British Soil

Famous quotes containing the words british and/or soil:

    “In New York—whose subway trains in particular have been “tattooed” with a brio and an energy to put our own rude practitioners to shame—not an inch of free space is spared except that of advertisements.... Even the most chronically dispossessed appear prepared to endorse the legitimacy of the “haves.””
    —Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Cleaning and Cleansing,” Myths and Memories (1986)

    “Have you seen but a bright lily grow
    Before rude hands have touch’d it?
    Have you mark’d but the fall of the snow
    Before the soil hath smutch’d it?
    Have you felt the wool of the beaver,
    Or swan’s down ever?
    Or have smelt of the bud of the brier,
    Or the nard in the fire?
    Or have tasted the bag of the bee?
    O so white, O so soft, O so sweet is she!”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)