chapter 4 Love me, love my pet arty types IN CHAPTER 3 WE saw that the vast majority of US In others they were no doubt a direct source of presidents shared their homes with at least one inspiration. But whatever their role, many of these pet. Could the same be said of famous authors and pets have gone on to be immortalised with statues artists? and monuments. Let’s take a look at these next. Certainly many writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries owned and admired cats and The Story of Byron and Boatswain dogs. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, William With his moody good looks and eccentric aristocratic Wordsworth, and Th omas Hardy were all fond of lifestyle, Byron (1788-1824) has long been credited their pets, and Lewis Carroll created one of the most as one of Britain’s most accomplished romantic poets. iconic feline images ever, through his Cheshire Cat in He was also ‘mad, bad, and dangerous to know’, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. What’s more, both according to his lover, Lady Caroline Lamb. A rather cats and dogs have long been the favoured subjects of irresistible description that only serves to make him painters – no surprise to those of us who admire the sound more exciting. aesthetics of our pets. In addition to his writing, Byron is also known for Today, images of cats in particular are found on his love of animals and the fact that he shared his a huge variety of products and it is estimated that homes in England, Italy, Switzerland, and Greece there are 1,000 shops in the US SAMPLEselling nothing but with many of all shapes and sizes. Th e wonderfully cat-themed items. bizarre nature of his menageries is illustrated in a Interestingly, products featuring dogs seem not to letter by fellow poet Percy Shelley, who was a good sell as well.1 One reason for this, merchandisers say, friend of Byron: is that dog people are breed-oriented, so a poodle owner will probably not buy a mug with a German Lord B.’s establishment consists, besides shepherd on it. A cat lover, on the other hand, will servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, buy any and every kind of feline depiction. Hmm, three monkeys, fi ve cats, an eagle, a crow, and guilty as charged. a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk In some cases the pets of artists and writers probably about the house, which every now and then have provided much-needed companionship in what resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as can be rather solitary professions. It’s easy to imagine if they were the masters of it. I fi nd that the dog curled at the feet of Tennyson or the cat lying my enumeration of the animals in this Circean languidly across the pages of Samuel Johnson’s great Palace was defective. I have just met on the work in progress, probably batting the writer’s feather grand staircase fi ve peacocks, two guinea hens, quill from time to time with his paws. and an Egyptian crane.2 © 2019 The Lutterworth Press 42 Monumental Tales Byron seems to have been pretty determined not to not lost on the perspicacious Newfoundlanders who be without animals at any stage of his life. While I was soon began breeding dogs in Canada especially for at University and missing my pets from home, I must export to Britain.3 It is said that when the puppies admit to occasionally encouraging local cats into my arrived at ports around the UK they were greeted by room so I could get a bit of a cat fi x. Well, Byron crowds of excited people eager to purchase them. went several stages further. On attending Trinity Byron acquired Boatswain, who was probably a College he circumvented University rules banning Newfoundland cross, when he was just fi fteen years dogs by taking his tame bear along instead. It seems old. Perhaps one of the reasons the two bonded there was no mention in the college rulebook about so well was that Boatswain brought an element of bears not being allowed! SAMPLEstability to Byron’s days. Th e poet certainly lived a But of all the wondrous beasts sharing Byron’s life, life of controversy. He is reported to have had many it is perhaps dogs that pulled on his heartstrings most, aff airs and even intimate relations with his half-sister. and of all the dogs he owned, his favourite seems to As was the custom at this time, he would send locks have been a Newfoundland called Boatswain. of hair to his lovers. However, DNA analysis shows Originally developed in the place of their name in that most came not from the fi ne head of the poet Canada to assist the fi shermen, the Newfoundlands’ himself but from a dog, quite possibly Boatswain! coat and webbed feet made them great swimmers Perhaps there were so many amours that Byron able to cope with the extreme cold of Canadian simply didn’t have suffi cient hair to send to them all, waters. Striking and impressive in appearance, they whereas the shaggy Boatswain would have had it in were also known for their gentle natures and soon abundance. stories began circulating of the dogs performing In 1808, aged just twenty, Byron took up residence heroic deeds. Because of this, in the eighteenth and at Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire. Th e Abbey nineteenth centuries Newfoundlands became highly has a large lake and the story goes that the poet prized and owning one was considered something of would row into the middle with Boatswain and his a status symbol. Th is surge in their popularity was other Newfoundland in the boat. He’d then leap © 2019 The Lutterworth Press 4. Love Me, Love My Pet: Arty Types 43 Figure 47 (opposite): Painting of Boatswain by Clifton Tomson. You may be forgiven for thinking that Boatswain ‘Newfoundland dogs are good to save does not look that typical of today’s Newfoundlands. In children from drowning, but you must 3 his beautiful book on Byron , Geoffrey Bond notes that have a pond of water handy and a child, the exact origins of the Newfoundland are shrouded in mystery, with some claiming them to be the descendants or else there will be no profit in boarding a of mastiff-like dogs and others pointing to an Eskimo Newfoundland.’ dog/husky ancestor. While early Newfoundlands showed considerable diversity in size and shape, they all seemed to Josh Billings have possessed a suitably noble mien. overboard and get the dogs to ferry him back to shore. Strength without Insolence, Interestingly, amongst the many Victorian tales of Courage without Ferocity, Newfoundlands saving people from drowning, there and all the virtues of Man without his Vices. are some less fl attering reports of dogs so obsessed with rescuing that they would grab hold of people Th is praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery enjoying a pleasant dip and determinedly drag them if inscribed over human Ashes, ashore against their will!3 is but a just tribute to the Memory of Sadly, Byron’s time with his much-loved dog Boatswain, a Dog was not to last long. Less than a year after moving who was born in Newfoundland May 1803 to Newstead, Boatswain contracted rabies. It was and died at Newstead Nov. 18th, 1808 thought he must have been bitten by another dog when he was following the post boy to the nearby When some proud Son of Man returns to Earth, village of Mansfi eld. In the early nineteenth century, Unknown to Glory, but upheld by Birth, rabies was common throughout England and a cause Th e sculptor’s art exhausts the pomp of woe, of understandable fear. So much so, in fact, that the And storied urns record who rests below. government off ered a reward of up to five shillings When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen, for each rabid dog killed.4 Not what he was, but what he should have been. Distraught, Byron remained with the terribly But the poor Dog, in life the fi rmest friend, ill Boatswain, nursing him and putting himself at Th e fi rst to welcome, foremost to defend, considerable risk in doing so. Despite all his eff orts, Whose honest heart is still his Master’s own, the dog could not be saved. In a letter Byron wrote to Who labours, fi ghts, lives, breathes for him alone, his friend and fellow writer Francis Hodgson, he said, Unhonoured falls, unnoticed all his worth, ‘Boatswain is dead! He expired inSAMPLE a state of madness Denied in heaven the Soul he held on earth – on the 18th suff ering much yet retaining all the While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven, gentleness of his nature to the last, never attempting And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven. to do the least injury to those near him.’5 After the death, and despite being much in debt, Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour, Byron commissioned a marble monument for his Debased by slavery, or corrupt by power – Boatswain at Newstead on the site of the former Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust, Abbey’s ruins. Degraded mass of animated dust! Th e epitaph, which has become one of Byron’s Th y love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat, best-known works, and its introduction, written by Th y tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit! his friend John Cam Hobhouse (in italics), reads as By nature vile, ennobled but by name, follows:6 Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.