SOON after leaving the pleasantly situated country town of Ministerfield, by the high road running North, the traveller used to catch sight of the tower and turrets and upper windows of Runnell Hall, a fine old mansion, a portion of it dating back to Henry VIII’s time. It was conspicuously perched on a wooded eminence, and formed a very picturesque object in the landscape. At the present day it is no longer noticeable, as some years ago it was almost entirely destroyed by fire, and seems to have been rebuilt with little regard for taste, and none for picturesqueness. The place could be reached from the high road by a narrow field path, at right angles to the road itself. This field path still exists, and skirts and runs parallel to a famous wood covering something like fifty acres, and kno
