The spirit of the Italian monk Bernard of Menthon would be delighted to know of the innumerable references by Plum to this sterling species which is famous for its rescue missions in the Alps.
Here are some such references which fans of P G Wodehouse would enjoy.
“You wouldn’t blame a snowbound traveller in the Alps for accepting a drop of brandy at the hands of a St. Bernard dog.”
(The Mating Season)
“One should always carry a flask about in case of emergencies. Saint Bernard dogs do it in the Alps. Fifty million Saint Bernard dogs can’t be wrong.”
(Joy in the Morning)
“We are elderly internees, most of us with corns and swollen joints, not Alpine climbers. If we are supposed to be youths who bear ’mid snow and ice a banner with the strange device ‘Excelsior’, there ought to be Saint Bernard dogs stationed here and there, dispensing free brandy.”
(Performing Flea: “Huy Day by Day”)
“…that brandy came in handy. By the way, you were the dickens of a while bringing it. A St Bernard dog would have been there and back in half the time.”
(The Code of the Woosters)
“I was badly in need of alcoholic refreshment, and just as my tongue was beginning to stick out and blacken at the roots, shiver my timbers if Jeeves didn’t enter left centre with a tray containing all the makings. St Bernard dogs, you probably know, behave in a similar way in the Alps and are well thought of in consequence.”
(Much Obliged, Jeeves)
Bill Shannon to Phipps:
“You really ought to go around with a keg of brandy attached to your neck, like Saint Bernard dogs in the Alps. No delay that way. No time lag.”
(The Old Reliable)
And indeed the years had dealt lightly with the erstwhile Maudie Montrose. A little more matronly, perhaps, than the girl with the hourglass figure who had played the Saint Bernard dog to the thirsty wayfarers at the old Criterion, she still made a distinct impression on the eye…
(Pigs Have Wings)
“She stood behind the counter, waiting, like some St Bernard dog on an Alpine pass, to give aid and comfort to the thirsty.”
(Big Money)
“Another of the same, please, Mr. M,” he said, and Rupert Morrison once more became the human St. Bernard dog.
(Cocktail Time)
“They sent out the St. Bernard dogs, and found him lying in the snow, lifeless and beautiful.”
(Money in the Bank)
He remembered the creamy stuff as particularly palatable, and it seemed to him incredible that Ivor Llewellyn had not jumped at it like a snowbound wayfarer in the Alps reaching for the St. Bernard dog’s keg of brandy.
(Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin)
It astounded him to think that he could ever have disliked this St. Bernard dog among butlers.
(Spring Fever)
He directed his steps to the public bar and was glad to find it unoccupied except for the blonde young lady who stood behind the counter and played the role of St. Bernard dog to the thirsty wayfarers of Walsingford Parva.
(Summer Moonshine)
St. Bernard dogs doing the square thing by Alpine travellers could not have bustled about more assiduously.
(Right Ho, Jeeves)
“…I’m to buy a pack of St. Bernards, am I, and train them to go out and drag them in?”
(The Luck of the Bodkins)
It was Adams’ mission in life to flit to and fro, hauling would-be lunchers to their destinations, as a St. Bernard dog hauls travelers out of Alpine snowdrifts.
(Something New)
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