The earliest I know of is the golden plane-tree and grape vine with bunches of grapes in precious stones, which was given to Darius by Pythius the Lydian, and which shaded the king's couch.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Rustichello of Pisa

Go with me to my tent, where you shall see How hardly I was drawn into this war, How calm and gentle I proceeded still In all my writings.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

There is no monument here, no memorial on which the traveller can have his name carved, no rocky wall on whose surface he can get it painted; so visitors have the turf cut away for that purpose.
— from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. (Hans Christian) Andersen

To use a native statement: “Some of our goods we give in pari ; some we keep back; later on, we gimwali it.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea by Bronislaw Malinowski

"The Representatives remaining at liberty decree: "The Octroi Duties are abolished throughout the extent of the territory of the Republic. "Given in permanent Session, 3d December, 1851.
— from The History of a Crime The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo

Those present began to exhort him to turn to the mother of God, if, peradventure, she would have mercy upon him, and bring him back to the way of salvation.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs by John Foxe

“Infected with the new doctrines,” said a third, eyeing the direction through his glass in passing; “set himself in opposition to the last Marquis, abandoned the estates when he inherited them, and left them to the ruffian herd.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

“O how malicious!” cried he, half laughing, “yet not so immediately do I even request your counsel; something must first be done to qualify you for giving it; penetration, skill and understanding, however amply you possess them, are not sufficient to fit you for the charge; something still more is requisite, you must be invested with fuller powers, you must have a right less disputable, and a title, that not alone, inclination, not even judgment alone must sanctify, but which law must enforce, and rites the most solemn support!”
— from Cecilia; Or, Memoirs of an Heiress — Volume 2 by Fanny Burney

Chart of genera in purple-spored series—Porphyrosporae , Page 330 .
— from Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc. by Charles McIlvaine

“Well, if you can get in peaceably, so much the better,” said the magistrate.
— from The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper

I know that the ring of rocket-shapes has got it paralyzed so it can't act.
— from The Green Odyssey by Philip José Farmer

“God, in permitting such crimes, is causing the wrath of heaven to play over the world like summer lightning, that ungrateful men, who fling the Gospel to the winds, may see what is in store for them.”
— from Luther, vol. 5 of 6 by Hartmann Grisar