[ Gentleman's Magazine ]
The Gentleman's Magazine was an important and influential monthly magazine in the 18th and 19th Centuries; it began in 1731, ceased regular publication in 1907, and shut down completely in 1922.
The September of 1844 issue featured a review of a new book on natural history for young readers, Elements of Natural History for the Use of Schools and Young Persons, by an author identified only as "Mrs. R. Lee." Mrs. Lee's book does not mention Newfoundlands at all, but the anonymous reviewer of her book, in commenting vaguely on dogs at the end of the review, has this to say:
To the authoress's anecdotes of the dog we cannot refrain from adding one of our own. A neighbour had a Newfoundland dog which occupied at night a doghouse in a stableyard. The house was left one night with its door toward the west, and a rain that came on before morning being driven into it by a westerly wind, its occupant got out and pushed it round, as was shown by innumerable footmarks on the ground and side of the house, by standing on his hinder legs and pushing with his fore ones. (291)