Have you no more manners than to rail at Hocus, that has saved that clod-pated, numskull'd, ninny-hammer of yours from ruin, and all his family?
-- John Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, (1667-1735)
"Severely criticised by their political opponents for neglecting their official duties, it was said that they had no thought but to live out their days in rural retirement."