[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
This newspaper published two brief articles dealing with the world's first international dog show, held for a week in late May of 1863 in London.
The first article, an "advance notice" piece in the edition of May 21, 1863, remarked on what the article's writer claimed would be "the noblest collection of varieties of the canine race that has ever been assembled under one roof." That roof belonged to the then-brand-new Royal Agricultural Hall, completed just the year before, located in the north-central London borough of Islington. It was the main London exhibition hall for various sorts of events up until World War II.
This article indicates the entry closed at 1,700 dogs, 900 of which were sporting breeds. After noting the many aristocrats sending dogs to this competition, the writer remarks that "there is a very numerous entry of Newfoundlands, though of what kind remains to be seen."
On May 27, 1863, The Times carried a full report on the show itself. The reporter was quite impressed with the show overall: "the Islington collection abounds in every species and variety comprised within the wide circle of canine nomenclature. . . . Other dog shows have been held in this country, but the present one far surpasses them all in the excellence of the individual specimens no less than in the magnitude and completeness of the general array."
Surveying the various breeds present at the show, the reporter makes only quick note of "the trusty Newfoundlands, whose conspicuous merits elicit the warm approval of all."
The May 30, 1864, edition of The Times carried a report on the second annual international dog show at Islington. The account begins by noting the improvement in the conditions and arrangement of the exhibit hall — apparently at the previous year's show, some dogs were in such close proximity they were able to attack each other.
Because of these improvements and of the popularity of the show, a number of nobles and royals exhibited their dogs, including the Prince of Wales, who in 1864 would have been Edward Albert, eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (and later Edward VII, King of the UK from 1901 to 1910; like the current Prince Charles, he had a very long-lived mother, and spent the majority of his life as the Prince of Wales). Prince Albert was known as something of a playboy and was very active in elite social circles, including the world of dogs. The report on this show specifically mentions the Prince's Newfoundland:
His Royal Highness seemed pleased that the animals he exhibited had met with the reward which their unquestionable merits in many cases deserved, and in the case of the foreign mastiffs, foreign hounds, and Newfoundlands had taken first prizes. Some of them are really beautiful dogs, especially in the class for Newfoundlands, where his Royal Highness shows "Cabot," the dog that was presented to him by the inhabitants of St. John's, Newfoundland, on the occasion of his visit to America. This dog is one of the purest bred animals that could be found in the island, and his appearance in the class at once puts an end to the claim of the great black and white animals which usually crowd it to be considered Newfoundland dogs at all. At any rate, in the Prince's dog we have what the Newfoundlanders themselves point to as the idea of canine perfection, and an excellent standard by which to judge of the merits of others which are asserted to be of the same breed. Judging from this, then, he is the only true-bred dog in the class — a small, fine-headed, compact animal, with a curly, shining coat, like beaver, in which not a light-coloured hair is to be found. Like all his breed, he is quarrelsome, and this propensity has led him into serious trouble since his arrival in this country. Those dogs which have taken the second and third prizes are nearly true-bred, but the white hairs on the chest and the fuller head at once show where they are inferior to Cabot. In the cross-breeds, or what we may term the English Newfoundlands, the large, heavy, black and white dogs, there are some very handsome and showy animals. One in particular — "Sailor," No. 405 — is a beautiful animal. Next to him is one that is excessively fierce, and if the visitor looks at his eyes and rather flat forehead he will at once see the reason. The animals is a cross between the mastiff and English Newfoundland dog.
This same show was reported on in the June, 1864, issue of Sporting Magazine, which noted that the judges felt compelled to offer guidance to the mastiff owners, whose dogs were apparently quite inferior. Then the writer, who clearly has a very different opinion than the writer for The Times, had this to say about the Newfoundlands:
Some such memorandum was needed, as both in this class, the St. Bernard, and the Newfoundland there seemed quite a Cimmerian darkness, as to points and form. . . . The Prince [of Wales] was first with his black Newfoundland Cabot; but we have seen much better in a worse place; and the nine months "native of Newfoundland" was abominable. Mr. Bird's Oscar was nowhere, and who does care to know that he was bought as a three weeks pup at this very show in '62, in the days of that adventurous cheesemonger. (451)
The Prince of Wales' Newfoundland dog Cabot, given to the Prince upon his visit to Newfoundland in 1860, is also mentioned in Henry J. Morgan's 1860 book The Tour of H. R. H. The Prince of Wales through British America and the United States; in Philip Tocque's 1878 volume Newfoundland: As It Was, and As It Is in 1877; in R. B. Lee's 1894 work A History and Description of the Modern Dogs of Great Britain and Ireland; and in the December 1910 issue of Dog Fancier magazine. Even the elaborate silver collar created for the dog was reported on in the New York Times in 1860.