Resource Must Be Used to Its Full Advantage

s l l i M y l l a S public. But that is changing. Tayloe has de - Sally Mills cided to open this magnificent property to those who wish to hunt, fish, eat, and spend the night by offering turkey, deer, duck, and goose hunting on a limited basis. Emery, like most sportsmen, is a conservationist and re - fuses to allow his acreage to be an “all-you- can-shoot” hunting destination. Managing a great property is a great responsibility, espe - cially one that has been in your family for hundreds of years. Emery considers the stew - ardship of Mount Airy as a high calling, and believes every resource must be used to its full advantage. “Our hunting operation is that when you hunt Mount Airy, you hunt and dine with the Tayloe family and live in the Tayloe home,” states Emery. “When you come to hunt at Mount Airy there will not be four Calling in Canada geese is part of the rhythm of the other groups here—it will just be you. You season at Mount Airy Plantation on the Northern Neck. also may be the only person that hunts here in a month.” Although there is demand to hunt on the property, Tayloe does not want to put too much pressure on native wildlife. “As op - posed to many operations where the idea is to make it easy to shoot a great deal of game, we are going to be the opposite. We do not put out birds for you to shoot. If you want to hunt here, you will have to hunt ,” insists Emery. “But I will tell you—hav - ing hunted here my whole hunting with tr adition life—there is plenty of wild game.” by Clarke C. Jones Circling back, the aging bird led the e expansive property known as When the wife of the Marquis de Lafayette trailing geese over Chestnut Hill Road and Mount Airy, together with neighboring brought the Tayloe family an orange tree as a slowly began his descent. He used Mount farms, meandering waterways, and wetlands, gift, it was placed in the orangery, a building he old gander directed his flock Airy millpond as a safety gauge. e has been a destination of choice for migrating where fruit trees and other plants were down from just outside Holtwood millpond was a duck haven, and if ducks or waterfowl for centuries. e 1,400 acres of kept—a large greenhouse of sorts—which in southeastern Pennsylvania. He herons were working the pond, he felt rea - the Mount Airy estate originally included a gives you some idea o f how splendid an estate Tsteered toward one o f his favorite feeding and sonably sure hunters were not nearby. He stud farm owned by the Tayloe family in the Mount Airy was in the 1700s. e remains of resting spots near Warsaw on Virginia’s glanced at the wild turkeys strutting in the 1700s and early 1800s. It may well have a le - that building are still visible and thought to Northern Neck. As they flew over the Rappa - corn field next to the spot where he intended gitimate claim as the birthplace of another be the oldest standing orangery in the United Remains of the oldest hannock near Menokin Bay, the group made to land. rough the scattered clouds, the sport in America—horse racing. Many Ken - States. Mount Airy is listed on the Virginia surviving orangery in North a hard-banking turn at Clark’s Run, then gander could see silhouettes of his kind al - tucky Derby winners can trace their influ - Landmarks Register and the National Regis - America can be seen at navigated over the elegant Mount Airy ready feeding below. He had set down in this ence to Mr. Tayloe’s horses, most notably Sir ter o f Historic Places. Francis Lightfoot Lee, Mount Airy. manor house. By following the same route field many times over the years and felt confi - Archy, one of the fastest thoroughbreds to a signer of the Declaration of Independence, their ancestors had traveled over 250 years dent there was nothing to worry about. So run the track. is buried here. ago, back when the plantation stretched from confident that, as he led his flock earthward, Visitors to the extraordinary neo-Palla - Today, J. Tayloe Emery and his family s Tappahannock to Fredericksburg, the geese he did not notice the new pit blinds and a yel - dian stone and brick house on the old planta - join nine other generations o f Tayloes to re - l l i M were “flying through history,” as outdoor low Lab, hidden from view, intently watch - tion over the centuries have included George side at the estate. Other than for special occa - y l l a writer Charley Waterman once said. ing his descent. Washington, the Carters, and the Lees. sions, Mount Airy has not been open to the S 10 VIRGINIA WILDLIFE u www.HuntFishVA.com SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 u 11 s l l i M y l l a S s l l i M y l l a S Owner and guide Tayloe Emery caters to those “Muse” is one of the two 19 th -century English who wish to bring their own gundog along, or setters that greet you upon arrival. he will make one available. Right, the Mount Airy garden tradition is kept blooming by Catherine Emery. s l l i M y l l a S With its fields, woods, and wetlands in Delaware, and Virginia in my younger years, Comfortable, redesigned sleeping quar - you as well. Quail hunting is also available, ago. Tomatoes, peppers, figs, and eggplant close proximity to the Rappahannock River, it became apparent to me that roughing it was ters await you in what once was one of the but Emery will shoot you straight on that and served to guests may have been pulled from Mount Airy offers ideal opportunities for part of the, shall we say, “essence” of waterfowl grandest homes in the colonies. Down the concedes, “We are not a go-to quail planta - the kitchen garden plot she tends. Catherine successful turkey, deer, and waterfowl hunt - hunting. Waking before dawn to venture out hall you stop by the elegant, yet cozy library tion…maybe someday. If you want to hunt has organized a Community Supported ing. ere is no schlepping through bogs or into cold and wet weather is expected. ere - (yes, library), its shelves stuffed with books. quail, you will have to hunt them.” Agriculture Program (CSA), in fact, which swamps. You arrive at the blinds on Polaris fore, it helps to spend the night close to where Some date back to the 1700s and bear the Tayloe’s knowledge of waterfowl hunt - allows members in the community to pur - ATVs. Aside from living in a 250-year-old the waterfowl rest for the evening or plan on Tayloe Crest. e room, with dark wood and ing influenced him to set up his duck hunt - chase a “share” of produce which she harvests historical home, Tayloe hunts just like the feeding in the morning. Often the eating and 14-foot-high ceilings, trophy antlers mount - ing differently from the way he operates his from her garden. rest of us who own a retriever or bird dog. He sleeping accommodations in duck and goose ed on the walls, and comfortable chairs gives goose hunts. “I will offer only a minimum At day’s end, enjoying a refreshing bev - has retrievers and bird dogs available to pick camps can be Spartan, at best. Contrast that you the feeling of relaxing in an old English number of duck hunts per season because I erage on the veranda as you unwind from the up game for his guests, but he also under - with the anticipation you feel as you journey manor house. Yet there is no hint of stuffiness do not want to put too much pressure on the hunt, you catch the sunset— spectacular —as stands how much pleasure people have hunt - down Mount Airy’s winding driveway, pass - from the home nor from Emery’s personality. ducks. I don’t want to have a duck hunt or it descends in a bold stroke of glowing red be - ing with their own gundogs, so he ing by the timeless outbuildings, and finally He fully understands how rare a place promote a duck hunt i f I know the ducks hind the tree line. Just as they have in years encourages you to bring your own. stopping at the massive entrance to the man - Mount Airy is and he wants you to enjoy it, aren’t plentiful,” says this conscientious host. gone by, the evening mists sift unnoticed Emery is no novice to turkey or water - sion. Age-old boxwoods grace classic stone too. When you book a hunt, everything is through the slumbering pines of the North - fowl hunting and one of the advantages of columns, which flank the front walkway. A Because it is so close to the Rappahan - included—lodging, meals, drinks, as well as ern Neck. All in preparation for another re - having him as an experienced guide is that he boot scraper, strategically placed at the bot - nock and the 800-acre Virginia Wildlife Pre - the hunt itself. Nothing could be more satis - markable morning at Mount Airy. • knows how to call ducks, geese, or turkeys. A tom of the worn, stone steps to the house, serve, Tayloe Unit, as well as expansive fying after a hunt than a dinner prepared es - good guide also knows when to stop calling.

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