[ Dickens / Martin Chuzzlewit ]
Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) is of course one of the giants of British Literature, a hugely popular novelist and short-story writer in his day, now probably best known for "A Christmas Carol" and novels such as Bleak House, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and others. Dickens was also editor and owner of two popular magazines at different points.
Dickens was also a great lover of dogs, and owned at least two Newfoundlands in his lifetime.
This novel features two mentions of a Newfoundland. The first is uttered by one of the novel's lower-class characters, whose rough dialect Dickens reproduces:
"But," she says, the tears a-fillin in her eyes, "you knows much betterer than me, with your experienge, how little puts us out. A Punch's show," she says, "a chimbley sweep, a newfundlan dog, or a drunkin man a-comin round the corner sharp may do it."
[A "Punch's show" would be a puppet show, as in Punch and Judy.]
The second mention occurs when one of the characters walks into an inn on a very rainy night; he is soaked through:
"A bad night!" observed the hostess cheerfully.
The traveller shook himself like a Newfoundland dog, and said it was, rather.
See also this brief note regarding Dickens and Newfies here at The Cultured Newf.