Minor Queries with Answers.
When Our Lord falls in Our Lady's Lap.—Seeing that Good Friday in this year falls on Lady Day, may I beg to ask if any of your contributors could inform me where the following old saying is to be met with, viz.:
"When Good Friday falls in a Lady's lap,
To England will happen some mishap,"
or to whom the prophecy (I hope a false one) may be attributed? I have seen it some years since, and have lately been asked the origin of the saying.
J. N. C.
Hull.
[Our correspondent has not quoted this old proverb correctly. It is thus given by Fuller (Worthies of England, vol. i. p. 115. ed. 1840):
"When Our Lady falls in Our Lord's lap
| Then let England beware a sad | clap mishap, |
alias
Then let the clergyman look to his cap."
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?
A Constant Reader.
Chertsey.
[The best explanation of this custom will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1804, where we read: "The ceremony on this occasion in the Court of Exchequer, which vulgar error supposed to be an unmeaning farce, is solemn and impressive, nor have the new sheriffs the least connexion either with chopping of sticks, or counting of hobnails. The tenants of a manor in Shropshire are directed to come forth and do their suit and service; on which the senior alderman below
the chair steps forward and chops a single stick, in token of its having been customary for the tenants of that manor to supply their lord with fuel. The owners of a forge in the parish of St. Clement (which formerly belonged to the city, and stood in the high road from the Temple to Westminster, but now no longer exists) are then called forth to do their suit and service; when an officer of the court, in the presence of the senior alderman, produces six horse-shoes and sixty-one hobnails, which he counts over in form before the cursitor baron, who on this particular occasion is the immediate representative of the sovereign.">[
A Race for Canterbury.—I have just met with a little volume of sixteen pages entitled A Race for Canterbury or Lambeth, Ho! It is dated 1747, and was evidently written on the death of Archbishop Potter; and describes four aspirants to the see of Canterbury as four rowers on the Thames:
"No sooner Death had seized the seer,
Just in the middle of his prayer,
But instantly on Thames appear'd
Four wherries rowing very hard."
&c. &c. &c.
The first is thus introduced:
"Sh——, though old, has got the start,
And vigorously plays his part."
The second:
"H—— in order next advances,
And full of hopes he strangely fancies,
That he by dint of merit shall
Get first to land by Lambeth wall."
The third:
"M—s—n moves on a sober pace,
And sits and rows with easy grace.
No ruffling passion's in him seen,
Indifferent if he lose or win."
The fourth:
"Next Codex comes with lab'ring oar,
And, envious, sees the three before;
Yet luggs and tuggs with every joint,
In hopes at length to gain the point."
Having no list of the bishops by me, of the above-mentioned date, to which I can refer, I should be glad if any of your correspondents can tell me who these four bishops are. May I ask likewise, if it is known who was the author of this not very refined or elegant composition?
John Branfill Harrison.
Maidstone.
[The four aspirants probably were, 1. Sherlock of Salisbury; 2. Herring of York, the next primate; 3. Mawson of Chichester; 4. Gibson of London.]
Nose of Wax.—In so famous a public document as the Nottingham Declaration of the Nobles, Gentry, and Commons, in November, 1688, against the Papistical inroads of the infatuated King James, I find in the Ninth Resolution that he is accused of "rendering the laws a nose of wax," in order to further arbitrary ends. I have often heard the phrase familiarly in my youthful days; may I ask of you to inform me of its origin? Its import is plain enough,—a silly bugbear, of none effect but to be laughed at.
W. J.
[Nares explains it more correctly as a proverbial phrase for anything very mutable and accommodating; chiefly applied to flexibility of faith. He adds, "It should be noticed, however, that the similitude was originally borrowed from the Roman Catholic writers, who applied it to the Holy Scriptures, on account of their being liable to various interpretations.">[
"Praise from Sir Hubert Stanley!"—I have somewhere heard or read this, or a very similar phrase, ironically expressive of surprise at approbation from an unexpected quarter. I would much like a clue to its source and correct shape.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
[This is from Morton's Cure for the Heart Ache, Act V. Sc. 2.:—"Approbation from Sir Hubert Stanley is praise indeed.">[
Rosary.—What is the origin of the term rosary? Is it derived from the Latin rogare?
G. C. C.
[Richardson derives it from Fr. Rosaire; Ital. and Sp. Rosario; Low Lat. Rosarium, corona rosacea, a garland or chaplet of roses. The definition of it by the Abbé Prevost is this:—"It consists," he says, "of fifteen tens, said to be in honour of the fifteen mysteries in which the Blessed Virgin bore a part. Five Joyous, viz. the annunciation, the visit to St. Elizabeth, the birth of our Saviour, the purification, and the disputation of Christ in the temple. Five Sorrowful: our Saviour's agony in the garden, his flagellation, crowning with thorns, bearing his cross, and crucifixion. Five Glorious: his resurrection, ascension, the descent of the Holy Ghost, his glorification in heaven, and the assumption of the Virgin herself."—Manuel Lexique. Nares, quoting this passage, adds, "This is good authority; but why each of the fives is multiplied by ten the Abbé does not explain; probably to make the chaplet of a sufficient length.">[