groundsills

Then haue ye a figure very meete for Orators or eloquent perswaders such as our maker or Poet must in some cases shew him selfe to be, and is when we may coueniently vtter a matter in one entier speach or proportion and will rather do it peecemeale and by distrbution of euery part for amplification sake, as for example he that might say, a house was outragiously plucked downe: will not be satisfied so to say, but rather will speake it in this sort: they first vndermined the groundsills, they beate downe the walles, they vnfloored the loftes, they vntiled it and pulled downe the roofe.

The Arte of English Poesie George Puttenham

The haue ye a figure very meete for Orators or eloquent perswaders such as our maker or Poet must in some cases she whim selfe to be, and is when we may conueniently vtter a matter in one entier speach or proposition and will rather do it peecemeale and by distribution of euery part for amplification sake, as for example he that might say, a house was outragiously plucked downe: will not be satisfied so to say, but rather will speake it in this sort: they first vndermined the groundsills, they beate downe the walles, they vnfloored the loftes, they vntiled, it and pulled downe the roofe.

The Arte of English Poesie 1569