Show 0 old time love al missives lis for r th the e day D IJ E PYS that delightful old gossip of tho the reign of P charles II 11 enters in his diary on valentines day ia 1667 th morning came ti little will melser to be my cifes valentine valen tine and brought tier her name written upon blue paper in gold letters done by himself ver very y pretty we were both well pleased with it but 1 I am also this year my cifes valentine and it will cost me five pounds but that I 1 must have laid out if we had not beer valentines two days day later says 1 I find that mrs pierces Pl erces little girl Is my valentine she having drawn me inc which I 1 am sorry for it easing me of something more that I 1 must have given to others but I 1 do farst observe the fashion of drawing mottoes as well as names so eo that pierce who drew my wife did also draw a motto and ills his i girl ail drew another for ine me but fully as interesting and much more strange were the st valentines customs among the common people many of tha the observances were 0 S barly like those of 11 halloween alloween they were not so grew some but the resemblance Is unmistakable for instance ln since a pert miss who lived in the writes last friday was valentines day and the night before 1 got five bay leaves and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow and the fifth to the middle and then it if I 1 of my sweetheart betty said we should be married before the year was out but to make it more sure I 1 boiled an egg hard and took out the yolk and filled it with salt and ate it shell and all without speaking or drinking after it we also wrote our lovers names upon bits of paper and rolled them up in clay and put them into water and the first that same to the surface was to be our valentine there have been endless devices for valentines but perhaps the queerest on record is that described in the following little story one st valentines morning an english gentleman remarked to his pretty daughter that on that day more letters than the average passed through the london post why papa replied the girl just the ii number aber of young folks that must be in ill love with each other the way to reckon at that moment a bachelor friend of the family came in and learning the subject of their talk drew a sma small I 1 package from his pocket meres fleres my valentine lie he exclaimed and presented it to the young woman it contained a small rib carved of ivory and covered with white satin and ana ornamented with true lovers knots there were also some verses of which this Is one till adam had n partner given much as aa fair eden bloomed like heaven II eavon ills his bliss was incomplete no 0 social friend those joys to sharo gave the gay scene a vacant air she came all replete well now I 1 call that capital cried the lively lags after such a valentine you must take the hint my dear sir its settled you must get married will you marry me lie ho asked 1 11 I marry you no you are too old dut but there are many women of your age why dont you ask one of them lie he had to be contented with this sorry consolation though lie he deserved a better fate for the ingenuity of his valentine the sunday magazine |