[ Stables / Aileen Aroon ]
William Gordon Stables (1840 - 1910) was a Scottish naval doctor and prolific writer of various sorts of works, principally adventure stories for boys but also several books on dogs, two others of which are discussed here at The Cultured Newf: Our Friend the Dog and Ladies' Dogs as Companions.
Aileen Aroon — the name of one of Stables' Newfoundlands; she is named after the title of an ancient Irish fiddle tune, the meaning of which is "Aileen My Treasure" — is a memoir in which Stables recounts stories of his many dogs, including several Newfoundlands. The references to Newfoundlands — clearly Stables' favorite breed — are far too numerous to reproduce here. The full text of this work (in multiple formats) is available here at Project Gutenberg. This work was first published in 1884 (London: Partridge).
Here are all the Newfoundland illustrations that accompany Stables' text.
