[ Goldsmith, Brown / An History of the Earth and Animated Nature ]
Another doozy of a full title: Goldsmith's History of the earth, and animated nature: With copious notes, containing all the new discoveries in the phenomena of nature, interspersed with numerous anecdotes of the lives, manners, and instinct of the animal kingdom ; selected from the most authentic sources.
"Goldsmith" refers to Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774), one of the major figures of late-18th Century British literature. Known primarily as a playwright, poet, and novelist, Goldsmith still somehow managed to find time to write an 8-volume work of "natural history," first published in 1774. That work covered a LOT of "natural" topics (geology and biology principally), but had not a word to say about Newfoundlands.
Goldsmith's work served as the basis for E. Ballantine's Natural History of Quadrupeds for Children (1813), also covered here at The Cultured Newf. And it served as the basis for this work, which is basically a reprint of Goldsmith's text (here presented in 5 volumes) with extensive footnotes by Thomas Brown, and a large number of new images, by way of "updating" Goldsmith's work. Many pages feature only a few lines of Goldsmith's original text, with the rest of the page taken up by Brown's additions and annotations, which appear in a much smaller font size.
This work was first published in 1814 (J. Gleave, Manchester), and was reprinted several times. The text here is taken from this first edition.
Brown's footnote begins on page 90 of volume 3 (and ends on page 93), under the following illustration, which is based heavily on the original illustration by Thomas Bewick in his work mentioned just below:
Not only do the illustrations here owe much to previous artists. A great deal of what Brown writes of the Newfoundland is taken from prior works, often without attribution. (His opening paragraph owes a very great deal to the account of the Newfoundland in Bewick and Beilby's A General History of Quadrupeds, also discussed here at The Cultured Newf.) Copyright was a much looser concept in the late-18th and early-19th Centuries, and had only limited and sporadic enforcement.
The great strength and docility of these dogs, render them extremely useful to the inhabitants of several parts of the island of Newfoundland settlers, who employ them in bringing down wood, on sledges, from the interior parts of the country to the sea-coast. — Four of them yoked to a sledge, are able to draw 3 cwt. of wood, with apparent ease, for several miles. Their docility is as material to their owners as their strength; for they freqnently perform these services without a driver. As soon as they are relieved of their load at the proper place, they return in the same order to the woods from whence they were dispatched, where their labours are commonly rewarded with a meal of dry fish.
In many places about Quebec, professor Kalm saw dogs employed to fetch water from the rivers. He saw two great dogs one day yoked in a cart; they had neat harness like horses, and bits in their mouths: in the cart was a barrel. The dogs were directed by a boy, who ran behind the cart, and as soon as the came to the river, they jumped in of their own accord. When the barrel was filled, the dogs drew their burden up the hill again, to the house they came from. During his stay at Quebec, he frequently saw dogs employed in this manner. The boys that attended them have great whips, with which they occasionally strike them, to make them go on. Kalm saw them also employed in drawing wood; and, in winter, it is customary in Canada for travellers to yoke dogs to sledges that are made to hold their clothes, provisions, and other necessaries. A middle-sized dog is able to draw a single person, when the road is good. Formerly, before horses were much in use, most of the land carriage of Canada was performed by dogs.
Some time since, a gentleman on a party of pleasure in the vicinity of the romantic scenes of Cumberland, retired to bathe in one of the rivers with which that country abounds; a fine Newfoundland dog accompanied him. Being an excellent swimmer, he stripped on the delightful bank, and plunged into the water; but about the middle of the stream, he was seized with an excruciating cramp; in consequence of which he cried out with pain, and being utterly unable to exert himself, was about to sink, when his faithful dog, which had watched him with the greatest degree of anxiety and agitation, rushed forward, and cautiously seizing his arm, rescued him from his perilous situation.
In the summer of 1792, a gentleman went to Portsmouth, for the benefit of sea-bathing. He was conducted in one of the machines into the water; but being unacquainted with the steepness of the shore, and no swimmer, he found himself, the instant he quitted the machine, nearly out of his depth. The state of alarm into which he was thrown, increased his danger; and, unnoticed by the person who attended the machine, he would inevitably have been drowned, had not a large Newfoundland dog, which was standing on the shore, and observed his distress, plunged in to his assistance. The animal seized him by the hair, and conducted him safe to the shore; but it was some time before he recovered. The gentleman afterwards purchased the dog at a high price; and preserved him as a treasure of equal value with his whole fortune. [ source note ]
During a severe storm, in the winter of 1789, a ship belonging to Newcastle was lost near Yarmouth; and a Newfoundland dog alone escaped to shore, bringing in his mouth the captain's pocket-book. He landed amidst a number of people, several of whom in vain attempted to take from him his prize. The sagacious animal, as if sensible of the importance of the charge, which in all probability was delivered to him by his perishing master, at length leaped fawningly against the breast of a man who had attracted his notice among the crowd, and delivered the book to him. He then returned to the place where he had landed, and watched with great attention for all the things that came from the wrecked vessel, seizing them, and endeavouring to bring them to land.
In the month of December, 1803, as a gentleman was going along the path that leads from Kennington Common to Camberwell, and which stands between two ditches, he observed several children playing at a distance, and almost at the same instant perceived one of them fall into the ditch. He hastened to the spot, accompanied by a very large Newfoundland dog he had with him; the sagacious animal no sooner perceived the child struggling in the water, than he plunged in, and seizing her by the hair of her head, brought her with some difficulty to the side of the foot-path, where with the assistance of his master, she was hoisted upon terra firma, without sustaining any other injury than a violent retching, occasioned by the stagnant water she had swallowed, and which was of so foul a nature, that it would have caused almost immediate suffocation. He saw the child safe home to its parents, who lived near at hand, and gave them a proper caution against sending their children out from home in so dangerous a situation.
Early in the year 1804, a medical gentleman, who was returning from the theatre, seeing a crowd about St. Martin's watch-house, ventured in, to see what was passing there. He found that some gentlemen, who had been sacrificing to Bacchus, had got into a riot, and recognised among them the face of an old friend, whom he had not seen for some years; the latter requested his card, which the medical gentleman gave him from his pocket-book. — This pocket book contained bank notes to the amount of £500, which he had been so incautious as to carry with him to the theatre. On leaving the watch-house, two men followed him; he had scarcely left the steps, before he felt something touch his hand, and on looking round, discovered a large Newfoundland dog, which immediately leaped on him, and continued to follow him. On reaching Grosvenor-square, the two men attacked him, and seizing him by the collar, demanded his pocket-book. The dog instantly flew at them both, one of whom he severely bit by the leg, and they both made their escape. The faithful guardian then attended the gentleman to his house in Park-lane, and waited at the door till the servant opened it. The gentleman endeavoured to coax the animal in, but without avail; he refused all their entreaties to enter, and they were compelled to shut the door. On opening it a few minutes after, they found he had taken his departure.
Mr. Bewick relates, in his interesting History of Quadrupeds, that a gentleman, walking by the side of the river Tyne, observed a child on the opposite side fall into the water; he pointed out the object to his dog, which immediately jumped in, swam over, and catching hold of the child with its mouth, landed it safely on the shore.