[ 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 August 1801 had a notice, in the "Domestic Occurrences" section, about a Newfoundland performing cadaver recovery:
Friday, July 3
The body of a woman was this evening drawn out of the Serpentine river, by a Newfoundland-dog. A letter was found in the pocket of the deceased, which stated her to be a French emigrant; that she had resided in Wimpole-street, and had suffered various and severe afflictions. The Marquis of Hereford, who, with many others, was drawn to the spot, ordered the body to be taken to the Humane Society Recovery House, near the Magazine; where every means of resuscitation were tried, but without success.
The Serpentine River, usually referred to just as "the Serpentine," is a lake in Hyde Park, in central London; suicides there were not uncommon in the 18th and 19th Centuries.
As noted elsewhere here at The Cultured Newf, the "Humane Society" in Britain was and is NOT an organization devoted to animal welfare, as it is in the United States, but to rescuing people from drowning. Hence the title of Sir Edwin Landseer's famous painting of a vigilant Newfoundland on a stone pier, A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society.
The "Marquis of Hereford" would have been Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford (1743 - 1822), a British politician and official in the royal household.