1938 (pub.): Shooting at the Black Dog of Gunthorpe

When researching the topic of Black Dog legends and encounters in Lincolnshire, England, for her 1938 article on the topic, Ethel Rudkin received a letter from the village of Gunthorpe from a man she only identifies as "C.K.S.": 

"Your enquiry as to the Black Dog takes me back to the days of my childhood when we were told that 'Black Dog wi' eyes as big as teasorsers would be hevin' owd on us if we didn't be'ave we sens!' There was said to be a Black Dog down Intake Lane, while another ' roamed all ower'd fields at neet time.' Sammy Prettle (Prettywell, now dead) 'once shot at it ageean th' big willow tree an' 'is gun-barrel busted an' 'e caame 'oame white as a sheat!' The willow tree stood on the bank of the Gunthorpe Drain towards Haxey Station. It is now gone. These are the stories heard in my boyhood about 1882."

My Source

        This account was taken from a collection of Lincolnshire Black Dog accounts published by Folklorist Ethel Rudkin in 1938. The purpose of her study was to record the beliefs in the county regarding the phantom-like Black Dogs.