590 The Dog Book 



No such dog had ever been known on the island before, hence it was not 

 typical of the breed at home. That they grew much larger when taken as 

 puppies to England, or bred there, is very well known. If the breed had 

 never been taken to England we'should have no such dog as is now called 

 the Newfoundland, which is purely an English development from a very 

 common-sized black dog. 



In this country we have had one high-class dog — ^that was Mayor of 

 Bingley, brought over by Mr. Mason in 1881. Since that time we have had 

 two very nice ones in Captain and Black Boy, and about two more that 

 were passably good. All the rest that have been shown as Newfound- 

 lands were plain black dogs, mainly curly. 



The Landseer Newfoundland, as the white and black variety is called, 

 got its name from the fact that Sir Edwin Landseer took a fancy to a dog of 

 that colour, and painted it with the title of "A Distinguished Member of 

 the Royal Humane Society." All large water dogs had been called New- 

 foundlands in England for many years, and Landseer was merely painting 

 what to him was an attractive dog, but not distinguished for great amount of 

 what we now would call type of the breed, any more than is seen in any other 

 large dog that has a rough and shaggy coat. 



The peculiarity that to our mind is distinctly Newfoundland is the skull 

 development — a sort of water-on the-brain shape, as Dalziel once said to us 

 in speaking of the Clumber. This shape of head is seen in no other large 

 dog, and is only met with in a degree in the Clumber. Another dog that has 

 somewhat of the same head is the Thibet dog, but we cannot suppose that 

 dog had any connection with Newfoundland, and the Thibet dog's head is 

 not so much domed or rounded. 



In view of there being such a paucity of the breed in this country, we 

 leave the illustrations to speak for themselves. In the matter of standard 

 we are at a loss to know what to use. That of the Newfoundland Club of 

 England is acknowledged to be quite out of date, but no one cares about 

 amending it. Certainly it is no guide, and its publication would only be 

 misleading. This also applies to the Stonehenge standard of 1870, which 

 also did duty in Dalziel's book. 



Compared with most large dogs the Newfoundland is somewhat loosely 

 built, and should be a free, supple mover. Size is desirable, but not to the 

 extent that it overtops character in head, or colour with straightness and 

 quality of coat. A Newfoundland is not primarily a large dog, but size is 



