Chapter Ten

• Author: Richard D. Schneider
• Pages: 89-97

 

Cae Tn

  , ten days after the Drummond shooting, the story

continued to be one of the most newsworthy in England, e Times

aording its readers a glimpse of Queen Victoria’s increasingly con-

cerned interest:

  – , Sunday’s Evening.

Sir Robert Peel left town yesterday, immediately after the conclusion

of the examination of the assassin M’Naughten at Bow Street, for

Windsor, proceeding to Slough by the Great Western Railway, and

arrived at the Castle a few minutes before  o’clock. e right hon.

baronet had an immediate audience of Her Majesty, and remained at

the Castle for upwards of an hour. e Queen was informed yesterday,

for the rst time that the murderer of Mr. Drummond had admitted

that he had imagined it was Sir Robert Peel whom he had shot, and

not the unfortunate gentleman who had fallen victim to the murder-

ous attack of the prisoner. Her Majesty, upon this circumstance being

related to her, is said to have evinced the most gratifying emotions at

the providential escape of the right hon. baronet, mingled with feel-

ings of the deepest pain and regret for the melancholy fate of Mr.

Drummond. Sir Robert Peel took his departure from the Castle for

Slough shortly after  o’clock, and returned to town by the railway.

Elsewhere, in e Observer, a notice appeared regarding the funeral

for “the late Mr. Drummond.” A date had not yet been xed, but his

family had decided that the interment would take place in the church

at Charlton, near Woolwich, of which his brother the Reverend Ar-

thur Drummond was rector. Adding what was surely a grim touch, the

notice pointed to the irony in Drummond’s being laid to rest on the