[ Linton / "Passing Faces" ]
Eliza Lynn Linton (1822 - 1898) was an English journalist and novelist. She is believed to be the very first Englishwoman newspaper writer to earn a fixed salary. She wrote 25 novels and a large number of journalism articles, including a number of pieces for Charles Dickens' weekly magazine Household Words.
This article, which appeared in Household Words for April 14, 1855, exploits the popular Victorian belief in physiognomy, the idea that a person's facial features and expressions, and to a lesser extent their general physical appearance and manner, are indicative of their moral and intellectual character. At one point in her essay Linton considers the way so many human physical types may be understood as expressions of different dog breeds, and she of course includes the Newfoundland:
But the beast-faces, there is no limit to them! Dogs alone supply the outlines of half the portraits we know. . . . and the noble old Newfoundland dog, perhaps a brave old soldier from active service, who is chivalrous to women and gentle to children, and who repels petty annoyances with a grand patience that is veritably heroic. Reader, if you know a Newfoundland-dog man, cherish him, stupid as he probably will be, yet he is worth your love. (XI: 262)
"Stupid as he probably will be"??