something to record their time hereupon

I wonder if the people who spray semi-unintelligible characters on lamp-posts ever look down and notice the similar markings left by dogs around the bottom foot or so of the post? There's a series of nonsense-marked metal posts around Doune Terrace where (though meaningless) the nice red paint used for the markings glows marvellously in the evening and probably has a nice threatening air about it in the minds of the expensively-vehicled residents which no amount of patrols by horse-mounted polices can dispel.