[ Saunders / Salad for the Solitary and the Social ]
Frederick Saunders (1807 - 1902) was an English writer, librarian, and editor who spent most of his adult life in America.
This volume, first published in 1872 then again in 1885, is a combination of two previous works by Saunders: Salad for the Solitary (1853) and Salad for the Social (1856). Both were collections of essays designed for instruction and (intellectual) amusement, and were written in a comfortable, "familiar" style.
This combined version adds new material and deletes some of the earlier material. The first book, Salad for the Solitary, did not contain any references to Newfoundlands when it was first published. The second book, Salad for the Social, did have one anecdote about Newfoundlands, but it was removed from this combined volume. To see that earlier anecdote (it involves water rescue), go to this page here at The Cultured Newf.
Saunders has added several new anecdotes regarding Newfoundlands that were not in the earlier works; all of them occur in the essay entitled "The Mute Creation."
The first anecdote related by Saunders was first published (to the best of my knowledge) in James Hamilton Fennell's 1841 book Natural History of British and Foreign Quadrupeds; it also appeared in Edward Jesse's 1858 volume Anecdotes of Dogs. Saunders' version is as follows:
A remarkable illustration of canine sagacity is related by Chambers, which is substantially as follows: A gentleman of Suffolk, on an excursion with his friend, was attended by a Newfoundland dog, which soon became the subject of conversation. As a test of the animal's sagacity his master put a mark upon a shilling, and after showing it to the dog he put it under a large stone by the roadside. After riding some three miles distant the master made a signal to the dog to return and fetch the coin. He turned back, the gentlemen rode on and reached home, but to their surprise and disappointment, the hitherto faithful messenger did not return during the day. It afterward appeared that he had gone to the place where the shilling was deposited, but the stone being too large for him to remove, he had stayed howling at the place, till a horseman riding by, attracted by his seeming distress, dismounted, removed the stone, and seeing the shilling, put it into his pocket. The dog followed the rider some twenty miles, remained undisturbed in the room where he supped, and on his retiring for the night followed him to his bed, beneath which he secreted himself. When fairly asleep the dog made for his pantaloons containing his money, and rushed with his booty out the window, which, on account of the heat, had been left partly open, and thus made his way home. Besides the shilling, the gentleman's nether garments contained a purse full of money and a watch. These were afterward advertised and reclaimed. (481 - 482)
(The "Chambers" to whom Saunders refers is Chambers's Miscellany of Useful and Entertaining Tracts, a multi-volume work first published in 1845 (Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers). It is, as its title promises, a miscellaneous collection of anecdotes and essays on all manner of topics, arranged in no particular order. Chambers' fuller treatment of this anecdote may be found here at The Cultured Newf.)
The other incidents appear shortly after:
The aptitude of the Newfoundland dog to take to the water and rescue drowning persons is no less proverbial. We shall give but an instance or two. A person while bathing at Portsmouth was seized with cramp and struggling for his life. A Newfoundland dog on the dock, seeing the man sinking, plunged into the water and saved his life, while two boatmen were debating about what was to be done.
Take another incident of a more recent date. Two children were playing on the banks of a canal near Pimlico, London; the younger of them fell into the water and the elder plunged in with the hope of saving him. Both sank; and just at the moment a Newfoundland dog was looking on, and rushing to the rescue, he soon brought up one and then the other safe to shore. The happy father gave a dinner-party in commemoration of the event, at which the noble dog was a specially-invited guest! (483)
The first of the above anecdotes first appeared (to my knowledge) in William Bingley's 1805 Animal Biography, treated here at The Cultured Newf; it was repeated, in various forms, by a number of other writers in the 19th Century.
The second anecdote above first appeared (to my knowledge) in American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine for July, 1834, where it was one of several brief notes credited only as from "late English papers". The same incident, in somewhat compressed form, appeared in Robert Chambers' 1864 The Book of Days, discussed here at The Cultured Newf.