178 BRAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
lie would sweep the English navy from the seas, hoisted 
a broom at the mast-head of his ship. To repel this 
insolence the English admiral hoisted a horsewhip, equally 
indicative of his intention to chastise the Dutchman. 
The pennant, which the horsewhip symbolized, has ever 
since been the distinguishing mark of English ships of 
war.* The custom of hanging out the broom has 
another meaning in Russia; there it is the custom in 
the villages for parents who have marriageable and un¬ 
betrothed daughters to hoist a broom over the cottage 
doorway, that the swains may know where to seek for 
virgins. 
Eew associations of the broomstick are more inter¬ 
esting than those of the poor Elanders peasantry, who a 
lew years ago came to this country in vast numbers, 
to penetrate into every nook and corner of every town 
in the land with the cry, “ Buy a broom \ 33 There are 
few of them left, and those few have modern airs and 
modern dress, which separate them entirely from the 
upright, short-coated, wooden-featured “ Buy-a-brooms 33 
of our infancy. We well remember the favourite ditty, 
sung in a plaintive voice at the parlour window, or on 
the doorstep,— 
A large one for a lady, 
A small one for a baby, 
Come buy, my pretty lady, 
Come buy of me a broom, — 
which touched many a heart, and secured for the singer 
many a basin of warm soup and lapful of kitchen-pieces. 
* “ Notes and Queries/ 
