[ "Dinks" / The Sportsman's Vade Mecum ]
A "vade mecum" (from Latin, literally "come with me") refers to something that is carried about for constant use or reference.
This work's full title is The Sportsman's Vade Mecum :containing full instructions in all that relates to the breeding, rearing, breaking, kennelling, and conditioning of dogs, together with numerous valuable recipes for the treatment of the various diseases to which the canine race is subject, as also a few remarks on guns, their loading and carriage, designed expressly for the use of young sportsmen. "Dinks" was the pseudonym used by Jonathan Peel, about whom I can find no information. This book was published in 1850 (New York: Stringer and Townsend); WorldCat and other catalogs show that this work was published only in 1856, though the GoogleBooks facsimile clearly shows 1850 on the title page. The confusion may arise from the fact this work was published in a combined edition with Dogs: Their Management by Edward Mayhew, in 1856. The Sportsman's Vade Mecum was edited by "Frank Forester," the pseudonym used by the English novelist, translator, and sporting writer Henry William Herbert, who also included a brief preface under his own name.
There is only one, largely incidental mention of Newfoundlands in this book; it occurs in a section devoted to teaching dogs to "seek lost," which means to retrieve something they cannot see.
The more of a companion you make of him [your retrieving dog], the more tricks in seeking lost you teach him, the more valuable he becomes. My brother has one that can be sent miles to the house for any article almost, and he bring it. Last winter he sent him for the roast before the fire, and after a tussle with the cook it came sure enough. He is one of the most knowing dogs I ever saw. A large black fellow, of what breed I know not, Newfoundland and setter though, I fancy. Four pounds was his price. He is well worth five times four. (32)