[ "The History of Gallantry" ]
This piece appeared in the London Magazine; or The Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, a monthly publication of news and literature, originally founded in 1732; it closed in 1785, then reopened in 1805. Changing hands and titles a number of times since, it continues to publish today.
In November 1771 the magazine anonymously published a satirical tale under the title "The History of Gallantry: The Amours of Lord Skinflint, a Scotch Peer, not a Mile from Wimpole Street, Cavendish Square." It contains the following reference to a Newfoundland dog:
As Lord William Gor—n, a relation of our present hero, distinguished himself by seducing a matron of the first rank, and then undertaking for her sake a pilgrimage with a knapsack on his back, and a Newfoundland dog at his heels, so Lord Skinflint became remarkable by following low wenches, and making noctural expeditions into the bed-chambers of his maid-servants. (529 - 530)
The above-referenced Lord William Gordon (1744–1823) was a real Scottish nobleman who seemed to be famous primarily for having affairs — including with a married noblewoman, Lady Sarah Bunbury, who had once been courted by King George III — and for fathering illegitimate children.
When the affair between Gordon and Bunbury became known it was widely and salaciously treated in the press. One prominent publication, Gentleman's Magazine, reported in August of 1770 that after the affair ended, Gordon was so upset at the press coverage that he had set out for Rome, "gone with a full determination never to return. He has cut his hair close to his head, carries a knapsack on his back, and intends walking to Rome on foot with no other companion than a very large dog" (vol. 40, p. 390). A later book on the Gordon family, The Gay Gordons: Some Strange Adventures of a Famous Scots Family (London: Chapman & Hall, 1908) by J. M. Bulloch, quotes that passage and inserts "[Newfoundland]" between "large" and "dog." I have not been able to determine where that information comes from, though clearly the "History of Gallantry" article had that breed information from some contemporaneous source.
This scandal did permanent damage to Gordon's military and political career.