Two miles northeast of here, in 1890, stood a settlement that resembled a typical English village, with curving driveways leading to English-style houses among rows of clipped hedges, along with polo grounds, a steeplechase course, a race track, tennis courts, and a football field. Red-coated hunters rode to hounds across the buffalo grass prairie, while farms and orchards were modeled after English estates, and on the townsite a three-story hotel and other businesses were established. The promoter of this British activity was an Irishman who persuaded wealthy families to send their sons to the colony to learn American farming methods. In practice, Runnymede strongly resembled a modern dude ranch. Although at one time one hundred young Englishmen lived in the settlement, and a number of them owned estates, it failed as a colony. When hard times came, old Runnymede collapsed, and most of its remittance men returned to England. Today wheat fields cover the townsite.