The Death of Squire Watts

as related in "The Hanslope Park Tragedy" by Edward French, publ. 1968


(Transcribed from a copy of the original held by Hanslope & District Historical Society)

Page 51....
Without haste, for the temperature on this 21st day of July approached eighty degrees, the Squire and his wife wended their was leisurely homewards, blissfully unconscious of the deadly danger that lurked beside their path. Towards the end of their journey, they met Dr. Rutherford, of Hanslope, riding a bicycle in the direction of the village. An old friend of the family, he stopped and spoke to them, while at that very moment, as they stood quietly talking in the road, without a thought of tragedy, a murderous trap lay waiting to be sprung no more than fifty yards away.

After a few minutes' conversation, the doctor remounted his bicycle and rode off, leaving my aunt and uncle to resume their walk. As commonly known in the neighbourhood, they had a curious habit of walking one behind the other, my uncle as a rule being a few yards ahead. They would talk to each other as they walked along just as if they were side by side. This habitual peculiarity was probably accountable for my aunt's very narrow escape. At all events, they were proceeding in their customary single file, my aunt being several yards behind, when suddenly, as they neared the lodge gates, the stillness of this lovely day was rudely shaken, and the whole fabric of Hanslope's happy, care-free, orderly way of life was brought tumbling down by a gun-shot from the left side of the road. Instantly, my uncle, grievously wounded in the head, pitched forward and fell heavily to the ground. Whereupon, my aunt, who could see a man behind the hedge with a gun at his shoulder, rushed frantically to her husband's assistance, throwing herself down beside him in a most courageous attempt to protect him from further injury. A second shot, however, following closely upon the first, had hit him in the middle of his back.

Meanwhile, the coachman's wife, Mrs Green, who, on hearing the firing, had looked through the lodge window and seen the squire lying in the road supported by my aunt, ran out to her assistance, and, being told by her mistress to fetch a doctor, hurried off to the nearest neighbour. But, unhappily, my uncle was already past medical aid, while so intense had been the shock, his poor wife fell into a state of complete collapse.

Page 54....

In a reconstruction of the crime, it seems clear that Farrow, who as head keeper at the Park was under notice to leave, being well aware of the time my uncle would be returning from church, took up his position, with murderous intent, behind the hedge bordering the Hanslope road. Armed with a loaded shot-gun, he crouched waiting for his master who, all unconscious of danger, would be obliged to pass within point-blank range.

The actual spot chosen by Farrow was near the edge of a spinney, known as the North Spinney, and about twenty yards from the lodge gates. As the squire approached, with my aunt walking a few yards behind him, the gamekeeper must have congratulated himself on being presented with a clear field of fire. Had my aunt been walking on the near side of her husband, the assassin's task would not have been so easy, as in that case he would have been obliged to fire obliquely either just before they reached the spot or immediately after they had passed it. But, as it happened, chance, or rather the Squire's habit of walking slightly ahead, played into his hands, presenting a sitting target for a man experienced in the use of firearms.

...........

One can see, in imagination, the black-hearted assassin, crouching low to ensure concealment and glaring with murderous ferocity through the branches of the hedgerow, his eyes, glazed from the effects of drink, blazing with fury and a diabolical lust for vengeance.

Farrow's first shot, fired from a distance of no more than five or six yards, inflicted such serious injury to my uncle's head that he must have died instantly, and, mercifully, can have known practically nothing about it.

As to the second shot, it is not quite clear whether it was fired before my aunt had reached her husband's side, or after she had so bravely thrown herself down between him and his assailant. It does seem probable, however, that Farrow let off his second barrel immediately after the first as my aunt was in the act of rushing forward to the Squire's assistance. Had the second shot been fired a moment or so later, it is hardly conceivable that she could have escaped unhurt.