Spur

“ Sir,—I should by no means recommend a young lady to wear a spur when learning in a riding-school, but from my own experience I strongly advise all girls beginning to ride on the road never to mount their steeds without a sharp spur on their left boot. ”

“ Right at the top of the spur there is one patch of ground, measuring, it may be, two hundred yards each way, from which one can see a long way in every direction. From this patch, the ground droops a little towards the English side and stretches away fairly flat towards the enemy side, but one can see far either way, and to have this power of seeing, both sides fought desperately. ”

“ How far its sharp hard edges and spurs may extend on either side you never can tell unless one of them rips open your hull. The best way to avoid running into a spur is to turn and run the other way. An iceberg carries neither lights, lighthouses, buoys, nor sirens. ”

“ It is a suggestive circumstance that gaps, other than valleys, are almost invariably found either in the north or south walls, or in both, and seldom in other positions. The buttress, or long-extending spur, is a feature frequently associated with the ring- plain rampart, as are also numbers of what, for the lack of a better name, must be termed little hillocks, which generally radiate in long rows from the outer foot of the slope. ”

“ Power O'Donoghue in your last issue, by pressure. The term "box spur" is usually applied to spurs that fit into spring boxes or sockets in the heels of the boots; a spur with a spring sheath over the point is usually called a "sheath spur"; for hunting, anything that will act as a goad will answer the desired purpose, but for park or road riding the spur should be one with which a very slight touch or a sharp stroke can be given, as may be required. I know that the spur with a five-pointed rowel is preferred by ladies who have tried it to any other ”

“ This is especially 80 the case with regard to the props or spurs, which are absolutely useless in reality, but are of the highest importance as an expression of safety. And this will farther appear when we observe that they have been above quite arbitrarily supposed to be of a triangular form. Why triangular? Why should not the spur be made wider and stronger, so as to occupy the whole width of the angle of the square, and to become a complete expansion of Xb to the edge of the square? ”

“ Each boy has also a large pair of spurs with rowels two inches long, and little bells to them, so that when the boy walks the spurs roll along upon the ground or floor, and the little bells make quite a noise. ”

“ Now, if throughout the run the rider has never once touched his faithful horse with spurs, and if on reaching this fence both rowels suddenly are made to prick him, in an instant he understands the friendly hint, and accordingly, by exerting much greater powers than he had intended, he saves himself and his benefactor from a bad fall. In a few cases of this nature the use of spurs to a sportsman is not only excusable, but invaluable. ”

“ These spurs are usually parallel to the main ranges, although isolated spurs occur which extend at right angles to the main range. The tops of the higher elevations are covered with snow for the entire year. ”

“ No horseman would consider himself properly equipped without a pair of enormous spurs, the rowels standing out three or four inches from the heel, and the spurs containing altogether fully a pound of silver. ”

“ The advantage of spurs founded on the bottom over floating spurs or breakwaters is chiefly in the great deposits of silt which occur both above and below the latter, and which soon form an adequate protection to them from the stream. ”

“ When I envied a man's spurs then they were indeed worth coveting. ”

“ The fiords of the Inside Passage furnish all gradations from typical overlapping spurs to aligned spurs, and to straight, smoothed 'Canals' from which all semblance of spurs has been erased. In the latter case the valley walls themselves often possess a double slope, steep and even precipitous below, more gentle above. The steepened lower slope has the appearance of having been incised in a valley whose remnant is represented by the upper more gentle slope. ”

“ I am like an anchored vessel with the sails spread and the wind filling them. The anchor must part, or the sails be torn to shreds. The anchor is in the earth, the breath of heaven is in the sails. I know which ought to go. ”

“ We say 'anchor,' or 'let go the anchor,' or 'dropped the anchor,' or some such reasonable expression, and not 'cast anchor,' as if a bit of iron, weighing two or three tons, is to be jerked about like a stone big enough to kill a bird with. As for the 'cable-rope,' as you call it, we say the 'cable,' or 'the chain,' or 'the ground tackle,' according to reason and circumstances. You never hear a real 'salt' flourishing his 'cable-ropes,' and his 'casting-anchors,' which are altogether too sentimental and particular for his manner of speaking. ”

“ Sailless at anchor ride, looming so large in the mist.
Vanished, too, are the thoughts, the dim, unsatisfied longings;
Sunk are the turrets of cloud into the ocean of dreams;
While in a haven of rest my heart is riding at anchor,
Held by the chains of love, held by the anchors of trust! ”

“ To anchor on a lee shore in a gale of wind would be an act of madness that I could never excuse to the underwriters, under any circumstances, so long as a rag can be set; but to anchor close to breakers would be insanity. ”

“ H. T. Crofton, an able pontist, who sent me his notes on bridges, asking me to cull from them whatever information my own research had missed. A hobby is the only altruism.
[113] Springing. The plane of demarcation between the ring and the abutment is called the “springing” of an arch. A “ring” is the compressed arc of materials known as archstones or voussoirs; and the “springing” marks the place where a ring starts out on its upward curve from a pier or from an abutment. ”

“ In the Landskip you see a Town, out of the Gates of which cometh a Coach Riding over a Bridge through the Country, behind, before, and between the Trees till out of sight; coming on the Bridge, a Gentleman sitting on the Coach, civilly salutes the Spectating Company, the turning of the Wheels and motion of the Horses are plainly seen as if natural (p. 217) and Alive. There Cometh also from the Town Gate a Hunter on Horseback, with his Doggs behind him, and his Horn at his side, coming to the Bridge he taketh up his Horn and Blows it that it is distinctly heard by all the Spectators. ”

“ This is the final word of a ship’s ended journey, the closing word of her toil and of her achievement. In a life whose worth is told out in passages from port to port, the splash of the anchor’s fall and the thunderous rumbling of the chain are like the closing of a distinct period, of which she seems conscious with a slight deep shudder of all her frame. ”

“ Head erect, with swinging stride, they press their cushioned feet on dusty road or chiseled stone of ancient bridge. The hauteur of their bearing—an hauteur ill-befitting their station in life—seems to bespeak a pride that they can walk where Emperors rode in ages past. ”

“ The ship sailed on with a fair wind for the space of fifty days, at the end of which time we cast anchor over against a great city, wherein were much people, none could tell their number save God. No sooner had we come to an anchor, than we were boarded by officers from the King of the city; who said to the merchants, “Our King gives you joy of your safety and sends you this scroll of paper, on which each one of you is to write a line. ”

“ In short, to me a wonder of a bridge.
The sculler noted my eager astonished look, and said, as if in answer to my thoughts—
"Yes, it is a pretty bridge, isn't it? Even the up-stream bridges, which are so much smaller, are scarcely daintier, and the down-stream ones are scarcely more dignified and stately." ”

“ BRIDGE. A narrow gangway between two hatchways, sometimes termed a bridge. Military bridges to afford a passage across a river for troops, are constructed with boats, pontoons, casks, trusses, trestles, [134] &c. Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. Also, the middle part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which the fires are banked. Also, a narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle, across the bottom of a channel, so as to occasion a shoal over which the tide ripples. ”

“ One Pump and that not half workd kept the ship clear all night. In the morn we weighd with a fine breeze of wind and steerd along ashore among innumerable shoals, the boats keeping ahead and examining every appearance of a harbour which presented itself; nothing however was met with which could possibly suit our situation, bad as it was, so at night we came to an anchor. ”

“ From where I stand women in light evening wraps may be seen on the arms of officers, crossing the white paving-stones of the bridge, or seated in the stern of the long imperial barques, softly propelled by the oarsmen. ”

“ He weighs anchor in the midst of tempestuous gales; by night and day he spreads his sheets to the winds; he repairs as he goes along such damage as his vessel may have sustained from the storm; and when he at last approaches the term of his voyage, he darts onward to the shore as if he already descried a port. ”

“ Now the bridge may be crossed, and a further automatic kind of verdict is given, for to those fit for heaven the bridge appears a wide and easy way; to the unfortunate ones doomed to destruction it seems but of a hair's breadth, and stepping on to it they straightway fall into the yawning gulf beneath. ”

“ Like a ship at anchor, with all sails set and filled by a strong and ever increasing gale, it was inevitably certain that before long either the anchor must give, or the white sails of her reputation be blown to rags and tatters—bitter state, indeed, for a wife and mother! ”

“ The rope or chain used to support a yard which does not travel up and down a mast. The slings of a yard also imply that part on which the slings are placed.—Slings is also a term on the American coast for drams, or a drink of spirits and water ”

“ In our quiet days a bridge of stone has replaced the wooden bridge which rose and fell, but the old oak doors which once barred the archway leading to the house are still in position, and we can see upon them the marks of musket-balls fired at the defenders of the place in troublous times. ”

“ And when the second head said: "The smaller the more dangerous; what's that?" he said at once, "A bridge." And last, the third head said: "When does the dead carry the living, riddle me that?" Then the young man answered up at once and said: "When a ship sails on the sea with men inside her." ”

“ By watching the men [Pg 323] ahead we know when we must be ready to let out rope, so as to enable the man in front of us, in his turn, to make a long step across a dubitable crevasse or a short jump, and when we shall have to pause and protect him with the rope, as his turn comes to start delicately over a presumed bridge. ”

“ I shall conclude, therefore, with the leave which this fellow took of our ship; saying he should know it again, and would not put off from the shore to relieve it in any distress whatever. It will, doubtless, surprise many of my readers to hear that, when we lay at anchor within a mile or two of a town several days together, and even in the most temperate weather, we should frequently want fresh provisions and herbage, and other emoluments of the shore, as much as if we had been a hundred leagues from land. ”

“ She proceeds towards the beech ridge, but is stayed at the foot by a rapid-running stream.
Nor bridge, nor stone, nor log, how shall I cross?
Yon o'erturned hemlock, whose wide-spreading root
Stands like a wattled pier from which the bridge
Springs all abrupt and strait, and hangs withal
So high that hardihood itself looks blank—
I scarce may tempt, worn as I am, and spent. ”

“ At what seems to be a long distance from the shore the great ship will cast anchor and send out its rowboats filled with passengers, mail, and provisions. How eagerly the homesick people will crowd around the new arrivals and welcome them! ”

“ If the sills of a bridge are laid directly upon the dry walls of an abutment, or upon a heavy plank, the jar of passing teams soon displaces some of the stones, and brings undue strain upon certain portions of the wall. ”

“ Leaving his boat at the mole, he passed up to the quay, and thence to the city. As he progressed, he found the whole city, from one end to the other, rife with those preparations which, previous to his landing, he had observed along the shore; and he became curious to know what could be the object of so formidable an armament. ”

“ To bring the ship close to the wind.—Come to an anchor. To let go the anchor.—Come up! with a rope or tackle, is to slack it off.—Comes up, with the helm. A close-hauled ship comes up (to her course) as the wind changes in her favour. To come up with or overhaul a vessel chased.—Come up the capstan. ”

“ An anchor is now carried out to hold us in position when we make a new start; more ropes are taken to the shore, two hitched to the bow and one to the stern. Straight before us is a narrow passage through which the water comes in foaming ridges with extraordinary rapidity. ”

“ While passing under the garden-wall, the peasant sailor, before he trusts his boat or timber-raft to the rocks and rapids, kneels down and prays for protection from danger, and a safe passage through the arches of the Bridge. ”

“ When one hires two of them, the speed is equal to that of a horse in full trot. As the houses have, besides the front entry towards the water, a side door or exit upon the street, one can go, it is true, everywhere by land ”