Threats to Salisbury

A RIDICULOUS HOAX.

The Daily Telegraph of Tuesday said: - "Various rumours as to menacing letters having been sent to Lord Salisbury were in circulation yesterday. On inquiry we learn that on Saturday evening the superintendent of police at Hatfield received an anonymous postcard bearing the London postmark, stating that a plot had been formed by a party of Irishmen in Bermondsey and that the life of Lord Salisbury was in danger. As his lordship was staying at Hatfield House steps were at once taken by the local police to watch the mansion and its approaches, and early on Sunday morning the superintendent communicated the news to the officials at Scotland-yard, and Chief Superintendent Williamson took the precaution of having his lordship's house in Arlington-street watched. The result of the inquiries subsequently instituted, however, left little doubt in the minds of the police authorities that the whole thing was a hoax, and the local superintendent of Hatfield is of the same opinion.
It is stated that a threatening letter was received by the Marquis of Salisbury on Saturday afternoon bearing the Liverpool postmark. Several letters of a like nature have been delivered at Arlington-street bearing Birmingham and Liverpool postmarks.

Source: The Journal of the County of Surrey, Wandsworth and Battersea District Times, and Putney, Roehampton, and Wimbledon News, Saturday August 20, 1881