The Museum features the factory and workshops of the successful businessman J.B. Bowler, who made carbonated mineral waters (fizzy pop drinks) and ironmongery items. The building, as we have explored in previous articles, was built by entrepreneur Richard Scrace as a Real Tennis Court. In 1878, J.B. Bowler’s dog Nero was (allegedly) poisoned. And strangely, exactly 100 years earlier in 1778, Scrace’s dog was horribly assaulted. Could it be that both these prominent businessmen were disliked by some because of their success or their way of conducting business?
1778 The Real Tennis Court had opened for play in September 1777, but by spring 1778 Scrace was struggling to make it work financially. In May 1778 he decided to cut his losses and sell up after just 9 months (although it took a long time to find a buyer, and he continued to try and find subscribers so he could pay off all his loans).
In the Bath Chronicle 17 September 1778, and repeated 24 September, Richard Scrace ‘of the Tennis Court’ placed a notice describing a very vicious attack on his dog, a ‘valuable’ brown & white spaniel. The attack looks to me to be pre-meditated because a knife was used. Scrace offered 3 guineas reward (£3.15p, about £280 today and worth a lot more then) to anyone who can come forward with information. There are no further reports in the paper about this incident, so we don’t know if anyone was ever identified and arrested.
1878 J.B. Bowler’s dog was called Nero. Bowler claimed that he had been poisoned by ‘some person or persons unknown’, and he had printed a handbill (flyer) with a photograph of Nero and a poem which is worth giving in full:
In Memory of a Faithful and Affectionate Friend, “Nero” who was cruelly poisoned by some person or persons unknown on January 29th, and died Feb. 1st. 1878, Aged 5 years.
Of all his friends, the most devote
Was “Nero” to his master;
Faithful and true to all he knew,
Yet, met he sad disaster.
The hand of treachery did the deed,
A coward’s heart invented,
May treachery in turn reach him
‘Till his cruel deed’s repented.
And should this reach the eye of him
Who “Nero’s” breath did fetter,
Be certain that he gazes on
A portrait of his better.
The last verse drives home the message – if the guilty person picks up the handbill, they will see the photograph of Nero, faithful and true and therefore superior in every respect to the treacherous individual who poisoned him. We don’t know if J.B. Bowler wrote this poem himself, or maybe a friend did it for him.
And was Nero poisoned? Dog poisoning seems to have been very common in Bath in the second half 19th century; there are a number of reports in the Chronicle and several ‘why don’t the police do something about this’ letters from readers. So it is impossible to say whether there really was someone out to get Bowler, or if the dog accidentally licked or ate something in the street, or in Bowler’s workshop.
Stuart Burroughs, Museum Director, wonders if Bowler did have someone in mind as a suspect:
If it was not an accident, then one culprit might be Walter Anneley with whom Bowler had begun the soft drinks business in 1876 as a partnership and had subsequently fallen out with, to the extent that JBB bought-out Anneley’s share of the business in 1877 and publicly castigated Anneley for continuing to trade – on his own account – by using his erstwhile connection with Bowler to verify his business to customers.
So we have a motive in 1878, the aggrieved former partner. But, 100 years apart, neither mystery will ever be solved.
Ann Cullis
Trustee & Friend Feb2025