116 FACT AGAIN^ST FICTION. 



for severe woodlands and four days a week — 

 from the greatest curse that coukl befall a kennel, 

 and from tlio dano^er that mio'ht have accrued to 

 myself and to my men. 



I cannot lielp feeling sad at the cruel fate, as 

 set before me in the Times, of the Durham Fox- 

 hounds. In the first place, there must have 

 been some mismanagement and inattention to 

 allow a ^'complicated madness" — it is so described 

 — to seize upon the entire pack, or, at least, upon 

 so many of them that it could not be known how 

 far the curse extended. If the account in the 

 Times was true, it is quite evident to me that the 

 madness in the Durham kennel had no more to 

 do with hydro2)hobia than it had to do with the 

 moon. The '^ diphtheria" suggestion most cer- 

 tainly proves to me that, whether there was 

 hydrophobia in the kennel or not, there most 

 assuredly ^vas an insanity, not always fatal, arising 

 in the worst phases of common distemper; and 

 until some further explanation reaches me, I must 

 feel assured that there has been a cruel and 

 ruinous mistake made in regard to a large number 

 of valuable hounds. I cannot picture to myself 

 anything more horrible than the idea of looking 



