_Lord Erskine's Brooms._--"G.B." informs us, that the anecdote about
Lord Erskine's brooms, and the apprehension of his servant for selling
them without a licence, will be found in his Life by Lord Campbell
(_Lives of the Chancellors_, vol. vi. p. 618.). Erskine himself attended
the sessions to plead the man's cause, and contended that the brooms
were agricultural produce, or, as he jocosely observed, "came under the
_sweeping_ clause." The _when_ is about 1807, and the _where_ an estate
in Sussex, which proved rather an unprofitable speculation to its owner,
as it produced nothing but birch trees, and those but stunted ones. To
which information "W.J." adds, that about the same period Lord Erskine
printed, for private circulation, _An Appeal in favour of the
agricultural Services of Rooks_; a production probably scarce now, but
full of humanity, and very characteristic.
_Scarborough Warning._--In a postscript to a letter written from court
on the 19th January, 1603, by Toby Matthew, Bishop of Durham, to Hutton,
Archbishop of York, I find the term _Scarborough warning_. Can any of
the correspondents of your valuable paper inform me of the origin and
prevalence of this saying? The postscript is--
"When I was in the middest of this discourse, I received a
message from my lord chamberlaine, that it was his majesty's
pleasure that I should preach before him upon Sunday next; which
_Scarborough warning_ did not perplex me, but so puzzled me, as
no mervail if somewhat be pretermitted, which otherwise I might
have better remembered."
Quoted in Caldwell's _Conferences_, p. 166.