[ Sporting Magazine ]
The Sporting Magazine (1792 - 1870) is considered the first general sporting magazine, though in its later decades it gave considerable emphasis to fox hunting. But it published all manner of sporting-related material, from news stories to poetry to calendars of upcoming sporting events. The subtitle of this magazine was "Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the Chace, and every other Diversion interesting to the Man of Pleasure, Enterprize and Spirit." [more at Wikipedia]
The March, 1847, issue carried an article entitled "Sportsmen and Sporting Men," with the author identified by a pseudonym, "Harry Hieover" (who was a fairly regular contributor to this magazine; his real name was Charles Bindley [1795/6 - 1859], an English writer on sporting topics). The article is essentially a classist argument that lower-class people in Britain are not capable of enjoying the sporting life in the way that true "gentlemen" and nobility do. The argument, and this article, are offensively classist to modern American ears, and probably to a lot of ears in today's Britain as well, though I suspect many readers of this article back in the day nodded in knowing agreement.
The author uses the well-known character of the Newfoundland dog, at one one juncture in his essay, to make his point about the fundamental and inescapable difference in character between the lower classes and the gentry/nobility:
It may sound philanthropic and patriotic to wish to see the peer and the artizan each participating in the same enjoyment. Such things ought to be, we know; but, constituted as the minds of the generality of the lower orders of our country are, such things cannot be, if decorum is worthy consideration. If the bear possessed the qualities of disposition and the habits of the Newfoundland dog, he might be an equally welcome occasional companion; but he does not, nor has he grace enough to assume the habits of one if placed in the same situation.(178)