[ Stables / Aileen Aroon ]
William Gordon Stables (1840 - 1910) was a Scottish naval doctor and prolific writer of various sorts of works, principally adventure stories for boys but also several books on dogs, including these discussed here at The Cultured Newf: Our Friend the Dog, Ladies' Dogs as Companions, the chapter on Newfoundlands in Dogs: Their Points, Whims, Instincts, and Peculiarities, edited by Henry Webb, and even the Newf-referencing Cats: Their Points and Characteristics.
Aileen Aroon — the name of one of Stables' Newfoundlands; she is named after the title of an ancient Irish fiddle tune, the meaning of which is "Aileen My Treasure" — is a memoir in which Stables recounts stories of his many dogs, including several Newfoundlands. The references to Newfoundlands — clearly Stables' favorite breed — are far too numerous to reproduce here. The full text of this work (in multiple formats) is available here at Project Gutenberg. This work was first published in 1884 (London: Partridge).
Here are all the Newfoundland illustrations that accompany Stables' text.
