H. D. Richardson (? - ?) was an Irish author of a number of books on animal-related topics and may have been an early breeder of Irish Wolfhounds.
The full title of this work is Dogs: their origin and varieties, directions as to their general management, and simple instructions as to their treatment under disease. It was published in 1847 (Dublin: James McGlashan; London: W. S. Orr; Edinburgh: Fraser; New York & Philadelphia: Appleton; New York: Judd); there were reprintings in 1857 and 1874. Illustrations were drawn and engraved by W. Oldham (although the New York edition credits the Newfoundland engraving, identical to the Dublin edition's engraving, to someone identified only as "Read").
The illustration of the Newfoundland occurs just past the beginning of this article:
The true breed of Newfoundland is a dog of moderate stature, seldom exceeding twenty-six or twenty-seven inches in height; long-bodied, broad chested, shaggy coat, pointed, wolfish muzzle, ears small, and inclined to be semi-erect; colour usually black, with a shade of brown through it, and occasionally some white. There is another breed of dog peculiar to
Newfoundland; short-coated, and sharp-nosed — an excellent water dog, by some mistaken for the true Newfoundland breed. The large dogs, usually known as Newfoundlands in tbis country, are evidently the result of a cross with the mastiff. They are a tine showy animal, but less sagacious, less active, and more apt to display irregularity of temper than the original breed; these often attain the height of thirty inches. [ note ]
In his native country, the Newfoundland dog meets with worse than indifferent treatment; during winter, he is ill-fed, and most severely worked; his employment consisting of drawing heavy loads of timber — an employment so severe, that many dogs are worn out, and perish from exhaustion, before winter is over. When summer approaches, and the occupation of the natives changes to fishing, the poor dogs are turned adrift, to shift for themselves.
The origin of this dog is questionable, but I am disposed to trace him to a large European variety, still in use among the Norwegians, for the chase of the bear and wolf. It is now well known that the original discovery of Newfoundland is to be attributed to the Norwegians, who, before the year 1000, sailed from Greenland on a voyage of discovery, and that the same people discovered North America some time between the tenth and eleventh centuries — Lond. Geogr. Jour. vol. viii. At the same time, I have no wish to deny that this breed of dogs may have been since modified, by crossing with the Esquimaux and Labrador varieties. The Newfoundland dog has long been famed for his aquatic powers, and many human lives have, from time to time, been saved by him. It is not long since ten of the true breed were imported into Paris, and employed in watching the banks of the Seine — experienced trainers being daily employed in teaching them to draw, from the water, stuffed figures of men and children; handsome kennels have been erected for them on the bridges, and they have already proved their utility, in saving a number of poor perishing human creatures from a watery death. I recollect a noble dog of this breed, the property of Professor Dunbar, of Edinburgh, which was accustomed to go out with the young people, in the capacity of a protector, and a most efficient one he proved himself, suffering neither man nor brute to approach his charge. This dog, also, was accustomed to apply to the bell at his master's gate, when it happened to be shut, and he desired admittance. The true Newfoundland dog has been frequently used as a retriever, and is remarkable for his fearless manner of penetrating the thickest cover. I shall close my account of the Newfoundland, with the following lines from Lord Byron's beautiful epitaph on his favourite " Boatswain": –
"The poor dog! in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend:
Whose honest heart is still his master's own –
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes, for him alone."
The true breed is about twenty-six inches in height at the shoulder. (75 -79)
Richardson's book was reviewed in the February 20, 1847, issue of The Spectator, a British weekly cultural and political magazine which began publication in 1828 and continues to this day, making it the oldest weekly magazine in the world:
One of the many cheap and prettily-illustrated class of compilations that are now so rife. Character, however, is imparted to this little treatise by the independence of Mr. Richardson's views and his independent mode of stating them. He is a dog-fancier as well as a book-writer; which gives freshness to facts and novelty to argument. (187)
