TENPENCE TO THE SHILLING, a vulgar phrase denoting a deficiency in intellect.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

We never entirely appreciated, before, what a very pleasant den our state-room is; nor how jolly it is to sit at dinner in one’s own seat in one’s own cabin, and hold familiar conversation with friends in one’s own language.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

They were the oldest residents in the town, and people said they possessed a ton of gold, yet they were always very plainly dressed, in the coarsest stuff, but with linen of the purest whiteness.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

For the conduct of the war: at the first, men rested extremely upon number; they did put the wars likewise upon main force and valor, pointing days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon an even match; and they were more ignorant in 300 ranging and arraying their battles.
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon

This, as it stood, was a very pretty denunciation, and magnanimous withal; but Mr. Bob Sawyer rather weakened its effect, by winding up with some general observations concerning the punching of heads and knocking out of eyes, which were commonplace by comparison.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

"They are very pretty dragons," he had written to Winifred, "and little Anne is like a princess shut in a tower."
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey

"Ne porty ploo—habit militair—bonn—bonny a voo, prenny dehors"—were Jos's words—the coat and cap were at last his property.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

“A very pleasant dinner, Mr. Blake, wasn’t it?”
— from The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

But betimes up this morning, and, getting ready, we by coach to Holborne, where, at nine o’clock, they set out, and I and my man Will on horseback, by my wife, to Barnett; a very pleasant day; and there dined with her company, which was very good; a pretty gentlewoman with her, that goes but to Huntington, and a neighbour to us in towne.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

He said he was a Venetian, Prince de Varese, a descendant of the condottiere Facino Cane, whose conquests fell into the hands of the Duke of Milan.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Anatole Cerfberr

Aunt Jerusha and Venus peeped discreetly round the corner of the house, as usual, to see them start.
— from The Open Question: A Tale of Two Temperaments by Elizabeth Robins

So great was the caution observed by the members of the secret organization that the wary and vigilant police did not dream of its existence.
— from Rabbi and Priest: A Story by Milton Goldsmith

We went back to the trader's house, where five young girls danced a very pretty dance, making a hissing sound for music.
— from Through the South Seas with Jack London by Martin Johnson

Some critics have regarded it as a votive picture dedicated in a private chapel to commemorate the recovery from sickness or the death of a child.
— from The Old Masters and Their Pictures, For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art by Sarah Tytler

There is a gray satin on the bed there, that will make a very pretty dinner-dress.
— from Theo: A Sprightly Love Story by Frances Hodgson Burnett

“Well, ’tis a very proper deed, Hans, and I am glad to see in you so right a feeling,” said Mrs Louvaine.
— from It Might Have Been: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot by Emily Sarah Holt

When, towards evening, that king of the desert fell, the noise of its fall echoed in the distance, and the solitude uttered a sort of moan; the soldier shuddered as if he had heard a voice predicting disaster.
— from Honoré de Balzac by Honoré de Balzac

Inde et nos Vicarius generalis Maurianne prefatus partibus premissis diem assignamus veneris proximam decimam nonam presentis mensis nisi etc.
— from The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals by E. P. (Edward Payson) Evans

Schopenhauer was a pioneer in the game of impudent assertion, very properly disregarded by his own generation; Shaw’s dementia samples this age.
— from Boon, The Mind of the Race, The Wild Asses of the Devil, and The Last Trump; Being a First Selection from the Literary Remains of George Boon, Appropriate to the Times by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

But Mr. Rivers went to the length of being very glad that it was in his possession, and added to it a very pretty drawing of the same size, by a noted master, which had been in the water-colour exhibition, and, while Norman walked away, well pleased, Mr. Rivers began to extol him to his father, as a very superior and sensible young man, of great promise, and began to wish George had the same turn.
— from The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations by Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge