n this terrace, thinks the attic
story "too irregular to accompany so chaste a composition as the Ionic,
to which it forms a crown;" he likewise objects to the cornice and
blocking-course, as being "also too small in proportion for the majesty
of the lower order."

York Terrace is from the design of Mr. Nash, whose genius not
unfrequently strays into such errors as our architectural critic has
pointed out.

* * * * *

VALENTINE CUSTOMS.

_(To the Editor of the Mirror.)_

As some of the customs described by your correspondent W.H.H.[1] are left
unaccounted for, I suppose any one is at liberty to sport a few
conjectures on the subject. May not, for instance, the practice of
burning the "_holly boy_" have its origin in some of those rustic
incantations described by Theocritus as the means of recalling a truant
lover, or of warming a cold one; and thus translated:--

[1] See No. 356 of the MIRROR, "Valentine's Day."

"First Delphid injured me, he raised my flame,
And now I burn this bough in Delphid's name."

Virgil, too, in his 8th Eclogue, alludes to the same charm:--

"Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros;
Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum."

"Next in the fire the bays with brimstone burn,
And whilst it crackles in the sulphur, say,
This I for Daphnis burn, thus Daphnis burn away."
DRYDEN.

The _"holly bush"_ being made to represent the person beloved, may also
be borrowed from the ancients:--

-------------------"Terque haec altaria circum
_Effigiem_ duco."
VIRGIL.

"Thrice round the altar I the image draw."

The burning wax candles may be more difficult to account for, unless it
refer to the custom of melting wax in order to mollify the beloved one's
heart:--

"As this devoted wax melts o'er the fire,
Let Myndian Delphis melt with soft desire."
THEOCRITUS.

---------------"Haec ut cera liquescit."
-------------"Sic nostro Daphnis amore."
VIRGIL.

For a woman to compose a garland was always considered an indication of
her being in love. Aristophanes says,

"The wreathing garlands in a woman is
The usual symptom of a love-sick mind."

Should the charms resorted to by lovers two thousand years ago, appear to
you, even remotely, to have influenced the lo