In the news, January 1800
A remarkable attempt was made on Saturday night, about ten o'clock, to commit a robbery upon a dog: This faithful animal, it seems, is the property of one Porson, of Church-street, Bethnal-green, who, working at a Factory at Bow, does not return home above once in a month, but has for a long time past made a practice of sending his mother half-a-guinea a week by his dog, who has always brought the deposit safe in his mouth. Talking lately of the circumstance in a Public-house, a person was induced to stop the animal on Saturday night, near the mother's house, when, in making the attempt, he was so much bitten, that it is thought he will lose the use of one of his fingers; and, by the interference of a neighbour, who knew the dog's errand, was obliged to relinquish his fraudulent design.