So I am (like an old rook, who is ruined by gaming) forced to live on the good fortune of the pushing young men, whose fancies are so vigorous that they ensure their success in their adventures with Muses, by their strength and imagination.

In the Ukraine of Russia the large bandoura with its almost circular face and as many as thirty strings (combining a zither function with fingered lute technique) is a popular short-necked lute, […]

He glanced across at Robin. Bright blue gaze locking with thoughtful grey. ‘Heading this way at fifty mph or so. But what we really need is news from Zhicheng.’ His finger moved the equivalent of five hundred miles upriver towards the Three Gorges. ‘Whatever is coming down on Anquing, at least three times more will be coming down on there.’ ‘Zhicheng,’ answered Daniel. ‘It’s the next city downriver from the dam.’

[…] a curious little extract from an Athenian letter which appeared in the 'Globe' of Friday last, apparently either written in English by a Greek, or translated into English unidiomatically, and with manifest traces of a foreign original.