- Museum number
- 1862,1217.373
- Title
- Object: The noble pedlar! or the late Chance-seller & present Broom-seller!!
- Description
-
With verses numbered I to VI printed below in four columns. Erskine, dressed as in No. 12717, walks (left to right), on a cobbled roadway, beside a small two-wheeled cart selling brooms; two are across his right shoulder; he holds out a third, crying, "O the broom the bonny, bonny broom! who'll buy my charming brooms?!!" From his neck hangs on a ribbon a disk resembling the jewel of the Order of the Thistle, but inscribed 'Licensed Hawker'. From his coat-pocket projects a paper: 'Case for the Opinion of the Ex-Chancellor whether a peer of the realm carrying on the Trade of an Itinerant Vender of Brooms is not subject to the Bankrupt Law'. Behind him walks a little naked satyr, grinning fiercely; he flourishes in each hand a short-handled broom, as if to flog Erskine. The cart is inscribed 'Ers—kin &ccc licenced Hawkers & Dealers in heath Brooms'. One of the brooms projecting from it is labelled 'Industria ditat' [enriches]. Servants of Erskine carrying bundles of brooms walk with the cart, four men in livery and a maid-servant, all shouting "Buy a Broom!" A little hump-backed crossing-sweeper (right), with dwarfish legs and the bent shins produced by rickets, very ragged, holds out his hat to Erskine, saying, "Bless your Honor remember the poor Sweeper." On the ground (left) is an open book: 'Just Published A Sweeping manouvre to raise £2000 a yr by a peer of the Realm'. On the corner of a building (left) is a bill: 'Public Office Bow St—Caution to Noblemen—Whereas Lord E—e [the intermediate letters though erased are visible] was convicted in ye penalty of £10 for hawking & selling heath Brooms without a licence. All the Princes & Nobility are therefore caution'd not to turn Pedlars without first paying the Duty!' Below the title: "To what base purposes may we not return Horatio— why may we not trace the Noble Lord Chancellor of England as a Hawker of Brooms!!"
The verses are a 'New Song—The Bonny Brooms (Tune—"The Broom of Cowdenknows")'. Verses II and IV:
Let Spankie prate and Fielding swell,
Like two unmanner'd grooms;
So I my pretty besoms sell,
And cry "who buys my brooms?"
The Thistle's ribbon decks my breast,
The splendid Star my doom;
But both to thee must bend the crest,
My bonny, bonny broom!
Refrain:
O! the broom, the bonny bonny broom,
The broom that sweeps so clear;
From cellar, garrett, street or room,
Two thousand pounds a year!!
? February 1816
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 297 millimetres
-
Width: 343 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
Erskine had bought the estate of Holmbush, Sussex, which proved barren and profitless, therefore, being much in debt, he turned to the growing and manufacture of heath brooms, and employed persons to sell them in London. Action was taken against one of these, for vending (in Chelsea) brooms without a hawker's licence, at Queen Square Police Court on 5 Feb. 1816. Spankie was the barrister who opposed Erskine's son, who argued that the man was not a hawker but was a servant of Lord Erskine, to whom the profits accrued. The magistrate, William Fielding (see No. 6852) said that Erskine ought to have been licensed and imposed a penalty of £10. Erskine entered the court, and was informed by the magistrates that he must be convicted; he answered 'if you do it must be under a "sweeping" clause', and gave notice of an appeal to Quarter Sessions, but afterwards took out sixteen hawker's licences. 'Examiner', 11 Feb. 1816; 'Europ. Mag.' lxix. 177. The sale of brooms was reported to bring in £2,000 a year. Erskine was made K.T. on 23 Feb. 1815. See No. 12717.
Reid, No. 563. Cohn, No. 1790.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,1217.373