Hounslow Heath was the scene of many tragedies. It was in November 1802 that a Mr. Steele, proprietor of a lavender warehouse in Catherine Street, Strand, was murdered on that then lonely waste. He had gone on a Friday to Bedfont, where he cultivated a large acreage of lavender, and intended to return home the following day. As he did not return at the appointed time, his family concluded he had been unexpectedly detained on business matters, but when Monday came, and no news of him, they not unnaturally grew alarmed, and sent a messenger to Bedfont. He learned that Mr. Steele had only set out on his return on the Saturday evening, and, being unable to procure a conveyance, had resolved to return at least a part of the way on foot.
He was a bold man who, unarmed, should attempt such a journey across Hounslow Heath in those days; and the unfortunate lavender merchant paid the penalty of his rashness with his life. His brother-in-law and other relatives, on receiving the news of his being missing, set out in search of him, and at last found his mangled body secreted beneath some clods and turf, under a furze-bush. The first clue to a tragedy having been enacted was discovered, after many hours' searching over the heath, in the sight of a piece of blue cloth. Pulling at this, they found it to be the skirt of his greatcoat, buried in the sandy soil. At a little distance away they saw a soldier's hat, lying near a bush, and on the bush itself a great quantity of congealed blood.
MURDER OF MR. STEELE ON HOUNSLOW HEATH.
Mr. Steele had received several wounds on the back of the head, and a part of his forehead was entirely cut away; but a piece of leathern belt tightly drawn round his neck showed that he had first been strangled. This crime was traced to two men, Haggarty and Holloway, one of them a soldier, who had planned it all beforehand, at the "Turk's Head" Inn, Dyot Street, Holborn. Evidence was adduced by which it appeared that a coach passed at a little distance along the road while they were robbing Mr. Steele, who cried out for help. Holloway exclaimed, with an oath, "I'll silence him," and beat in his head with two blows of a bludgeon.
It is satisfactory to be able to say they were hanged. Both loudly declared their innocence, but no one believed them. The execution took place at the Old Bailey, when no fewer than twenty-eight persons among the immense crowds who had come to see the sight were crushed to death, and large numbers greatly injured.
The case attracted a great deal of attention at the time, and copies are still occasionally found of a terrific engraving representing the ferocious pair polishing off the unhappy Mr. Steele, one of them wielding an immense club, fit for a Goliath.