[…] briar and bramble shoots lay athwart one’s path with thorns like arrowheads often concealed in tangles of grass and willowherb and cow parsley, while underlying this rankness, like a reminder of a more elegant epoch, one was aware at times of Howard’s cultivation, rose and magnolia and peony continued to flower […]

Cutting off the armsbearers, who were young men, required fortitude which few religious groups exhibit — especially in America where numbers are important.

[…] a wide range of creative seafood dishes (the Hawaiian-style poke salad with ahi tuna is a local favorite).

Dismounting from his horse, he then takes from his leggin the butcher-knife that he always carries with him, and sticks the animal in the throat.