In the month of May, namely, on May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet meadows and green woods, there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the harmony of birds, praising God in their kind; and for example hereof, Edward Hall hath noted, that King Henry VIII., as in the 3rd of his reign, and divers other years, so namely, in the 7th of his reign, on May-day in the morning, with Queen Katherine his wife, accompanied with many lords and ladies, rode a-maying from Greenwitch to the high ground of Shooter’s hill, where, as they passed by the way, they espied a company of tall yeomen, clothed all in green, with green hoods, and bows and arrows, to the number of two hundred; one being their chieftain, was called Robin Hoode, who required the king and his company to stay and see his men shoot; whereunto the king granting, Robin Hoode whistled, and all the two hundred archers shot off, loosing all at once; and when he whistled again they likewise shot again; their arrows whistled by craft of the head, so that the noise was strange and loud, which greatly delighted the king, queen, and their company.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

I read a dozen of them, and I told him that, although the verses were very fine, the reading caused me more pain than pleasure.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

It was rather a darkening of the spirit which fell back upon itself, to find a more grievous darkness within.
— from Howards End by E. M. (Edward Morgan) Forster

“You’re missing the prettiest part of the trip!” “Pshaw!” retorted Simoun, as he ascended, “I’ve seen so many rivers and landscapes that I’m only interested in those that call up legends.” “As for legends, the Pasig has a few,” observed the captain, who did not relish any depreciation of the river where he navigated and earned his livelihood.
— from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal

We bore the character of doing good only wherever we might come, and of putting a stop to the oppression of nations, and for that reason had even imprisoned the tax-gatherers of Motecusuma: between the warriors of Sempoalla, who accompanied us, and themselves there existed an inimical feeling, already of ancient date, respecting a dispute of territory and boundaries, and these people had no other object in view than to plunder and destroy them, under our protection: there was, indeed, generally speaking, a Mexican garrison in their township, which, however, had returned home, upon the news that we had imprisoned the tax-gatherers; they, therefore, begged of us not to proceed any further, and to be merciful towards them.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain. by Bernal Díaz del Castillo

Whilst the verses of these two poets, treat so reservedly and discreetly of wantonness as they do, methinks they discover it much more openly.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

And longer still shall fame be before it deserts Curius, and Fabricius, and Calatinus, 59 and the two Scipios, and the two Africani, and Maximus, and Marcellus, and Paulus, and Cato, and Lælius, and numberless other heroes; and whoever has caught any resemblance of them, not estimating it by common fame, but by the real applause of good men, may with confidence, when the occasion requires, approach death, on which we are sure that even if the chief good is not continued, at least no evil is.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth by Marcus Tullius Cicero

All day my thoughts were bent upon these speculations, and my imagination scarcely regained a degree of calmness and power of reflection until after a sleep of many hours.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

For a moment amazement held the Domina silent and immoveable: But no sooner did She recover herself, than She exclaimed against sacrilege and impiety, and called the People to rescue a Daughter of the Church.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

A house was built with parquet floors and a weathercock on the roof; a dozen old women were collected from the villages and made to sleep under blankets and sheets of Dutch linen, and given toffee to eat.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“In like manner the expenditure of my household remains, from what I hear, so uncertain that I cannot in any way check it, being always dependent on the goodwill of the person who shall have charge of me for retrenching and disposing of it as he shall think fit.
— from The Last Days of Mary Stuart, and the journal of Bourgoyne her physician by Samuel Cowan

The conclusions derived from a scientific study of the myths have been confirmed and widened by the recent researches and discoveries of archæology.
— from The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature All volumes by Various

"We sure don't want any of them in or on the ship." 9 Despite Jon's desire to get away from this unfriendly world that bore his name, he was careful to see that the signal-marker was set out and functioning, and that the ship's log contained as complete a record of the resources and data on the planet as was required by the Terran Colonial Board.
— from The Planet Mappers by E. Everett (Edward Everett) Evans

Sir David Brewster’s theory of the colour blends which flash from an opal is that “the stone is internally traversed with undulating fissures of microscopic minuteness upon which refraction and decomposition of light takes place.
— from The Magic and Science of Jewels and Stones by Isidore Kozminsky

A pontoon bridge having been prepared, several regiments were ordered to cross the river at daybreak of the 16th of September.
— from Historical Record of the First, or the Royal Regiment of Dragoons Containing an Account of Its Formation in the Reign of King Charles the Second, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1839 by Richard Cannon

Last justice seat held in 1635, extending the limits of the Forest to those of Edward I.—Grant to E. Terringham—Forest surveyed in 1635—Sale of the woods to Sir J. Winter—Disturbances of the Civil War at Coleford, Highmeadow, Ruardean—Adventures of Sir J. Winter at Westbury, Little Dean, Newnham, Lydney—Events on the north side of the Forest—Incidents of the Protectorate, riots and devastations of the Forest—Sir J. Winter’s patent restored—Effects of a great storm—Survey of the Forest in 1662—Mr. J. Pepys and Sir J. Winter on the Forest—The latter resumes his fellings—Inhabitants suggest replanting and enclosing the Forest—Act of 20 Charles II., c. 3—Sir J. Winter’s licence confirmed page viii p. viii CHAPTER III.—
— from The Forest of Dean: An Historical and Descriptive Account by H. G. (Henry George) Nicholls

In the grant of 903 the boundary starts at a brook, the Swyn Brook, and goes along the Harwell Way to the Icenhilde Wey, then up the old wood-way by the east of Harwell Camp to a warren, and so up to the stone on the Ridgeway, then on and back to the Ridgeway, and down on the other side of Harwell Camp to the Icenhilde Wey, farther down to a spring and an elder bed, evidently in the low land.
— from The Icknield Way by Edward Thomas

The bath, as is well known, attained under the Romans a degree of development which, in Europe at all events, it has never reached before or since, and the modern visitor to Rome carries away with him no more impressive memory than that of the Baths of Caracalla.
— from Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4 Sexual Selection In Man by Havelock Ellis