I replied, "Sure, Father, you gave me quite a Turn; I thought you were ill," and sett to my Task, marvellous ill-conditioned, expecting some crotchet had taken him concerning his Will.
"Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary"
Anne Manning
I fear that if Kenelm does become bewildered by a political abstraction,-call it, no matter what, say, 'love of his country,' or some such old-fashioned crotchet,-I fear, I greatly fear, that he may be-in earnest.
"Kenelm Chillingly, Book 8."
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
In crotchet Castle the progress of Reform was already beginning to produce a beneficent effect of reaction upon him, and in Gryll Grange, though the manners and cast are surprisingly modern, the whole tone is conservative-with a small if not even with a large C-for the most prominent and well treated character is a Churchman of the best academic Tory type.
"The English Novel"
George Saintsbury