‘Poor little tender-heart,’ said Ham, in a low voice. ‘Martha has overset her, altogether.’

One of his earliest recollections.

• Thomas Babington Macaulay.

It was the singular room which Carlyle had constructed in the hopes that he could shut out all the noises of the universe, the crowing of cocks, and the jingling of a young lady's five-finger exercise in particular.

The wind was bracingly cold.