The new owner was Robert Tertius Campbell, an Australian tycoon whose wealth was founded upon gold trading in Australia. Like Loveden before him, he made major improvements to the estate, and he borrowed prodigiously to do so. A man of large and original ideas, that were much in advance of their time, he proceeded to turn Buscot into the most highly industrialised farm in the country. Campbell is said to have been an enlightened employer, but there were miscalculations and misfortunes, and his grandiose projects consumed capital. His most ambitious project, a distillery set up to create spirit alcohol from sugar beet, was closed in 1879, and Campbell died in 1887, leaving the estate heavily in debt.


Sales particulars listing the composition of Buscot Park Estate at the time of its purchase by Robert Campbell in 1859

Campbell and his wife, Ann Orr, had seven children. Their eldest daughter, Florence, married Charles Bravo, as her second husband. His death from antimony poisoning in 1876 led to a sensational inquest. Mrs Bravo was wrongly accused of murdering him, and became famous overnight as the central figure in one of the most dramatic causes célèbres of the nineteenth century (How Charles Bravo Died (1956), by Yseult Bridges, discusses every aspect of the case and offers a dramatic solution to the mystery).

Robert Tertius Campbell and his wife, Ann Orr, had seven children. Their eldest daughter, Florence, married Charles Bravo, as her second husband. His death from antimony poisoning in 1876 at their home, The Priory, in Balham, led to a sensational inquest. Mrs Bravo became famous overnight as the central figure in one of the most dramatic causes célèbres of the nineteenth century.

A coroner’s inquest produced sensational testimony about Florence’s love affair with a prominent physician named James Gully, providing sizzling copy to the newspapers for weeks. After five weeks of inquiry, however, the jurors announced that insufficient evidence existed to name a murderer. Since then, a considerable number of books have been written on the subject, and many views – including those of Agatha Christie – expressed about the identity of the perpetrator. 'How Charles Bravo Died' (1956), by Yseult Bridges, discusses every aspect of the case and offers a dramatic solution to the mystery, while the most recent book to appear on the subject is 'Death at The Priory', by James Ruddick (Atlantic Books, 2003).