Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
    I should perhaps be astonished were it possible to ascertain the date at which a favourite tale, was engraved by frequent repetition in my memory; the cavern of the winds, the palace of Felicity, and the fatal moment at the end of three months or centuries, when Prince Adolphus is overtaken by Time, who had worn out so many pair of wings in the pursuit.  Before I left Kingston school [1746], I was well acquainted with Pope's Homer, and the Arabian Nights-entertainments, two books which will always please by the moving picture of human manners and specious miracles.  (Memoirs, ed. G. A. Bonnard [London: Thomas Nelson, 1966], p. 36. [Bonnard identifies the story as Histoire d'Hipolite, Comte de Duglas, by Mme. Catherine La Mothe (1699; English trans. 1708)].

Katy Carr (in What Katy Did, by Susan Coolidge (1872)
    Chapter 2, "Paradise"  The place to which the children were going was a sort of marshy thicket at the bottom of a field near the house. . . . The way to Paradise was through some wooden bars.. . . Once past the bars. . . they all began to run until they reached the entrance of the wood. . . . "What path shall we go in by?" asked Clover, at last.
"Suppose we vote," said Katy.  "I say by the Pilgrim's Path and the Hill of Difficulty."

   Chapter 7, "Cousin Helen's Visit" Cousin Helen coming! It seemed as strange as if Queen Victoria, gold crown and all, had invited herself to tea; or as if some character out of a book, Robinson Crusoe, say, or 'Amy Herbert', had driven up with a trunk and announced the intention of spending a week.  For in the imaginations of the children, Cousin Helen was as interesting and unreal as anybody in the fairy tales: Cinderella, or Blue Beard, or dear Red Riding-Hood herself.  Only there was a sort of mixture of Sunday-school book in their idea of her, for Cousin Helen was very, very good. . . . "What do you suppose she looks like?" went on Clover.  "Something like 'Lucy" in Mrs. Sherwood's story, I guess, with blue eyes, and curls, and a long, straight nose."

Books mentioned as read, desired as gifts, or received as gifts: Norway and the Norwegians; Harry and Lucy, Strive and Thrive, The Wide, Wide World.