[ Loudon / The Entertaining Naturalist ]
The full title of this work (2nd edition) is The Entertaining Naturalist; Being Popular Descriptions, Tales, and Anecdotes of more than Five Hundred Animals, Comprehending all the Quadrupends, Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, etc of which a Knowledge is Indispensable in Polite Education. With Indexes of Scientific and Popular Names, an Explanation of Terms, and an Appendix of Fabulous Animals. Illustrated by Nearly Five Hundered Engravings on Wood by Bewick, Harvey, Landells, Thompson, Whimper, Sly and Others. A New Edition, Revised, Enlarged and Completed to the Present State of Zoological Science.
This book was first published in 1843, with a second edition later that year and a revised edition in 1850 (London: Bohn, from which the text below is taken) and yet another edition, edited by W. S. Dallas, in 1867.
Loudon (1807–1858) was an English magazine editor and writer, primarily on natural subjects, although she first achieved success with the anonymously published novel The Mummy: A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (1827), an early work of science fiction. Her works on gardening and botany were also commercially successful — quite an accomplishment given that, when she married (at age 23) a landscape designer she was so embarrassed about her lack of botanical knowledge she secretly attended botany lectures so she could converse with, and become a help to, her husband. Despite her works' financial successes, she struggled with debt her entire life, largely due to debts incurred by the failure of her husband's horticultural books and magazine.
The ancedotes that comprise the majority of this entry are taken from earlier sources:
This is the same illustration which later serves as the headpiece to the 2nd edition (1858) of Edward Jesse's Anecdotes of Dogs. Loudon's book provides only general credits for its illustrations, as noted above, though Jesse's book is more specific, identifyin its illustrator as "W. Harvey" and the engraver as "W. Branston."
THE NEWFOUNDLAND DOG (Canis sensilis)
This animal was originally brought into Europe from Newfoundland, whence it derives its name, and where it is extremely useful to the settlers, almost supplying the place of a horse. There are several varieties, differing slightly in size and appearance, but the full size is about six feet and a half from the nose to the tip of the tail, the length of which is two feet. He is noble in appearance, and covered with long shaggy hair of a black and white colour, in which the latter generally predominates.
The Newfoundland Dog is affectionate, sagacious, and docile beyond all others; and being web-footed is excellently adapted for the water; and there are innumerable instances of his rescuing man from a watery grave.
The anecdotes which illustrate the affection and sagacity of this animal would fill a volume, but we select one relating to the water, as that appears his noblest scene of action.
Some time ago a young woman was nursing an infant on one of the quays on the Liffey, when it made a sudden spring from her arms and fell into the water. The screaming nurse and anxious spectators saw the child sink, as they thought to rise no more; when at the very instant a Newfoundland Dog, which was accidentally passing, rushed to the spot, and at the sight of the child, who at that moment reappeared, sprang into the water. The child again sunk, and the faithful animal was seen anxiously swimming round the spot. Once more the child rose, and the Dog gently, but firmly, seized him and bore him to land. Meanwhile a gentleman arrived who appeared to take much interest in the affair, and on the person who had the child turning to show it him, he recognized the well-known features of his own son. A mixed sensation of horror, joy, and surprise struck him mute. When he recovered himself he lavished a thousand caresses on the faithful animal, and offered his master five hundred guineas for him; but the latter felt too much affection for the noble animal to part with him on any consideration whatever.
(The anecdote immediately above first appeared, to the best of my knowledge, in Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs (1829) by Captain Thomas Brown, a Scottish naturalist; this work is discussed here at The Cultured Newf. The anecdote was repeated by a number of other writers during the 19th Century.)
We also subjoin another equally interesting.
A native of Germany, fond of travelling, was pursuing his course through Holland, accompanied by a large Newfoundland Dog. Walking one evening on a high bank, which formed one side of a dike, or canal, so common in that country, his foot slipped, and he was precipitated into the water, and being unable to swim he soon became senseless. When he recovered his recollection he found himself in a cottage on the other side of the dike, surrounded by peasants, who had been using means to restore suspended animation. The account given by them was, that one of them, returning home from his labour, observed at a considerable distance a large Dog in the water swimming, and dragging the body of a man- into a small creek on the opposite side to which the men were.
The Dog having shaken himself, began industriously to lick the hands and face of his master, while the rustic hastened across; and, having obtained assistance, the body was conveyed to a neighbouring house, where the usual means of resuscitation soon restored him to sense and recollection. Two very considerable bruises, with the marks of teeth, appeared, one on his shoulder and the other on the nape of his neck; whence it was presumed that the faithful animal first seized his master by the shoulder, and swam with him in this manner some time; but that his sagacity had prompted him to let go this hold, and shift his grasp to the neck, by which he had been enabled to support the head out of water. It was in the latter position that the peasant observed the Dog making his way along the dike, which it appeared he had done for the distance of nearly a quarter of a mile.
(The above anecdote appears, in slightly edited form, in several prior works: An Encyclopaedia of Rural Sports by the English veterinarian and writer Delabere Pritchett Blaine, first published in 1840, and also discussed here at The Cultured Newf. Its first appearance, as I can determine it, is in Biographical Sketches and Authentic Anecdotes of Dogs by the Scottish naturalist Capt. Thomas Brown, first published in 1829.)