[ Blaine / An Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports ]
Blaine (1768–1845) was an English veterinarian and writer on veterinary and animal-related topics, an is an important figure in the history of advocacy for more human treatment of domesticated animals. He was also the mentor and veterinary partner of another writer, the veterinarian William Youatt, who championed the same cause and who also wrote several works treated here at The Cultured Newf. An earlier work of Blaine's, Canine Pathology (1817), is also discussed here.
The title of this work is An Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports: or a complete account, historical, practical, and descriptive, of hunting, shooting, fishing, racing, and other field sports and athletic amusements of the present day. This work was first published in 1840 (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans); there were a couple of subsequent editions, with additional material by other writers.
Newfoundlands are discussed principally in Chapter 2, "Dogs of the Moderns." Blaine has a bit to say about Newfoundlands in this work despite the fact the book's title, with its strong emphasis on field sports, would suggest otherwise to a modern reader. But as we see, this work is about much more than its title suggests. Besides, for Blaine, Newfoundlands very much are a 'field' dog:
The Newfoundland dog is a spaniel. . . . The principal varieties of the spaniel in use for sporting purposes will be more fully described hereafter. We cannot, however, omit this opportunity of recanting an error of our own, which subsequent investigation has convinced us of: we now by conviction place the Newfoundland dog in the spaniel group, to which his form, his coat, and his hunting propensities, evidently entitle him.
1411. Of the Newfoundland dog, now so cultivated amongst us, we shall historically remark, that although it was without doubt first introduced to general notice from Newfoundland, there is every reason to suppose that it was originally derived from the large dogs of Spain, introduced by the early discoverers of the American continent; which, intermixing with the native breeds, produced an increase of size and power in the future races. These would be encouraged by the natives, because the uses they made of them as beasts of draught were thereby better fulfilled. Such, we have reason to believe, was the first improvement made on the native dogs of those countries, which, as far as a factitious breed can continue its like, seemed, but in limited numbers, to have remained a standard among them until English importations had drained almost all of them. Another variety forms the smaller smooth aquatic dog of Newfoundland. When the English settled here, they without doubt carried with them some of the largest and most powerful of the water spaniel breed, to assist them in the hunting and shooting of wildfowl; and there is little reason to doubt, but that an intermixture with these also assisted in perfecting a breed, from whence our admired specimens of the large Newfoundland dog arose; the breeding of which, however, was never carried to any great extent in that country. The rigours of the climate, and the difficulty of procuring food for it during some seasons of the year, were unfavourable to both the production of numbers and to the full development of the frame. The splendid animal we now see, has been greatly increased in size since its residence among us: we have cultivated it so as to make it now an English breed, while in Newfoundland it is at present so nearly extinct, that a writer in the Sporting Magazine, No. cxxiii. new series, states, that he could not find a single dog of the kind at St. John's. If this be so, it is a mistake when naturalists assert that the dog we possess is the same with that which is “employed in their native districts in place of the horse.”
1412. The Alpine spaniel of the Cuvierian arrangement (fig.206. p.388.) has but little of the qualities or appearance of the sporting spaniel beyond his long silky coat. It presents more of the characters of a breed between the Newfoundland dog and mastiff, or between the mastiff and setter. . . . (397)
Newfoundlands are mentioned in an earlier discussion locomotion in dogs, the Newf's webbed feet coming in for particular mention:
. . . the web-foot, so often alluded to in the Newfoundland dog, is very imperfectly developed. As an animal of quick locomotion, an extremity at all paddle-shaped, or flattened, would have been most inconvenient. We must therefore look to some other source than these outward manifestations, to account for the capability of swimming which exists in all quadrupeds. . . . We have ourselves seen a Newfoundland dog of the small smooth-haired variety, which, in coming to England from his native country, was washed overboard during a tempestuous night. As daylight appeared, the gale ceased, when a sailor at the mast-head descried something far in the wake of the vessel, which, by the help of his glass, he was led to believe was the dog; which was so great a favourite with the crew, that it was unanimously requested of the captain of the vessel to lie to, and wait for the chance of saving the poor brute. (fig. 123) The captain, who had probably lost some time already by the storm, peremptorily refused to listen to the humane proposal. Whether it were the kindly feeling of the sailors, or a superstitious dread, th at if the dog were suffered to perish nothing would afterwards prosper with them, we are not aware; but we do know that, as soon as the refusal was made, the steersman left the helm, roundly asserting that he for one would never lend a hand to steer away from either christian or brute in distress. The feeling was immediately caught by the rest of the crew, and maintained so resolutely, that the captain was forced to acede to the general wish, and the poor dog eventually reached the ship in safety; after having been, as we were informed, and implicitly believe, some hours in a tempestuous sea. We wish we could add that he passed the rest of a life in pieace, which he so hardly strove to preserve; but he became afflicted with stone in his bladder, which eventually destroyed him. This dog we knew well; and the calculi which caused his death we had some time in our possession.(II: 203)
fig. 123
In a chapter on "Rational Principle in Animals", Blaine reports a couple of instances of what he sees as the operation of reason in Newfoundlands:
By what we now see of animals, it might be supposed to be a scheme to shame us by their superior intellectual manifestations for our former doubts on the subject. As in the opposite page [see below], we see an instance of pure affection in the Newfoundland dog, we can also add one of another dog of the same kind: too brave to bite a cur which pestered him, he was seen to take him up by the skin of the neck, carry him to the river side, and drop him in. (II: 226)
A gentleman of fortune, a native of Germany, boarded and lodged with a clergyman with whom we were well acquainted. This gentleman had with him a large dog of the Newfoundland breed, of the most engaging qualities, and to which he was so attached, that, wherever he went, whatever sum he agreed to pay for his own board, he always tendered half as much for that of his dog, that thereby he might secure him the treatment which his fidelity so well merited. Travelling in Holland, the German one evening slipped from off the bank of a large dike into the water below, which was both wide and deep. Being wholly unable to swim, he soon became senseless; and when restored to recollection, he found himself in a cottage on the opposite bank of the dike to that from which he fell, surrounded by persons who had been using the Dutch means of resuscitation. The account he received from two of them was, that, returning home, they saw a dog swimming at a distance, seemingly employed in dragging, and sometimes pushing, a mass he appeared to have much difficulty in keeping above water, but which mass he at length succeeded in forcing into a small creek, and next drew it on land (fig. 135). By this time the peasants had advanced sufficiently near to discover that the object of his solicitude was a man, whom the dog, exhausted as he must have been, immediately set about licking the hands and face of. The peasants hastened across by the nearest bridge, and having conveyed the body to a neighbouring cottage, and applied the usual Dutch means of resuscitation, the fleeting spark of vitality (thanks to the fidelity and intelligence of the dog) was soon restored to the full flame of life. It remains to add, that the body of our friend, when first stripped, was found to be deeply indented by the teeth of the dog, both in the nape of the neck and in one of the shoulders, and these scars he used to show with much satisfaction; and nothing could shake his firm conviction, that his dog had first suspended him by the shoulder, but that, finding his head was not elevated above the water, he had shifted his hold to the nape of his neck, for the express purpose of so elevating it. And, however we may hesitate to attribute this change of position to a motive so intrinsically intellectual, yet we must respect the error, if it was one, for where is the mind that might not be warped by such a debt? If our memory be correct, it was near a quarter of a mile that the dog had to swim with his master's body before any creek offered; and, when arrived there, he had still to drag it on a bank.
(The above anecdote was first published in Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs by the Scottish naturalist Capt. Thomas Brown, published in 1829, and was used by several subsequent writers as well.)
fig. 135
In a chapter on, of all things, horse racing, and the grooming of horses, comes this incidental mention of Newfs:
Our ideas of beauty are regulated by custom; and hence the Shetland pony, the Scotch terrier, and the Newfoundland water-dog, would appear monstrosities were they not shaggy and rough in the estreme. (III: 342)
In Chapter 4, "Condition of Dogs," Blaines discusses the uses of various "purges" in dogs:
Aloes, in our opinion, form the best general purge for dogs . . . . The smallest dog can take fiftenn or twenty grains: half a drachm is seldom too much, but the smaller does had better be tried first: medium sized dogs usually require a drachm, and some large dogs have taken more than two drachms. We have ourselves given three to a strong Newfoundland dog without extreme catharsis. . . . (425)
Two pages further on, discussing "canker" of the inner ear and its prevalence in breeds often in the water, Blaine notes that "poodles, water spaniels, and Newfoundland dogs, are particularly liable to it." Blaine more or less repeats this point, and the mention of Newfoundlands, on the following page. He had written about this issue in his earlier work Canine Pathology (1817), where he mentions Newfs, poodles, and water spaniels as most likely to suffer ear problems due to their fondness for water.
No other mentions of Newfoundlands are found in this edition of this work. Blaine's book was, however, expanded and revised after his death, with the first revised edition published in 1856 (London: Longman et al), eleven years after Blaine's death. Three additional authors are listed in the WorldCat entries of this work — Harry Hieover, A. Graham, and Edward Fitzgibbon — though they are not mentioned on the title page. ("Harry Hieover" was a pseudonym used by Charles Bindley [1795/6 - 1859], an English writer on sporting topics.) Much of the Newf-related content in this 2nd edition is the same, but there are some additions.
A chapter on "The Practice of Shooting" features the following observations. Note that the "Labrador dog" referenced here appears to be what we now know as the Newfoundland, while the "St. John's dog" is either the Labrador retriever or an immediate ancestor of the Lab:
The Newfoundland dog is a spaniel much employed on the southern coasts of our kingdom; and there appear to be two distinct breeds of them, one from Labrador, and another from St. John's. The Labrador dog is very large, rough haired, and carries his tail high. On his native spot, he is exceedingly useful by his immense strength in drawing sledges, &c. The St. John's breed is that to be preferred by the sportsman on every account, being smaller, more easily managed, and sagacious in the extreme. . . . A genuine Newfoundland dog of the true water-loving sort, and addicted, body and mind, to hunting wildfowl, is most valuable. We once knew such an one, the property of a gentleman of our acquaintance, who resided at Newhaven. We ourselves lived at that time at Seaford, but we visited Newhaven very frequently, and sometimes went along the sea wall, and in so doing we often fell in with this admirable zealot. Whenever it was likely that wildfowl would come in shore, and that consequently gunners would go along the levels to intercept them, then she was sure to be found, waiting for and attending on them as long as they staid, fetching either out of the sea or the river, spite of ice or snow, any that were shot. She had been known to stay two entire days and nights, and, as was supposed, without food, waiting at the shore-side to assist any shooting parties that might go out; for at the time we allude to an intense frost of two or three weeks had frozen up every river and spring. Hers was indeed self-devotion, and she truly had a sporting mania. Many had offered to purchase her, and many more had attempted to steal her; but her master, although he shot little himself, was proud of his dog, and would not be bribed by money; and no force, no artifice, could draw her farther from her home, than her knowledge of the locality, and her distance from Newhaven were known to her. Colonel Hawker also writes very interestingly, and very justly, on the properties of the Newfoundland dog, which he says are such, that he may be broken into any kind of shooting. The one we have just noticed, we would have almost wagered our existence, would, after a fortnight's tutorage, have hunted partridges, pointed them steadily, and would then have waited the bidding to fetch the dropped bird. As a retriever the Newfoundland dog is easily brought to do almost any thing that is required of him, and he is so tractable likewise, that, with the least possible trouble, he may be safely taken among pointers to the field, with whose province he will not interfere, but will be overjoyed to be allowed to look up the wounded game, which he will do with a perseverance that no speed and no distance can slacken, nor any hedge-row baulk. In cover he is very useful: some indeed shoot woodcocks to a Newfoundlander; and he never shines more than when he is returning with a woodcock, pheasant, or hare, in his mouth, which he yields up, or even puts into your hand unmutilated.
Discussing the setter, the authors remark that
The setter indeed, on which we now treat, both in size and strength has no rival, if we except the Alpine spaniel and the Newfoundland dog, whose majestic form and admirable qualities, were other proofs wanting, would convince us that they also are scions from the same root. Indeed, as we believe, both can, by the aid of early records, be traced to the same stock, the Newfoundland dog having been originally taken to Newfoundland by the early discoverers of the American continent and eastern traffickers. We were not always of this opinion; on the contrary, in the early editions of our Canine Pathology we have stated our doubts of the immediate connection of this dog with the spaniel, but which we are now satisfied, by the aids of more extended research, is established. The Newfoundland dog has acute scenting powers; he is naturally extremely fond of hunting, has great tact in the pursuit of any game; and may, in comparison with what might be expected from his connection with his restless type the spaniel, be taught to stand to game, and even to back other dogs — such are his tractable and teachable qualities. (VII: 788)
And, finally, in a discussion of the spaniel family of dogs we find this reaffirmation of the "spaniel" nature of the Newfoundland:
The spaniel group includes the setter, the common spaniel, the Newfoundland dog, and the retriever; the whole of which, there is much reason to believe, are derived from the eastern hunting dogs of scent, as the coursing dog was also the produce of such as hunted more by sight than scent. Without any proof that Spain, in particular, originated this dog, either as he is known to us, or in the varieties we have named, we are at least certain that all the indi- viduals specified in our section were originally included under the term spaniel, and were of eastern origin.
Subsequent editions of this work were published in 1870 and 1880, though there were no substantive changes.