The Warminster Herald, Saturday 12 March 1859, reported:
HILL DEVERILL
At an early hour on the 21st ult., it was announced that a large otter was proceeding in his peculiar jumping style of locomotion towards the river in this village. Mr. Cross armed with a gun, and a number of the villagers with sticks and prongs, were soon at the spot, and an exciting chase took place, an active runner succeeded in heeding the amphibious brute, who turned, and thus had to run the gauntlet between his human and canine foes. Mr. Cross sent no less than four charges of shot into him, all of which he received without flinching, and finally escaped into a withy-bed, but it was only to die. His remains were afterwards discovered, and the skin is now in the hands of the experienced taxidermist Mr. King, of Warminster, for preservation; it is nearly four feet in length, and the body when found weighed 23lbs.