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.…