The Newfie is why Henry is a superior being....;-)
Posted by Caroline on January 17, 1998 at 01:01:11:
In response to Newfoundlands and terriers..., written by Patricia Bingham on January 15, 1998 at 23:53:06
Newfies are big, heavy, clumsy and sweet....having looked after a puppy for a week in my home, I know how disruptive and destructive they can be. They are used as sled dogs, and are almost as big as a St Bernard. Why should Henry have one?(To prove that he is a superior being because he also has a nice house and keeps his sense of humour? ;-) )The terriers would be used for hunting small animals, like rabbits or rats...terriers are a very practical thing to have, and they make him very real, despite his perfections!
Would he have a poodle? Probably not...they were bred as carriage dogs, weren't they? Not much use to him!Did they have toy poodles then or just the big ones?
Willoughby's Pointer..well, Pointers are bird-dogs.So he would have been a duck/pheasant/grouse man,or want to appear that way. Part of the Willoughby image... along with the mare called Queen Mab!And he wouldn't let Sir John have one...was she that valuable that he wouldn't part with the puppies? Or was he planning to sell them at an extortionate rate to the bucks of Bond Street?
Interesting that dogs were so breed -specific. Does it show that they were considered more as useful animals than as pets?(Apart from Pug, of course!)
And why doesn't she give this kind of detail about horses? Apart from Willoughby's mare, and Fanny's old pony, and Edmund's mare , there horses are treated in a much vaguer manner.Horses don't seem to have breeds at all.
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