Definition of "singularly"

I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable. It struck me as singularly odd, that among the universal decay, this volatile substance had chanced to survive, perhaps through many thousand years.

1895 May 7, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company

"There were scraps of verse. I do not profess to be a judge of such things, but they appeared to me to be singularly wanting in merit."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton