188 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



riders, while, at the same time, to kill him takes a 

 vast deal out of the kennel force, hound and horse. 

 He must be killed, and be killed, too, in the 

 strictest interests of future sport; and I illustrate 

 the necessity of this by what I found in regard to 

 Odell Wood. When I first came into the country 

 it Avas pointed out to me, — about 400 acres, if I 

 remember rightly, well cut into rides, but the 

 quarters of it very large, and very severe with 

 briars, blackthorns, and hazel, — as a place whence 

 no fox would break; and if once the hounds got 

 into it, they never came out of it again that day. 



The first cub I killed in one of its quarters was 

 given to the hounds in the tangled cover where 

 they laid hold of him. 



The first old fox I killed in it was done by in 

 the same way, and again and again the same 

 course was pursued, till at last it was quite enough 

 for any fox in it to hear me speaking to my hounds 

 at one end of it, for him to break at the other. 

 My friend, Mr. H. Boulton, is hunting still, and 

 can testify to the fact that when Odell Wood was 

 within the draw of the day, on approaching it I 

 used to ask him, as well as other friends whom 

 I could rely on, — poor Jem Whitworth among 



