1738, The London Magazine, rev. Mr. Darwall, to Mr. George Bickham the Elder, "On the First Volume of his Musical Entertainer"; page 303But if I'm duly sensible of this,And if I really fear to do amiss,How, George, how (in the name of wonder!) then,Dares my poor, puny, scurvy, scrattling penPresume thy neat performances to trace,And, with mean words, thy beauteous works debase
2010, Robert Malcolmson, Patricia Malcolmson, Nella Last in the 1950s: Further diaries of Housewife, 49My husband says “What's the good of scrattling and saving, Edna, when in two–three years we might all be blown up by an atom bomb?
