butter-woman's

Updated: May 22, 2025

Then in the Mariner comes the gorgeous metre, freed at once and for the first time from the "butter-woman's rank to market" which had distinguished all imitations of the ballad hitherto, the more gorgeous imagery and pageantry here, the simple directness there, the tameless range of imagination and fancy, the fierce rush of rhythm:

George Saintsbury - A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)

Monsieur d'Artagnan traveled, then, pretty easily upon Furet, who ambled like a true butter-woman's pad, and who, with his amble, managed cheerfully about twelve leagues a day, upon four spindle-shanks, of which the practiced eye of D'Artagnan had appreciated the strength and safety beneath the thick mass of hair which covered them.

Alexandre Dumas - The Vicomte De Bragelonne

Monsieur D'Artagnan traveled, then, pretty easily upon Furet, who ambled like a true butter-woman's pad, and who, with his amble, managed cheerfully about twelve leagues a day, upon four spindle-shanks, of which the practiced eye of D'Artagnan had appreciated the strength and safety beneath the thick mass of hair which covered them.

Alexandre Dumas - Ten Years Later