Kidderminster.
_Rome and the Number Six._--It has been remarked lately in "N. & Q." that
in English history, the reign of the second sovereign of the same name has
been infelicitous. I cannot turn to the {491} note I read, and I forget
whether it noticed the remarks in Aubrey's _Miscellanies_ (London, 8vo.,
1696), that "all the _second_ kings since the Conquest have been
unfortunate." It may be worth the while to add (what is remarked by Mr.
Matthews in his _Diary of an Invalid_), that the number _six_ has been
considered at Rome as ominous of misfortune. Tarquinius Sextus was the very
worst of the Tarquins, and his brutal conduct led to a revolution in the
government; under Urban the Sixth, the great schism of the West broke out;
Alexander the Sixth outdid all that his predecessors amongst the Tarquins
or the Popes had ventured to do before him; and the presentiment seemed to
receive confirmation in the misfortunes of the reign of his successor Pius
VI., to whose election was applied the line:
"Semper sub sextis perdita Roma fuit."