Victor Strode Manley, writing in 1923, in his “Regional Survey Of The Warminster District’ noted:
“Item 121 – Pistol from Warminster Downs. I have placed this in the top case of the Museum in the Town Hall [Warminster]. It was unearthed on Arn Hill a few years ago. The sketch, actual size, will show the marks which might fix the date. A clay pipe is on the right side. The wood of the handle is missing. (Perhaps my sketch is a little enlarged). When it is double cocked the trigger can be swung round. Conan Doyle has mentioned that special dogs were kept at Salisbury to track down robbers on the Plain.’
Illustration of an old pistol found on Warminster Downs, drawn by Victor Strode Manley in 1923.
Addenda: Small Pistol. – Illustrated opposite. Mrs. Ethel M. Richardson in her book “Wiltshire Folk’ (1934) p.123, par.2., refers to Mr. H.J. Doel, of Quarry Farm, Purton, Wilts, who gave her “two tiny pistols.” “His father-in-law had used them when driving to market in the old days; they were prettily chased, and the work of a Gloucester maker.”
V.S.M. [Victor Strode Manley] thus suggests the pistol shown opposite was that of a farmer and not a highwayman. The route from the old Warminster Corn Market, for some farmers, passed across the Downs along Nun’s Path.