Robbie Burns’ Newfoundland, in Black and White
Scottish poet Robert Burns only lived to be 37 years old. You’d never guess that based on the long shadow he’s cast. He’s been influential.
He is responsible for the version of "Auld Lang Syne" sung at New Year, he gave us “Comin Thro’ the Rye,” and wrote the line “the best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men.”
He may even have played a tangential role in how we think of, and talk about, Newfoundland dogs.
Bear with me.
Burns’ Newfoundland.
If you count yourself among the Newfoundlanders remembering Burns, this January 25th you’re going to want to include The Twa Dogs in your festivities. The poem, penned by Burns in 1786, gives us a voice from Newfoundland.
‘The Twa Dogs’ is a conversation between two dogs — Luath and Caesar. Luath is a working-class collie while Caesar belongs to a member of the upper-class.
Here’s how Burns’ introduces Caesar:
“The first I’ll name, they ca’d him Caesar,
Was keepit for His Honour’s pleasure:
His hair, his size, his mouth, his lugs,
Shew’d he was nane o’ Scotland’s dogs;
But whalpit some place far abroad,
Whare sailors gang to fish for cod.”
In more contemporary language, Burns’ is saying Caesar is a dog kept for his owner’s pleasure. He is — in terms of his hair, size, mouth and ears — not like the dogs of Scotland. That’s because, as Burns’ tell us, he isn’t from Scotland. He was born some place far away, somewhere sailors fish for cod.
Caesar is a Newfoundland dog — a dog who, seemingly, made his way to Scotland with sailors who were fishing on Newfoundland’s Grand Banks. At the time a lot of dogs from Newfoundland came to England and Scotland, that way.
Landseer’s Newfoundland.
Weirdly enough, Burns description in The Twa Dogs may have put into motion a series of events that shaped how Newfoundland dogs are talked about today.
Landseer’s Lion at Trafalgar Square.
Edwin Landseer is a celebrated artist, renown for painting and sculpting animals. Among other famous works, he sculpted the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column in London’s Trafalgar Square.
When Landseer was only nineteen-years-old, he painted an image based on Burns The Twa Dogs.
The Twa Dogs, Edwin Landseer (1822)
Landseer’s painting depicts Caesar as a Newfoundland dog with black and white markings and, without looking cartoonish, he manages to make him look like he is truly engaged with Luath.
Newfoundland dogs are a subject Landseer revisited throughout his career. His images often showed them as heroes in the service of mankind. He helped solidify their reputation as rescue animals and, when he painted them, it was often with a black and white coat. The same black and white coat he painted, at 19 years old, in The Twa Dogs.
To this day, Newfoundland dogs with black and white coats are called Landseers — all thanks to Sir Edwin Landseer’s influence.
Small Talk Sorted.
So, a Burns poem from 1786 may have played a small role in how we think of, and talk about, Newfoundland dogs today — it was the inspiration for one of Sir Edwin Landseer’s early depictions (1822) of a black and white Newfoundland dog.
That’s your next ‘Burns Night in Newfoundland’ small talk sorted, right there.
