'T is Hobson's choice,—take that or none.
Thomas Ward (1577-1639): England's Reformation, chap. iv. p. 326.
Intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle.
Lord Coleridge remarked that Maule told him what he said in the "black beetle" matter: "Creswell, who had been his pupil, was on the other side in a case where he was counsel, and was very lofty in his manner. Maule appealed to the court: 'My lords, we are vertebrate animals, we are mammalia! My learned friend's manner would be intolerable in Almighty God to a black beetle.'" (Repeated to a member of the legal profession in the United States.)
It is a far cry to Lochow.
Lochow and the adjacent districts formed the original seat of the Campbells. The expression of "a far cry to Lochow" was proverbial. (Note to Scott's "Rob Roy," chap. xxix.)
Lucid interval.
Bacon: Henry VII. Sidney: On Government, vol. i. chap. ii. sect. 24. Fuller: A Pisgah Sight of Palestine, book iv. chap. ii. South: Sermon, vol. viii. p. 403. Dryden: MacFlecknoe. Mathew Henry: Commentaries, Psalm lxxxviii. Johnson: Life of Lyttelton. Burke: On the French Revolution.
Nisi suadeat intervallis.
Bracton: Folio 1243 and folio 420 b. Register Original, 267 a.