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Burthen   Listen
noun
Burthen  n., v. t.  See Burden. (Archaic)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Burthen" Quotes from Famous Books



... was peace which had occasioned the fall in the value of all agricultural produce? Or could any man venture to assert that the difficulties and sufferings of the manufacturing classes had any other cause than a prodigious and enormous burthen of taxation? He was much gratified at seeing the royal Dukes so active in promoting a generous and laudable undertaking, and he hoped he should not be understood as treating them with disrespect when ...
— The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, G.C.B., Admiral of the Red, Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, Etc., Etc. • Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald

... The burthen of all the pamphlets of this period dealing with the land question, was an attack on landowners for their excessive desire to throw land into grass. One published in 1727 has this passage: "By running into the fancy of grazing after the ...
— The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) - With Notices Of Earlier Irish Famines • John O'Rourke

... defrayed by taxation. The people of Surry county stated "that ye last Assembly (before the rebellion) continued many years and by their frequent meeting, being once every yeare, hath been a continuall charge and burthen to the poore inhabitants of this collony; and that the burgesses of the said Assembly had 150lb tobacco p day for each member, they usually continueing there three or 4 weeks togither, did arise to a ...
— Patrician and Plebeian - Or The Origin and Development of the Social Classes of the Old Dominion • Thomas J. Wertenbaker

... happiness with a sort of fatherly pleasure. Perhaps he felt that he would have liked to have something on his own arm besides a shawl (the people laughed at seeing the gawky young officer carrying this female burthen); but William Dobbin was very little addicted to selfish calculation at all; and so long as his friend was enjoying himself, how should he be discontented? And the truth is, that of all the delights of the Gardens; of the hundred thousand extra lamps, which were always ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... canoe rose, it was free from its burthen, and bottom upwards; and Mrs. White found herself directly beneath it, painfully endeavoring to extricate herself, enduring dreadful agony in ...
— Woman on the American Frontier • William Worthington Fowler

... and tear of four hundred horses, as well as of fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the same quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be charged only the maintenance of six or eight men, and the wear and tear of a ship of two hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the superior risk, or the difference of the insurance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between those two places, therefore, but by land-carriage, as no goods could be transported from the one to the other, except such whose ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... [Greek: hypsos] you choose absurdly to mean sublimity in the modern sense, then it will suffice for us that we challenge you to the production of one instance which truly and incontestably embodies that quality.[11] The burthen of proof rests upon you who affirm, not upon us who deny. Meantime, as a kind of choke-pear, we leave with the Homeric adorer this one brace of portraits, or hints for such a brace, which we commend to his comparison, as Hamlet did the portraits of the two brothers to his besotted mother. We ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... 1667. We set sail from Amsterdam, intending for the East-Indies; our ship had to name the place from whence we came, the Amsterdam burthen 350. Tun, and having a fair gale of Wind, on the 27 of May following we had a sight of the high Peak Tenriffe belonging to the Canaries, we have touched at the Island Palma, but having endeavoured it twice, and finding ...
— The Isle Of Pines (1668) - and, An Essay in Bibliography by W. C. Ford • Henry Neville

... papers drawn, you may even burthen the purchase with your interest,' said Otto. 'Let it be assured to ...
— Prince Otto • Robert Louis Stevenson

... the difference in the argument. To exasperate the poor Catholic still more, the rich graziers of the parish, or the squire in his parish, pay no tithe at all for their grass land. Agistment tithe is abolished in Ireland, and the burthen of supporting two Churches seems to devolve upon the poorer Catholics, struggling with plough and spade in small scraps of dearly-rented land. Tithes seem to be collected in a more harsh manner than they are collected in England. The minute sub-divisions ...
— Peter Plymley's Letters and Selected Essays • Sydney Smith

... tyrant of the West. He was sawn asunder by a fish-bone, and immediately the brightness of Iran changed to gloom. Ganymede and Adonis, like Osiris, were hurried off in all their strength and beauty; the premature death of Linus, the burthen of the ancient lament of Greece, was like that of the Persian Siamek, the Bithynian Hylas, and the Egyptian Maneros, Son of Menes or the Eternal. The elegy called Maneros was sung at Egyptian banquets, and an effigy enclosed within a diminutive Sarcophagus was handed round to ...
— Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry • Albert Pike

... I shall not be inclined to pay it any great compliment. The people are satisfied to trust themselves with the exercise of their own privileges, and do not desire this kind intervention of the House of Commons to free them from the burthen. They are certainly in the right. They ought not to trust the House of Commons with a power over their franchises; because the constitution, which placed two other co-ordinate powers to control it, reposed no such confidence in that ...
— Thoughts on the Present Discontents - and Speeches • Edmund Burke

... and much dilapidated already:—under the continuous burrowing of the crawfish it had sunk greatly on one side, tilting as if about to fall. Out from its zigzag fissurings of brick and plaster, a sinister voice seemed to come:—"Go thou and do likewise! ... Earth groans with her burthen even now,—the burthen of Man: she holds ...
— Chita: A Memory of Last Island • Lafcadio Hearn

... not see them, uncertain what they want, and always asking for something new, as if they could get rid of the burthen." —Lucretius, iii. 1070.] ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... giant, and proceeded to his fire; he bare upon his back a great burthen, that was twelve swine, tied together, with withies exceeding great wreathed altogether. Adown he threw the dead swine, and himself sate thereby; his fire he gan mend, and great trees laid thereon; the six swine he drew in pieces, and ever he to the woman ...
— Brut • Layamon

... I may say, without the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely practicable, as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels of from 25 to 30 tons burthen, for at least one half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burthen a part of that time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable that for the last twelve months I have given as particular attention ...
— Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters (Selections) • Abraham Lincoln

... responsibilities. But, once married, a man ought forthwith to determine that, so far as his own efforts are concerned, want shall never enter his household; and that his children shall not, in the event of his being removed from the scene of life and labour, be left a burthen upon society. ...
— Thrift • Samuel Smiles

... Tethys, ignorant of her grandson's fate, Drove back, and open laid the range of heaven. Swiftly they hasten,—swiftly fly their heels, Through the thin air, and through opposing clouds. Pois'd by their wings the eastern gales they pass, Which started with them: but their burthen light, Small felt the pressure on the chariot seat: Not what the steeds of Sol had felt before. As ships unpois'd reel tottering through the waves, Light and unsteady, rambling o'er the main; So bounds the car, void of its 'custom'd weight, High-toss'd as though ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... veered From its moorings— tacked and steered For the centre of the current Sailed away and disappeared: And the burthen that it bore From the long-enchanted shore— "Alas! The South Wind and the Sun!" I ...
— Afterwhiles • James Whitcomb Riley

... With the burthen of sound we are laden, Like the bells on the trees of Aden,* When they thrill with a tinkling tone At the Wind from the Holy Throne, Hark, as we move around, We shake off the buds of sound; Thy presence, ...
— Leila, Complete - The Siege of Granada • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... together bit by bit, from the time when, as a captain, he had salved a crazy derelict and had her turned over to him by the underwriters in quittance of his claims. Now he owned a little fleet of good steamships of respectable burthen, and was an esteemed owner. He did not press the Stormberg on Captain Price. The two old ...
— The Second Class Passenger • Perceval Gibbon

... word was made For brutes of burthen, not for birds of prey! Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine,— I am not of ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron

... insipid; and besides the vehemence of desire, the bloom of the sensation had vanished. In like manner, his intellectual ambitions had grown weaker. Years passed; and he was forced to support the burthen of a life in which his mind was unoccupied and his heart ...
— Sentimental Education, Volume II - The History of a Young Man • Gustave Flaubert

... those who lie about tortured with probe and knife are piled up, a weight of horror on his ears that he cannot throw off, cannot forget, and until the stench of festering wounds and anaesthetic drugs has filled the air with its loathsome burthen,—when he at last goes out into the open field, what a world he sees! How beautiful the sky, how bright the sunshine, what "floods of delirious music" pour from the throats of birds, how sweet the ...
— Canyons of the Colorado • J. W. Powell

... to foresee thy thoughts—all the while I was the partner of thy days, and at night my bosom was thy pillow, and I could not sleep from the bliss of thinking thee so near me: thy heart was then indeed away from me: thy thoughts estranged; I was to thee only an encumbrance—a burthen, from which thy sigh was to be free! Can I ever look back, then, to those hours we spent together? All that vast history of the past is but one record of bitterness and shame. And yet I cannot blame thee; it were something ...
— Godolphin, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the road-side, groups of labourers seated among the branches of the trees, and plucking grapes from the vines, which were trailed gracefully from tree to tree and from branch to branch, and drooped with their luxurious burthen of fruit. The scene would have been as perfectly delightful, as it was new and beautiful, but for the squalid looks of the peasantry; more especially of the women. The principal productions of the country seem to be wine and silk. There were vast groves of mulberry-trees between Verona ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson

... freight of human misery, he had to unchain the carcases of the dead from the living. To prevent this, Sir William proposed that no ship should be allowed to carry more than one slave to each ton of her burthen or register, or that a ship of three hundred tons should carry as many slaves and no more. This was, in point of fact, legislating for the slave-owners, inasmuch as the regulations would have the effect of decreasing the rate of mortality; ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... she could, implicit obedience; but it was often a great exertion on her part to do so. Of her own maid she had felt from the first a considerable awe; and to such a degree did this continue, that she could not conceive any fatigue from labour equal to the burthen of her assistance. Being naturally of a disposition both active and obliging, it was quite new to her to have any thing done for her which she could do for herself. For some time she had as great a ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 546, May 12, 1832 • Various

... America represent the camels of the Old World, where the latter are to-day exclusively found. When South America was discovered by the Spaniards, llamas were the only beasts of burthen found there, and, indeed, the only cattle of any kind then and there existing; although horses had formerly abounded and had become extinct in South America at a long ...
— The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 • Various

... lament for the dead of very great power: 'Return, oh! return my beloved, came back—come home!' that was the burthen of it. And there was a passage which said: 'Oh that each tear had a voice and could join with me in calling thee!" And how she sang it, father! I do not think I ever in my life heard anything like it. Ask mother. Even Dada's eyes ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... have a pull at these pomcitrons for my noble Captaine; & if I had a Porters basket full of 'em I would count them no burthen in requitall of some part of the love he ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various

... their deputies, full and free authority, leaue, and power to saile to all parts, countreys, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners and ensignes, with fiue ships of what burthen or quality soeuer they be, and as many mariners or men as they will haue with them in the sayd ships, vpon their owne proper costs and charges, to seeke out, discouer, and finde whatsoeuer isles, countreys, regions ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. • Richard Hakluyt

... help him bear His burthen, as his father helps him now; So he may come to wear That happy child-smile on an old ...
— The Adventures of A Brownie - As Told to My Child by Miss Mulock • Miss Mulock

... ringing with the chorus of the heavenly host, 'Glory to God in the highest,' followed by the joyful outburst, 'Rejoice greatly.' Then comes the revelation of what Christ shall be to His people—'He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd,' 'His yoke is easy and His burthen is light—' with which the first part comes ...
— Story-Lives of Great Musicians • Francis Jameson Rowbotham

... born whereas perpetual cold Makes Tanais hard, and mountains silver old; Had I complained unto a marble stone, Or to the floods bewrayed my bitter moan, I then could bear the burthen of my grief. But even the pride of countries at thy birth, Whilst heavens did smile, did new array the earth With flowers chief. Yet thou, the flower of beauty blessed born, Hast pretty looks, but all attired in scorn. Had I the power to weep ...
— Rosalynde - or, Euphues' Golden Legacy • Thomas Lodge

... of 758 tons burthen, commanded by Captain Richard Pierce, was taken up by the directors of the East India Company to make her third voyage to Coast and Bay. On the 16th of November 1785, she fell down to Gravesend, where she completed her lading. Ladies and other ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous

... became suspicious and uneasy. The note of M. X*** appeared an immense burthen. I got it by heart, and then I threw it in the fire. Instead of asking at once for a passport to Genoa or Leghorn, as I had at first intended, I asked for a passport to Milan. There was a General officer then residing in that city whom I knew; and I thought that if the ...
— Memoirs of the Private Life, Return, and Reign of Napoleon in 1815, Vol. I • Pierre Antoine Edouard Fleury de Chaboulon

... Bastia appeared in sight, rising in an amphitheatre to a ridge studded with villas; the houses of the old town being crowded about the port. Sweeping round the mole, we found ourselves in a diminutive harbour, among vessels of small burthen. This basin is surrounded on three sides by tall gloomy buildings, of the roughest construction, piled up, tier above tier, to a great height. A man-of-war's boat shoves off from the shore in good style, and lands the Count's niece with due honours. Other boats come alongside ...
— Rambles in the Islands of Corsica and Sardinia - with Notices of their History, Antiquities, and Present Condition. • Thomas Forester

... I?" thought I, apostrophising the vessel. "Have you found out at last, that while you swim you've nought to encounter but difficulty and danger? That you enter your haven but to renew your tasks, and again become a beast of burthen; that when empty you must bow to the slightest breeze, and when laden must groan and labour for ...
— The Pacha of Many Tales • Captain Frederick Marryat

... neither did they spin; yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." All things seem to acquire fresh sweetness, and to be clothed with fresh beauty in their sight. They tasted as it were for themselves and us, of all that there ever was pure in human bliss. "In them the burthen of the mystery, the heavy and the weary weight of all this unintelligible world, is lightened." They stood awhile perfect, but they afterwards fell, and were driven out of Paradise, tasting the first fruits of bitterness ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... small confined court-yard he has attempted to give to a private dwelling the appearance of one of those vast temples of which he became enamoured when at Athens. The roof is supported by two massy fluted pilastres, which in size are calculated to bear the burthen of some prodigious dome. The muscular powers of Hercules seem to be here exercised in raising a grasshopper from the ground. The genius of Mons. le G——, unlike the world's charity, does not begin at home, but seems more disposed to display its most successful ...
— The Stranger in France • John Carr

... ever paused to think That all this in your hands I laid Without a fear:- did you not shrink From such a burthen? half afraid, Half wishing that you could divide the risk, or cast ...
— Legends and Lyrics: Second Series • Adelaide Anne Procter

... may do so. But directly they take to themselves the New Republican idea, directly they realize that life is something more than passing the time, that it is constructive with its direction in the future, then these things slip from them as Christian's burthen fell from him at the very outset of his journey. Until grave cause has been shown to the contrary, there is every reason why all men who speak the same language, think the same literature, and are akin in blood and spirit, and who have arrived ...
— Mankind in the Making • H. G. Wells

... hither,' said the duke; 'we will forbear to eat till you return.' Then Orlando went like a doe to kind its fawn and give it food; and presently returned, bringing Adam in his arms; and the duke said: 'Set down your venerable burthen; you are both welcome'; and they fed the old man, and cheered his heart, and he revived, and recovered his ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... me, I may fairly hope that my life will not be protracted many months. Unless, then, I am cursed with an exceptional physical constitution, as I am cursed with an exceptional mental character, I shall not much longer groan under the wearisome burthen of this earthly existence. If it were to be otherwise—if I were to live on to the age most men desire and provide for—I should for once have known whether the miseries of delusive expectation can outweigh ...
— The Lifted Veil • George Eliot

... Georgia said that the clause in the U.S. Constitution relating to direct taxes "was intended to prevent Congress from laying any special tax upon negro slaves, as they might, in this way, so burthen the possessors of them, as to ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... smoking, and telling stories, and singing Dutch and Irish songs, without understanding a word each other said, until the little Hollander was fairly swampt with his own gin and water, and carried off to bed, whooping and hiccuping, and trolling the burthen of a ...
— Tales of a Traveller • Washington Irving

... extended and maintained; that a canal of communication between the arsenal of Venice and the Pass of Mala-Mocco should be dug; and finally that this passage itself should be cleared and deepened sufficiently for vessels of the line of seventy-four tons burthen to pass in ...
— The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Constant

... what the guide asked when we were looking up at the bronze horses on the Arch of Peace. It meant, do you wish to go up there? I give it as a specimen of guide-English. These are the people that make life a burthen to the tourist. Their tongues are never still. They talk forever and forever, and that is the kind of billingsgate they use. Inspiration itself could hardly comprehend them. If they would only show ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... no burthen to him. The sister of Mr Trafford is the Superior of the convent here, and she took Sybil when her mother ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... to carry us swung at the buoy a quarter of a mile offshore, and there were row-boats waiting to take us to her. She was a brig of some 120 tons burthen, and as we came under the stern I saw ...
— Moonfleet • J. Meade Falkner

... now, indeed, my burthen is great, that Plato's name is laid upon me, whom, I must confess, of all philosophers I have ever esteemed most worthy of reverence; and with good reason, since of all philosophers he is the most poetical; yet if he ...
— A Defence of Poesie and Poems • Philip Sidney

... second part of his government he found the toun at the brink of ruine by the cruell dissentions then sprung up betuixt the merchands and trades about their priviledges, bot he lyke ane skilfull Chirurgeon bound up and healled their wounds; and being lykewayes sunck under the burthen of debt he procured such gifts and impositions from his Mat'ie upon all sorts of Liquors that he in a short tyme brought doun their debt from eleven hundredth thousand merks to seven hundredth thousand: and ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder

... evening above mentioned; the Gentile lies but little more than a cable's length from the shore, so that you can almost look down upon her decks. You perceive that she is a handsome craft of some six or seven hundred tons burthen, standing high out of water, in ballast trim, with a black hull, bright waist, and wales painted white. Her bows flare very much, and are sharp and symmetrical; the cut-water stretches, with a graceful ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... and the latter, a Carthaginian slave, and afterwards a freed man. Their fortunes, however, were very different. Plautus, when he was not employed in writing comedies, was fain to hire himself out to do the work of a beast of burthen in a mill; Terence was domesticated with the elder Scipio and his bosom friend Laelius, who deigned to admit him to such familiarity, that he fell under the honourable imputation of being assisted in the composition of his pieces by these noble Romans, and it was even said that they allowed their ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel

... honneurs de la feance." [To the honours of the fitting.] This disposition to jest with their misfortunes is, however, not so common as it was formerly. A bon mot may alleviate the loss of a battle, and a lampoon on the court solace under the burthen of a new impost; but the most thoughtless or improvident can find nothing very facetious in the prospect of absolute want—and those who have been used to laugh under a circumscription of their political liberty, feel very seriously the evil of a government which endows its members ...
— A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, • An English Lady

... however, was a faithful servant—not to be tampered with. To reconcile the servant's report with the articles of his faith, a third tenet became essential. This was that what Anthony remembered was the burthen of a dream. ...
— Anthony Lyveden • Dornford Yates

... of Bob's cheerful freckled face had given her discontent a new direction. She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel,—that she had to endure this wide, hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth. She wished she could have been like Bob, with his easily ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... in this Colonie having purchased Negro or Malatta Servants or Slaves, after they have spent the pricipall part of their time and strength in their masters service, doe sett them at liberty, and the said slaves not being able to provide necessaries for themselves may become a charge and burthen to the towns where they have served: for ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... perhaps out of reach, in the tree),—it grew by degrees to the size which you see. I was like the old woman that carried the calf, and my neighbors, like hers, no doubt, wonder and laugh; and when, my strained arms with their grown burthen full, I call it my Fable, ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... ocean. She, that was always prudent, packed up some of the Catholic king's biscuit, as she had previously packed up far too little of his gold. But in such cases a most delicate question occurs, pressing equally on medicine and algebra. It is this: if you pack up too much, then, by this extra burthen of salt provisions, you may retard for days your arrival at fresh provisions; on the other hand, if you pack up too little, you may never arrive at all. Catalina hit the juste milieu; and about twilight on the second day, she found herself entering ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... sheltered by tall trees that grew on either side. Here he resolved the camp should be pitched, and lighting a fire to mark the place, they galloped back to the Sand Hills. To remove the heavy wagons was no easy task, as the oxen were only able to walk without a burthen. ...
— The American Family Robinson - or, The Adventures of a Family lost in the Great Desert of the West • D. W. Belisle

... a thoroughbred horse. What a gentleman he looks amongst the rest of his kind! How he walks down the Course, as if he knew his own value—self-confident, but not vain—and goes swinging along in his breathing-gallop as easily and as smoothly as if I was riding him myself, and he was proud of his burthen! When Colonist won the Cup, I felt again as if I could have cried. It was a near race, and closely contested the whole way from the distance in. I felt my blood creeping quite chill, and I could perfectly understand then the infatuation men cherish about ...
— Kate Coventry - An Autobiography • G. J. Whyte-Melville

... canoes were hauled up on the shore, and in the cove itself lay the little craft from which Jasper obtained his claim to be considered a sailor. She was cutter-rigged, might have been of forty tons burthen, was so neatly constructed and painted as to have something of the air of a vessel of war, though entirely without quarters, and rigged and sparred with so scrupulous a regard to proportions and beauty, as well as fitness ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper

... favourite pastime, gambling. To this vice, all classes are passionately addicted; and nothing is more common than to see a gang of coolies sit down in the middle of the road, and gamble for hours on the few pieces they may have just earned for having carried a heavy burthen a couple of miles. The inhabitants of the districts in which the coercion I speak of has been put in force, are now better satisfied with their rulers ...
— Trade and Travel in the Far East - or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, - Singapore, Australia and China. • G. F. Davidson

... is a pestilential, topsy-turvy, harum-scarum whirligig. Give me the old, solemn, straightforward, regular Dutch canal—three miles an hour for expresses, and two for ordinary journeys, with a yoke of oxen for a heavy load! I go for beasts of burthen: it is more primitive and scriptural, and suits a moral and religious people better. None of your ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various

... rank of thane, except noble birth and the possession of land. The former was always much regarded by all the German nations, even in their most barbarous state; and as the Saxon nobility, having little credit, could scarcely burthen their estates with much debt, and as the Commons had little trade or industry by which they could accumulate riches, these two ranks of men, even though they were not separated by positive laws, might remain long ...
— The History of England, Volume I • David Hume

... variations in the MSS. may also still remain unnoticed; partly because they were considered of little importance, and partly from an apprehension, lest the commentary, as it sometimes happens, should seem an unwieldy burthen, rather than a necessary appendage, to the text. Indeed, till the editor had made some progress in the work, he could not have imagined that so many original and authentic materials of our history still ...
— The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle • Unknown

... top of Parker-street. "This is the place," said a friend who was with us. We knew it was, for several yards before reaching the building, the torrents of a strong voice came impetuously through an open window, and the burthen of its strains had reference to a revival of "our connexion." Such a noise as this we thought ought to have aroused the whole neighbourhood; but we could see nobody about except a woman right opposite, who was engaged in the serious ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... kissing the cheek of his lovely burthen, in a manner so parental, that the most sensitive delicacy could not have taken the alarm; "you will succeed better than myself, in quieting the feelings of this little trembler. I need hardly say that if I have accidentally overheard more than I ought, it is as much a secret with me, ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper

... meaning to discuss. Whether defensible or not, I do not now inquire. It is the practical interpretation and construction of this charge which I here wish to rectify. In most universities, except those of England, the professors are the body on whom devolves the whole duty and burthen of teaching; they compose the sole fountains of instruction; and if these fountains fail, the fair inference is, that the one great purpose of the institution is defeated. But this inference, valid for all other places, is not so for Oxford and Cambridge. And here, again, the difference ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... that the old charger, John Bull, is, from over-feeding, growing restive and unmanageable—kicking up his heels, and playing sundry tricks extremely unbecoming in an animal of his advanced age and many infirmities. To keep down this playful spirit, Sir Robert proposes that a new burthen be placed upon his back in the shape of a house-tax, pledging himself that it shall be heavy enough to effect the desired purpose. Commend us to these Tories—they are ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... lassitude, he did not seem to have anything the matter with him. This would not do. It behoved Carrington to expedite matters. His project was to accomplish the death of Douglas Dale by poison, throwing the burthen of suspicion—should suspicion arise—upon Paulina. To advance this purpose, he had industriously circulated reports of the most injurious character respecting her; so that Douglas Dale, if he had not been blinded and engrossed ...
— Run to Earth - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... persuade me there was a period when Holland was all water, and the ancestors of the present inhabitants fish. A certain oysterishness of eye and flabbiness of complexion are almost proofs sufficient of this aquatic descent: and pray tell me for what purpose are such galligaskins as the Dutch burthen themselves with contrived, but to tuck up a flouncing tail, and thus cloak the deformity ...
— Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents • William Beckford

... persons. The ships then made sail, each on her own course; the Spaniard running down the coast, while we spread our studding-sails for the island. As soon as this was done, I felt relieved from a great burthen, and had leisure to think of other matters. I ought to mention, however, that I put the second-mate, or him who had become chief-mate by my own advancement, in command of the "Pretty Poll," giving him two experienced seamen as his own mates, ...
— Afloat And Ashore • James Fenimore Cooper

... the very name of an army (Exercitus)(82) is derived; and secondly, how great the labour is of an army on its march; then consider that they carry more than a fortnight's provision, and whatever else they may want: that they carry the burthen of the stakes,(83) for as to shield, sword, or helmet, they look on them as no more encumbrance than their own limbs, for they say that arms are the limbs of a soldier, and those indeed they carry so commodiously, that when there is occasion they throw down ...
— The Academic Questions • M. T. Cicero

... of the soul of Robert Southey has been dispersed about the world that a translation to some other state of being, (now, before time has given him any burthen to carry,) would be, perhaps, no misfortune, except to those left to sorrow. Yet to know that so benevolent a being is still existing, feeling, joying, and suffering, on the sphere of our own mortality, awakens a feeling so nearly allied ...
— International Weekly Miscellany Vol. I. No. 3, July 15, 1850 • Various

... though not without coming nearly, if not absolutely, in contact with one, if not with both. I observed all this; and, saying one word of encouragement to Anneke, I passed an arm around her waist—waited the proper moment—and sprang forward. It was necessary to make a short leap, with my precious burthen on my arm, in order to gain this floating bridge; but it was done, and successfully. Scarcely permitting Anneke's foot to touch this frail support, which was already sinking under our joint weight, I crossed it at two or three steps, and threw all my power into a last and desperate effort. ...
— Satanstoe • James Fenimore Cooper

... seven, "Li," dogs "Seven Dogs." Thus we have him called the big dog, the great dog, the red-deer dog, the seven dogs, and the red dog, or "It-shou-ma-shungu," by the Gros Ventres. The dog was their universal beast of burthen, and so they multiplied the name in many ways to enable it to define the Superior ...
— The Great Lone Land - A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America • W. F. Butler

... is easy in his Stile, delicate in his Sentiments, and not at all tedious in his Narration. In the following Piece we find Nothing heavy or insipid, he dwells not too long upon any Adventure, nor does he burthen the Memory, or clog the Attention with Reflections intended, too often more for the Bookseller's Emolument, in swelling the Bulk of the Performance, than the Service of the Reader, on whom he knew it to be otherwise an Imposition; since, by long-winded wearisome ...
— Prefaces to Fiction • Various

... decline. It was not the corruption of the Church, but its enormous wealth which engendered the hatred, with which it was by many regarded. Temporal princes and haughty barons began to dispute the right of ecclesiastics to enjoy vast estates, while refusing the burthen of taxation, and unable to draw a sword for the common defence. At this period, the Counts of Flanders, of Holland, and other Netherland sovereigns, issued decrees, forbidding clerical institutions from acquiring property, by devise, gift, purchase, or any other mode. The downfall of the rapacious ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... cautelous dealing of the Ambassadors and Commissioners of both parts, then the wealth of the foresaid nations, and their manifold and most vsuall kinds of wares vttered in those dayes, as likewise the qualitie, burthen, and strength of their shipping, the number of their Mariners, the maner of their combates at sea, the number and names of the English townes which traded that way, with the particular places as ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries - of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... eras, in crastina bella parabas, If this day thou wert conquered, to next daies war thou spedst, Cui vestes sudore iugi, cui sica cruore, Whose clothing wet with dailie swet, whose blade with bloudie stainte, Tincta iugi, quantum sit onus regnare probarunt, Do proue how great a burthen tis in roialtie to raine, Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi, There hath not beene in anie part of all the world so wide, Cui tot in aduersis vel respirare liceret, One that was able breath to take, and troubles such abide, Nec tamen aut ferro ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (6 of 8) - The Sixt Booke of the Historie of England • Raphael Holinshed

... winds, the voice of woe Not wholly drowned in triumph, though I know The end must crown us, and a few brief years Dry all our tears, I may not sing too gladly. To Thy will Resigned, O Lord! we cannot all forget That there is much even Victory must regret. And, therefore, not too long From the great burthen of our country's wrong Delay our just release! And, if it may be, save These sacred fields of peace From stain of patriot or of hostile blood! Oh, help us, Lord! to roll the crimson flood Back on its course, and, while our banners wing Northward, strike with us! till the Goth ...
— Poems of Henry Timrod • Henry Timrod

... Harbour is but small, and hath in it from 12 to 20 Feet Water; but there is a Bar across the Entrance, whereon there is but 6 Feet at Low-water, and 12 or 14 Feet at High-water. The Road which lies on the N.W. Side of Dog-Island will admit Ships of any Burthen, but it is only fit for the Summer Season, being open to the N.E. Winds; you may lay in 8, 10, and 12 Fathom, and for the most Part is a hard rocky Bottom, there is very little clear Ground; Ships of War commonly Buoy their Cables; the best Ground is near the North Shore. Going in or out, you must ...
— Directions for Navigating on Part of the South Coast of Newfoundland, with a Chart Thereof, Including the Islands of St. Peter's and Miquelon • James Cook

... who upon sight of the said pinnaces approaching near unto them, abandoned for the most part all their ships, being Frenchmen, laden all with salt, and bound homewards into France. Amongst which ships, being all of small burthen, there was one so well liked, which also had no man in her, as being brought unto the General, he thought good to make stay of her for the service, meaning to pay for her, as also accordingly he performed ...
— Drake's Great Armada • Walter Biggs

... was termed, he slipped a large pin, called a corker, in his mouth, and on receiving the first blow stuck it into the neck of the boy who carried him. This caused the latter to jump and bounce about in such a manner that many of the blows directed at his burthen missed their aim. It was an understood thing, however, that the boy carrying the felon should aid him in every way in his power, by yielding, moving', and shifting about, so that it was only when he seemed to abet the master that the pin ...
— The Hedge School; The Midnight Mass; The Donagh • William Carleton

... to build him a small ship. I answered that I was not a carpenter, and had no knowledge in ship-building. "Well then," said he, "do it as well as you can, and if it be not well done, there is no matter." Accordingly I built a ship for him of about eighty tons burthen, constructed in all proportions according to our manner. He came on board to see her, and was much pleased, so that I grew into favour with him, was often admitted to his presence, and received presents from him from time to time, and at length got an yearly revenue to live upon, equal to about ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII. • Robert Kerr

... BELMOUR. What, at this hour?—and yet in truth no wonder, That thus her rest's disturb'd. It would require The wealth of India to support her losses. And were she now possess'd of all its stores, I and my friends cou'd rid her of the burthen. Perhaps, she comes to pay me the five hundred I won of her, when last we play'd together? Or with the flattering hopes to make reprisals? So I may double it before we part: For she's unskill'd enough to lose a million. Away!—I'll ...
— The Female Gamester • Gorges Edmond Howard

... and so she died forlorn, Imploring for her Basil to the last. No heart was there in Florence but did mourn In pity of her love, so overcast. 500 And a sad ditty of this story born From mouth to mouth through all the country pass'd: Still is the burthen sung—"O cruelty, To steal my Basil-pot ...
— Keats: Poems Published in 1820 • John Keats

... the brambles around. The earth was trampled, the bushes were broken, and there was every evidence of a struggle. Between the thicket and the river, the fences were found taken down, and the ground bore evidence of some heavy burthen having been dragged ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... day in one place or other a great market which they call Chandeau, and they haue many great boats which they cal pericose, wherewithall they go from place to place and buy Rice and many other things: these boates haue 24. or 26. oares to rowe them, they be great of burthen, but haue no couerture. Here the Gentiles haue the water of Ganges in great estimation, for hauing good water neere them, yet they will fetch the water of Ganges a great way off, and if they haue not sufficient to drinke, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt

... sure, dear Father Cock, you could tell us something really amusing if you would be so kind," said the second common hen, who was standing near him. "Those two make one's life a burthen, with their everlasting ...
— Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing

... eloquently urges upon the present attention of his brethren ought to have been made three hundred years ago; and the obstinate refusal of the Council of Trent to make such reforms in conformity with Scripture and Antiquity, throws the whole burthen of the sin of schism upon Rome, and not upon our Reformers. The value of such admissions must, of course, depend in a great measure upon the learning, the character, the position, and the influence of the author from whom they proceed. The writer believes, that questions ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 180, April 9, 1853 • Various

... high above earthly monarchs, his claims, at least as Innocent conceived and expressed them, were too spiritual, too remote from the immediate business and interests of the day, to make the owning of his suzerainty any very practical burthen. John could recall a time when his father was willing to own the same subjection as that which he was about to take on himself. He could recall the parallel allegiance which his brother had pledged to the Emperor. Shame indeed ...
— History of the English People, Volume I (of 8) - Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 • John Richard Green

... manage such offices: [479]many noble cities and flourishing kingdoms by that means are desolate, the whole body groans under such heads, and all the members must needs be disaffected, as at this day those goodly provinces in Asia Minor, &c. groan under the burthen of a Turkish government; and those vast kingdoms of Muscovia, Russia, [480]under a tyrannizing duke. Who ever heard of more civil and rich populous countries than those of "Greece, Asia Minor, abounding with all [481]wealth, multitudes of inhabitants, force, power, splendour and magnificence?" and ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... clear of these, but with great difficulty, the tide turning and flowing in the same direction as that in which the wind blew, they were unable to ride at anchor or bale out the water that broke in upon them; horses, beasts of burthen, baggage, even arms were thrown overboard to lighten the holds of the ships, which took in water at their sides, and from the waves, too, running over them. Around were either shores inhabited by enemies, or a ...
— A Book of Discovery - The History of the World's Exploration, From the Earliest - Times to the Finding of the South Pole • Margaret Bertha (M. B.) Synge

... that lofty tree Which holds her nest about to be o'erthrown, Before the feathers of her young are grown, She will not leave them, nor she cannot stay, But bears them boldly on her wings away; So fled the dame, and o'er the ocean bore Her princely burthen to the Gallic shore. 40 Born in the storms of war, this royal fair, Produced like lightning in tempestuous air, Though now she flies her native isle (less kind, Less safe for her than either sea or wind!) Shall, ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham

... difficulty we struggle through the noisy, drunken rabble, for the most part engaged in singing, cursing, fighting, and embracing by turns, and succeed at last in finding our ship, the Kaspia, a small steamer of about a hundred and fifty tons burthen. The captain is, fortunately for us, sober, which is more than can be said of the crew. Alongside us lies the Bariatinsky, a large paddle-steamer bound for Ouzounada, the terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway. She also is on the point of departure, and I notice, with ...
— A Ride to India across Persia and Baluchistan • Harry De Windt

... Vincent ended in disaster, instead of in brilliant success. Nelson's letters, sent ahead of the squadron by a frigate, had shown the despondency produced by suffering and failure, which had reversed so sharply the good fortune upon which he had begun to pride himself. "I am become a burthen to my friends and useless to my Country. When I leave your command, I become dead to the world; I go hence and am no more seen." "Mortals cannot command success," replied St. Vincent. "You and your companions have certainly deserved ...
— The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) - The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain • A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

... two gallant pynases, Did build of Seader-tree, The brave Deliverance one was call'd, Of seaventy tonne was shee, The other Patience had to name, Her burthen thirty tonne.... ...
— Pioneers of the Old South - A Chronicle of English Colonial Beginnings, Volume 5 In - The Chronicles Of America Series • Mary Johnston

... so lately run and shouted. All the ministers prayed earnestly, in their pulpits, for a blessing on the army of New England. In every family, when the good man lifted up his heart in domestic worship, the burthen of his petition was for the safety of those dear ones, who were fighting under the walls ...
— True Stories from History and Biography • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Did not he throw on God (He loves the burthen) God's task to make the heavenly period ...
— A History of the English Church in New Zealand • Henry Thomas Purchas

... unto these yellow sands, And then take hands; Courtsied when you have and kissed The wild waves whist, Foot it featly here and there; And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear." ...
— The Pearl of Orr's Island - A Story of the Coast of Maine • Harriet Beecher Stowe



Words linked to "Burthen" :   loading, weight down, burden, weight, unburden, load, plumb



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