Here and there might be seen a burgomaster, of slow and pompous gravity, giving his opinion with great confidence to a crowd of old women and idle boys.
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving
The good vrouw could not have her new cap, nor new gown, until the arrival of the ship; the artist waited for it for his tools, the burgomaster for his pipe and his supply of Hollands, the school-boy for his top and marbles, and the lordly landholder for the bricks with which he was to build his new mansion.
"Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists"
Washington Irving
Set a man who has never painted, to watch Rembrandt paint the burgomaster Six, and he will no more understand how Rembrandt can have done it, than we can understand how the amoeba makes its test, or the protoplasm cements two broken ends of a piece of bone.
"Luck or Cunning?"
Samuel Butler