[ 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 issue of April, 1880, included an article entitled "The Dog and Its Folklore," by T. F. Thiselton Dyer, in which Newfoundlands are mentioned twice. The first comes in a discussion of the folkloric beliefe that dogs have been said to howl either before a death:
No slight consternation was caused at Worthing, a few years ago, by a Newfoundland dog, the property of a clergyman in the neighbourhood, lying down on the steps of a house and howling piteously, refusing to be driven away. As soon as it was known that a young lady, long an invalid, had died there, so much excitement took place that the occurrence reached the owner of the dog, who came to Worthing to inquire into the truth of it. Unfortunately, however, for the lovers of and believers in the marvellous, it turned out that the dog had accidentally been separated from his master late in the evening, and had been seen running here and there in search of him, and howling at the door of the stable where he put up his horse and other places which he often visited in Worthing. It happened, also, that his master had been in the habit of visiting the particular house where the young lady had died, which at once accounted for the apparent mystery. (490 - 491)
The second reference, metaphorical, occurs in a discussion of legends of spectral dogs:
Once more, there is a notion prevalent in many places that whenever a calamity is at hand, or in localities where some accident or evil deed may have occurred, a spectral dog appears. This is described as often larger than a Newfoundland, being shaggy and black, with large ears and tail. (495)
The author goes on to note that in some parts of England this spectral dog "bears the name of 'Trash'. . . . given to it from the peculiar noise made by its feet when passing along, resembling that of a heavy shoe in a miry road." It is intriguing to think that this may have some connection to the "Gytrash," the name of the spectral dog of northern English folklore that Jane Eyre thinks of when she first spots Mr. Rochester's Newfoundland. Jane Eyre is discussed here at The Cultured Newf.