Much ridicule had been poured on the drillings with dummy muskets.
"John Redmond's Last Years"
Stephen Gwynn
She is only gone a trip to the continent, to her aunt's, by the mother's side, Miss O'Faley, that you never saw, to get the advantage of a dancing-master, which myself don't think she wants-a natural carriage, with native graces, being, in my unsophisticated opinion, worth all the dancing-master's positions, contortions, or drillings; but her aunt's of a contrary opinion, and the women say it is essential.
"Tales & Novels, Vol. IX [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond]"
Maria Edgeworth
The poetry, the glamour of the romantic devotion to Mother Country fed his starved idealism; the midnight drillings and the danger were elements in its attraction.
"An Isle in the Water"
Katharine Tynan