[ Charles Dickens and Newfoundland Dogs ]
Charles Dickens was a great lover of dogs and owned many throughout his life; he seemed to favor larger breeds, and at one point owned a father-and-son pair of Newfoundlands, named Don and Bumble.
His two Newfs are featured in this report, from a letter Dickens wrote to a friend about the drought affecting parts of England in 1868 (quoted in John Foster's Life of Dickens):
I do not let the great dogs swim in the canal, because the people have to drink of it. But when they get into the Medway [a river in SE England], it is hard to get them out again. The other day Bumble (the son, Newfoundland dog) got into difficulties among some floating timber, and became frightened. Don (the father) was standing by me, shaking off the wet and looking on carelessly, when all of a sudden he perceived something amiss, and went in with a bound and brought Bumble out by the ear. The scientific way in which he towed him along was charming.
Foster also reports the following anecdote regarding Dickens being greeted by his Newfoundlands after his return from a speaking tour of America:
The description of [Dickens'] own reception, on his reappearance after America, by Bumble and his brother, by the big and beautiful Linda, and by his daughter Mary's handsome little Pomeranian, may be added from his letters to the same correspondent. "The two Newfoundland dogs coming to meet me, with the usual carriage and the usual driver, and beholding me coming in my usual dress out at the usual door, it struck me that their recollection of my having been absent for any unusual time was at once cancelled. They behaved (they are both young dogs) exactly in their usual manner; coming behind the basket phaeton as we trotted along, and lifting their heads to have their ears pulled, a special attention which they receive from no one else. But when I drove into the stable-yard, Linda (the St. Bernard) was greatly excited; weeping profusely, and throwing herself on her back that she might caress my foot with her great fore-paws. Mary's little dog too, Mrs. Bouncer, barked in the greatest agitation on being called down and asked by Mary, 'Who is this?' and tore round and round me. . . ."
The father and mother and their two sons, four formidable-looking companions, were with him generally in his later walks.
(The first paragraph just above was printed in the New York Times on November 20, 1881, as a quotation from Letters of Charles Dickens (vol. 8) and under the title "Welcome Home and the Dogs.")
More proof of Dickens' fondness for Newfoundlands may be found in the fact he was also known to have owned a copy of the print of Sir Edwin Landseer's famous A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society.
More connections between Charles Dickens and Newfoundlands may be found in various other entries here at The Cultured Newf; these links will open in a new tab/window: