nine-and-fifty

Updated: May 1, 2025

The trappings of her palfrey were of finest embroidery, her bridle was a chain of gold. From the palfrey's mane hung little silver bells, nine-and-fifty little silver bells. It was the fairy music of the bells that had reached the ears of Thomas as he lay dreaming on the bank of the little brook. The lady's skirt was green, green as the leaves of spring, her cloak was of fine velvet.

Mary Esther Miller MacGregor - Stories from the Ballads: Told to the Children

But, as I had a merciful Protector above me, so I had a most faithful steward, counsellor, partner, or whatever I might call him, who was my guide, my pilot, my governor, my everything, and took care both of me and of all we had; and though he had never been in any of these parts of the world, yet he took the care of all upon him; and in about nine-and-fifty days we arrived from Bassorah, at the mouth of the river Tigris or Euphrates, through the desert, and through Aleppo to Alexandria, or, as we call it, Scanderoon, in the Levant.

Daniel Defoe - The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton