Beneath him to the north lay the village of Tamfield, red walls, grey roofs, and a scattered bristle of dark trees, with his own little Elmdene nestling back from the broad, white winding Birmingham Road.

At the other side, as he slowly faced round, lay a vast stone building, white and clear-cut, fresh from the builders' hands.

A great tower shot up from one corner of it, and a hundred windows twinkled ruddily in the light of the morning sun.

A little distance from it stood a second small square low-lying structure, with a tall chimney rising from the midst of it, rolling out a long plume of smoke into the frosty air.

The whole vast structure stood within its own grounds, enclosed by a stately park wall, and surrounded by what would in time be an extensive plantation of fir-trees.