lived upon the proceeds in the Holy Land. Buildings of every sort were suffered to fall into ruins. It was thought useless to repair them when the end of the world was so near. Many noble edifices were deliberately pulled down. Even churches, usually so well maintained, shared the general neglect. Knights, citizens, and serfs, travelled eastwards in company, taking with them their wives and children, singing psalms as they went, and looking with fearful eyes upon the sky, which they expected each minute to open, and to let the Son of God descend in glory."[1]
A panic occurred in Leeds in 1806, during which many in their fear "got religion" for a time, and indulged in a temporary repentance. A Yorkshire hen had been laying eggs in a village close by, inscribed, "Christ is coming." Eventually the writing was discovered to be in corrosive ink, and the trick by which observers were made to believe that the hen laid them in that condition, was found out.
- ↑ Mackay's Popular Delusions. London: 1869. Vol. i, p. 222.
