[ Billinghurst / A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals ]
Billinghurst (? - ?) was an illustrator and editor primarily of children's and young adult books, many of them collections of fables or stories with animal themes.
This book, a collection of animal anecdotes from previously published sources, was written for a young adult audience; the illustrations are by Billinghurst, who also edited the collection. First published London and New York: John Lane, the Bodley Head, 1901. Reprinted in 1912.
The entry for Newfoundland dogs, which is anecdote 2, occurs on p. 4; it is taken, with minor changes in wording, from Lewis Anspach's 1819 volume A History of the Island of Newfoundland (discussed separately at The Cultured Newf). The illustration appears on p. 5 in the original publication.
This entry and its illustration were reproduced in Billinghurst's Anecdotes of Animals published in 1905 (New York: McLoughlin Bros).
One of the magistrates in Harbour Grace, in Newfoundland, had an old dog of the regular web-footed species peculiar to that island, who was in the habit of carrying a lantern before his master at night, as steadily as the most attentive servant could do, stopping short when his master made a stop, and proceeding when he saw him disposed to follow. If his master was absent from home, on the lantern being fixed to his mouth, and the command given, “Go fetch thy master,” he would immediately set off and proceed directly to the town, which lay at the distance of more than a mile from the place of his master’s residence: he would then stop at the door of every house which he knew his master was in the habit of frequenting, and laying down his lantern, growl and strike the door, making all the noise in his power until it was opened; if his master was not there, he would proceed farther in the same manner, until he had found him. If he had accompanied him only once into a house, this was sufficient to induce him to take that house in his round.