https://archive.org/details/reliquesancient06percgoog/page/n21/mode/1up page xv The Minstrels ſeem to have been the genuine ſucceſſors of the ancient Bards, who united the arts of Poetry and Muſic, and ſung verſes to the harp, of their own compoſing. […] https://archive.org/details/reliquesancient06percgoog/page/n22/mode/1up page xvi [T]he Minſtrels continued a diſtinct order of men, and got their livelihood by ſinging verſes to the harp, at the houſes of the great.

I hear that you are without a wife at the present time. How would you like a wrigglesome bed-warmer, just fourteen and in the prime of her looks?

38 short suits fit me right off the rack.

[…] and when a couple of insurgents ran in to make the capture she malleted them with her rifle.