y
the diary of Dr. Browne, the more prevalent custom of drawing valentines
on the eve before Valentine day was in vogue; but Forby's "Vocabulary of
East Anglia" makes mention of a practice which doubtless has become
developed in the course of time into the elaborate and costly celebration
of the present day. He says, "In Norfolk it is the custom for children
to 'catch' each other for valentines; and if there are elderly persons in
the family who are likely to be liberal, great care is taken to catch
them. The mode of catching is by saying 'Good morrow, Valentine,' and if
they can repeat this before they are spoken to, they are rewarded with a
small present. It must be done, however, before sunrise; otherwise
instead of a reward, they are told they are _sunburnt_." He adds a
query--Does this illustrate the phrase _sunburned_, in "Much Ado about
Nothing"?

The universal respect in which the anniversary of St. Valentine is held,
may perhaps be most justly estimated by the statistical facts that relate
to the post-office transactions for that day, in comparison with the
average amount of the daily transmissions; and each district has probably
some peculiar mode of celebrating it,--but nowhere, we imagine, does its
annual return leave behind it such pleasing and substantial memorials as
in our "Old City." Douce, in his "Illustrations of Shakespeare," would
have us believe that the observances of St. Valentine's day had their
origin in the festivals of ancient Rome during the month of February,
when they celebrated the "Lupercalia," or feasts in honour of Pan and
Juno, sometimes called Februalis, on which occasion, amidst a variety of
other ceremonies, the names of young men and maidens were put into a box,
and drawn as chance directed. The pastors of the early church, in their
endeavours to eradicate the vestiges of popular superstitions,
substituted the names of _saints_ for those of the young maidens, and as
the Lupercalia commenced in February, affixed the observance to the feast
of St. Valentine in that month, thus preserving the outline of the
ancient ceremony, to which the people were attached, modified by an
adaptation to the Christian system.

Time, however, would seem to have restored the maidens to their original
position. Brande has given many curious details of the various modes of
celebrating the anniversary, in addition to the universal interchange of
illuminated letters and notes. In Oxfordshire the c