[ Eliot / Scenes of Clerical Life ]
George Eliot (1819 - 1880) was the pen name of English novelist, short story writer, journalist, and poet Mary Anne Evans, one of the most prominent Victorian writers.
In the third of the 3 stories that make up this novel, "Janet's Repentance," we get the following comment about one of the characters, the shiftless Mr. Lowme:
It must be admitted that he was of some service to the town in this station at Mr. Gruby's door, for he and Mr. Landor's Newfoundland dog, who stretched himself and gaped on the opposite causeway, took something from the lifeless air that belonged to the High Street on every day except Saturday.