Charles Erskine was, at the age of twenty, a teacher of Latin in Edinburgh University. On one occasion, after his elevation to the bench, a young lawyer in arguing a case before him used a false Latin quantity, whereupon his lordship said, with a good-natured smile, "Are you sure, sir, you are correct in your quantity there?"
The young counsel nettled at the query, retorted petulantly, "My lord, I never was a schoolmaster."
"No," answered the judge, "nor, I think, a scholar either."
Capital Punishment
Andrew Leslie, an old Scotchman, always rode a donkey to his work and tethered him, while he labored, on the road, or wherever else he might be. It was suggested to him by a neighboring gentleman that he was suspected of putting him in to feed in the fields at other people's expense.
"Eh, laird, I could never be tempted to do that, for my cuddy winna eat anything but nettles and thistles."
One day, however, the same gentleman was riding along the road when he saw Andrew Leslie at work, and his donkey up to his knees in one of his own clover fields feeding luxuriously.
"Hollo! Andrew," said he, "I thought you told me your cuddy would eat nothing but nettles and thistles."
"Ay," was the reply, "but he misbehaved the day; he nearly kicked me ower his head, sae I put him in there just to punish him!"