Besides, the mercer bringing home goods so late at night to a customer, and being locked up with her, seemed so inconsistent with innocence, that she could not help being of opinion, that the cause must be bad indeed which had no better plea for it's defence.
— from The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless by Eliza Fowler Haywood

In the afternoon we had, for a few hours, variable light airs next to a calm; after which we got a wind from the N.E., blowing fresh and in squalls, attended with dark gloomy weather, and some rain.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 14 by Robert Kerr

We had variable light airs next to a calm, and thick foggy weather, till half-past seven o'clock in the evening of the 22d, when we got a fine breeze at north, and the weather was so clear that we could see two or three leagues round us.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time by Robert Kerr

We had variable light airs next to a calm all this day, and the weather was fair and clear till towards the evening, when it became cloudy with snow-showers, and the air very cold.
— from A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15 Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time by Robert Kerr