[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.