In their case the same sort of dry Scotch humour came out under the cloak of mental disease.

The first is of a Scottish nobleman of the last century who had been a soldier the greater part of his life, but was obliged to come home on account of aberration of mind, superinduced by hereditary propensity.

Desirous of putting him under due restraint, and at the same time of engaging his mind in his favourite pursuit, his friends secured a Sergeant Briggs to be his companion, and, in fact, keeper.

To render the sergeant acceptable as a companion they introduced him to the old earl as _Colonel_ Briggs.

Being asked how he liked "the colonel," the earl showed how acute he still was by his answer, "Oh, very well; he is a sensible man, and a good soldier, but he _smells damnably of the halbert_." The second anecdote relates also to a Scottish nobleman labouring under aberration of mind, and is, I believe, a traditionary one.