Evening star., 1936-02-26
BY NINA CARTER TABB.


w YHILE waiting for the deep
\ ~ going" to get better and
wv allow hounds to go out
again, which I think they
will be able to do soon now, will
tell you of the drag hunts in Camden,
S. c., where the Camden Hunt Hounds
meet twice week, Tuesdays and
Fridays. Large crowds attend the
meets and the fields are quite large.
Mrs. Martin T. Partridge is M. F. H.
and she and the whips, North Fletcher
and Carl Lightfoot, wear black coats
with mustard-colored collars. Every
one is waiting and excited when the
hounds are brought up in a hound
wagon, let out and are taken off by
the hunt staff to be put on the trail.
The field follows at certain distance.
A friend motored me down the road,
where we saw them take several
jumps, then we hurried in our car
to the finishing point and saw a
couple of jumps taken just at the
finish. Very fast they go, at
steeplechase pace over the drag course
ld1Q tOr the MOUNDS.
saw good many Virginians in
the field, who have gone there to
ride and drag since the snow and ice
has covered our land. Among those
following were Mrs. Robert Winmill,
Misses Viola and Virginia Winmill,
Mrs David Williams. Mrs. Ben Bel
cher Mr.. and Mrs. Melville BearnS,
Mr.. and Mrs. James Hamilton, Miss
Wilhelmine Kirby, Harry D. Kirkover,
Henry Frost. Charles Cushman, Jock
j. Mclean and Lyle Phillips.
Very tame the drags seemed to me
with no fox. but I suppose they are
fun, in way-to see who can get
there first.
The past week in Camden was all
that it promised to be in the way
of sport. Early in the mornings you
get up and go out to see the diff
ferent trainers school or work their
horses. Carroll Bassett, Jim Ryan,
Granger Gather. Burley Cocks. Henry
Frost, Randy Duffey, Ray Woolfe and
numerous others are schooling or
working some of the best steeplechase
prospects in the country. After break
fast you can go out and look over
the hunters and show horses of Tom
Waller, North Fletcher. Alvin T. I'm
termyer, Mrs. Winmill and Thomas
H. Somerville.
Twice week there are hunt break
fasts given by some one after the
drags and these are delightful parties.
I went to one given by Mrs. GustavuS
r Kirby and Miss Kirby.
In the afternoons I was taken by
some of the trainers and amateur
"jocks" to their stables and all of
the wonderful and beautiful horses
we're trotted out for my benefit when
they knew I wanted some horse news.
They couldn't have been nicer about
it and took so much time to let
me see all of them. There saw
many famous steeplechasers that are
in training.
In the evenings after dinner the
clan would collect in different houses
or cottages and you could hear enough
horse talk to fill books. This life
among the boys Wintering horses,
men who have gone there for riding
and the warm hospitality of the
South Carolinians make Camden one
of the most delightful places I have
ever visited
The hunter trials could not be held
on Friday as scheduled, as when we
looked from our window early that
morning the snow was coming down
in large flakes, equal to those we had
left behind in Virginia. Trials were
postponed until Sunday All the
snow had disappeared on Saturday by
2 o'clock, when the Washington's
birthday races were called.
The Springdale course is beauti-
ful and you can see every Jump from