Literary notes about Frith (AI summary)
The word "frith" is used with considerable versatility in literature. It designates natural features—often a body of water or estuary that marks a geographical boundary or passage—as seen in descriptions of the Frith of Forth, where its calm, almost otherworldly quality is evoked [1, 2], and in passages that note narrow waterways serving as strategic or symbolic divides [3, 4, 5]. At the same time, "Frith" functions as a surname or personal identifier for characters who add color and distinction to narratives, from the roguish Mary Frith to figures like Inspector Frith, whose names carry a certain rugged or familiar quality [6, 7, 8]. The term also graces the world of art and urban life, appearing in the titles of streets, galleries, and even the signatures of celebrated artists, thereby linking the word to both a sense of place and creative accomplishment [9, 10, 11].
- And, from the slopes of Inveresk, gazed down Upon the Frith of Forth, whose waveless tide Glow'd like a plain of fire.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 360, October 1845 by Various - The window overlooked the North Loch and the swelling bank beyond, and the distant frith and the hills of Fife.
— from Ringan Gilhaize, or, The Covenanters by John Galt - Here we made enquiries about captain Lismahago, of whom hearing no tidings, we proceeded by the Solway Frith, to Carlisle.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. Smollett - The Clyde we left a little on our left-hand at Dunbritton, where it widens into an aestuary or frith, being augmented by the influx of the Leven.
— from The Expedition of Humphry Clinker by T. Smollett - We find next the sea, at almost any point along the Frith, the turnpike road, generally nearly level, and beautifully smooth.
— from The Recreations of a Country Parson by Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd - " Inspector Frith spoke with some warmth; he had little for which to thank the popular Press.
— from The Grey Room by Eden Phillpotts - She was not, in fact, a highway robber at all; nor, of course, was her name Cutpurse, but Mary Frith.
— from Half-hours with the Highwaymen - Vol 1 Picturesque Biographies and Traditions of the "Knights of the Road" by Charles G. (Charles George) Harper - [457] A notorious character of those days, whose real name was Mary Frith.
— from Thomas Dekker Edited, with an introduction and notes by Ernest Rhys. Unexpurgated Edition by Thomas Dekker - *Ford’s Hospital, Coventry [Photograph by Frith.]
— from The Mediæval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay - For each of these remarkable canvases Mr. Frith received the by no means extravagant sum of twenty pounds, that being the price demanded by him.
— from Dickens and His Illustrators Cruikshank, Seymour, Buss, "Phiz," Cattermole, Leech, Doyle, Stanfield, Maclise, Tenniel, Frank Stone, Landseer, Palmer, Topham, Marcus Stone, and Luke Fildes 2nd. Ed. by Frederic George Kitton - Frith Street extending south from Soho Square has an air of genteel poverty.
— from Nooks and Corners of Old London by Charles Hemstreet
