There were many cycles of Arthurian romances, chief of which are those of Gawain, Launcelot, Merlin, the Quest of the Holy Grail, and the Death of Arthur.
— from English Literature Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English-Speaking World by William J. (William Joseph) Long

guardabarreras , m. , watchman in charge of a railway crossing.
— from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson

The morning sun of February 18th rose bright and clear over a ruined city.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. (William Tecumseh) Sherman

Looking at me with a double squeeze of souring in his aspect, ‘If the old definition be true (said he), that risibility is the distinguishing characteristic of a rational creature, the English are the most distinguished for rationality of any people I ever knew.’
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. (Tobias) Smollett

All my Eye , a remark of incredulity made in reference to an improbable story; condensation of “ ALL MY EYE AND BETTY MARTIN ,” a vulgar phrase constructed from the commencement of a Roman Catholic prayer to St. Martin, “Oh, mihi, beate Martine,” which in common with many another fell into discredit and ridicule after the Reformation.
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

They wear clothes of a red colour.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. (Edward Theodore Chalmers) Werner

It was the cry of a rabbit caught in a gin.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

That which St Paul, with the logician's cynicism of a Rabbi, carried to its logical conclusion, was nevertheless merely the process of decay which began with the death of the Saviour.—These gospels cannot be read too cautiously; difficulties lurk behind every word they
— from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist Complete Works, Volume Sixteen by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Better than either a pond or stream, unless you can carry out a rather careful exploration of their surroundings, is ground water from a well or spring; though that again is not necessarily safe.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

I knew Naught of thy Chieftain, Roderick Dhu, Save as an outlawed desperate man, The chief of a rebellious clan, Who, in the Regent's court and sight, With ruffian dagger stabbed a knight; Yet this alone might from his part Sever each true and loyal heart.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott

Even when we skirted a clump of cottonwoods and came—through another perfect gate—upon a most amazing small collection of ranch buildings, dying of desertion, I retained perfect control of a rising curiosity.
— from Somewhere in Red Gap by Harry Leon Wilson

I said, "You will come out all right, Colonel, there will be no shell-hole for you."
— from The Great War As I Saw It by Frederick George Scott

A young scout and forest runner ROBERT ROGERS Famous Captain of American Rangers CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE
— from The Rulers of the Lakes: A Story of George and Champlain by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler

Robina's Aunt Evelyn, sitting in her dress and cap of a Red Cross nurse in the big base hospital in Paris, read the wandering, painstaking, very unsuccessful literary effort, laughing, half-crying, and kissed it enthusiastically.
— from Joy in the Morning by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

Let us act in accordance with our intelligence and our conscience, and then we are sure that the disappearance of all kinds of persecution of the Jews and their complete emancipation, so as to be our equals in all rights of citizenship, will form one of the conditions of a real constructive imperial policy.
— from The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 by Various

His energy and professional zeal, however, had been fully employed since 1856 as the Chairman of a Royal Commission which had been appointed to inquire into the question of the manning of the Navy.
— from Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir by Biddulph, Elizabeth Philippa, Baroness

Receiving, for the discharge of his duty, a couple of guineas a week from the proprietors of the journal in question, he was enabled, as I need scarcely say, to make such a show in Oraa's camp as only a Christino general officer, or at the very least a colonel of a regiment, can afford to keep up.
— from Burlesques by William Makepeace Thackeray

And always flowers in the window, and always a yellow cat on a red cushion.
— from Rosin the Beau by Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

Now, bearing all this in mind, would it not be a prodigy if an unstocked island did not in the course of ages receive colonists from coasts whence the currents flow, trees are drifted and birds are driven by gales.
— from More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 A Record of His Work in a Series of Hitherto Unpublished Letters by Charles Darwin

On a chair by the door as we go out are several pads, consisting of a rubber cloth faced with wool.
— from An American at Oxford by John Corbin