But Fuller shows that it refers to Easter Day, not Good Friday, falling
on the 25th March, when he remarks:--"I behold this proverbial
prophecy, or this prophetical menace, to be not above six score years
old, and of Popish extraction since the Reformation. It whispereth more
than it dares speak out, and points at more than it dares whisper; and
fain would intimate to credulous persons as if the Blessed Virgin,
offended with the English for abolishing her adoration, watcheth an
opportunity of revenge on this nation. And when her day (being the
five-and-twentieth of March, and first of the Gregorian year) chanceth
to fall on the day of Christ's resurrection, then being, as it were,
fortified by her Son's assistance, some signal judgment is intended to
our state, and churchmen especially."
He then gives a list of the years on which the coincidences had
happened since the Conquest, to which, if our correspondent is curious
on the subject, we must refer him. Can he, or any other of our readers,
furnish any proof of the existence of this proverb before the
Reformation, or the existence of a similar proverb on the Continent?]
_Hobnail-counting in the Court of Exchequer._--I shall feel obliged by your
informing me from what circumstance originates the yearly custom of the
lord mayor of London counting six horse-shoes and sixty-one hobnails at the
swearing in of the sheriff?