Furthermore men should be in very great forwardnes, if euery thinge were so well refourmed, that they were come euen unto daunses, that is to say, that all that which is corrupted, and those abuses which beare the sway among Christians were so cut off, and this so sick a body againe so wel restored to his soundnes and health, that there should remayne nothing els but to debate the question of leaping skippings and daunses.

Methinks, I see no jests of Robin Hood, No merry morrices of Friar Tuck, No pleasant skippings up and down the wood, No hunting-songs, no coursing of the buck.

In those dim geologic epochs, where annals are written on Mica Slate, Clay Slate, and Silurian Systems, on Old Red Sandstones and New, on Primary and Secondary Rocks and Tertiary Chalk-beds, there were topsy-turvyings amongst the hills and gambollings and skippings of mountains, to which the piling of Pelion upon Ossa was a mere cobblestone feat.