Every step we now advance is on heroic ground; and before entering Rimini near Savignano, we passed over the Rubicon, a little insignificant stream, though once the boundary of the most powerful state in the world.
— from Journal of a Tour in the Years 1828-1829, through Styria, Carniola, and Italy, whilst Accompanying the Late Sir Humphrey Davy by J. J. Tobin

sith the heat is neuer so vehement on the hill top as in the vallie, because the reuerberation of the sunne beames either reacheth not so farre as the highest, or else becommeth not so strong as when it is reflected upon the lower soile.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

This handfull of leaues I offer to your view, to the leaues on trees I compare, which as they cannot grow of themselues except they haue some branches or boughes to cleaue too, & with whose iuice and sap they be euermore recreated & nourisht: so except these vnpolisht leaues of mine haue some braunch of Nobilitie whereon to depend and cleaue, and with the vigorous nutriment of whose authorized commendation they may be continually fosterd and refresht, neuer wil they grow to the worlds good liking, but forthwith fade and die on the first houre of their birth.
— from The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse by Thomas Nash

From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports of China where our European ships usually come: but being resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especially in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could not fail of being entirely ruined; nay, so great was my fear in particular, as to my being taken by them, that I believe firmly I would much rather have chosen to fall into the hands of the Spanish Inquisition.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) by Daniel Defoe

That grievous inconvenience also enforceth our nobility, gentry, and communalty to build their houses in the valleys, leaving the high grounds unto their corn and cattle, lest the cold and stormy blasts of winter should breed them greater annoyance; whereas in other regions each one desireth to set his house aloft on the hill, not only to be seen afar off, and cast forth his beams of stately and curious workmanship into every quarter of the country, but also (in hot habitations) for coldness sake of the air, sith the heat is never so vehement on the hill-top as in the valley, because the reverberation of the sun’s beams either reacheth not so far as the highest, or else becometh not so strong as when it is reflected upon the lower soil.
— from Elizabethan England From 'A Description of England,' by William Harrison by William Harrison

The carrying out of such an undertaking in a remote mountainous country, where no railway has yet penetrated and where no great industrial enterprises have yet been established, required no small amount of organising capacity, driving power, and foresight.
— from Kashmir, described by Sir Francis Younghusband, painted by Major E. Molyneux by Younghusband, Francis Edward, Sir

But Ekkehard replied, "neither should I know what to do with it!"
— from Ekkehard: A Tale of the Tenth Century. Vol. 2 (of 2) by Joseph Victor von Scheffel