A correspondent communicates to the Every-Day Book a singular custom, which prevailed many years since in the west of England. Three single young men went out together before daylight on St. Valentine's day, with a clapnet to catch an old owl and two sparrows in a neighbouring barn. If they were successful, and could bring the birds to the inn without injury before the females of the house had risen, they were rewarded by the hostess with three pots of purl in honour of St. Valentine, and enjoyed the privilege of demanding at any other house in the neigh bourhood a similar boon. This was done, says our correspondent, as an emblem that the owl being the bird of wisdom, could influence the feathered race to enter the net of love as mates on that day, whereon both single lads and maidens should be reminded that happiness could alone be secured by an early union. On this ancient festival, it was formerly the custom for men to make presents to. the women. In Scotland these valentin: gifts were reciprocal, as indeed they are still in some parts. Hurdis calls this The day Saint Valentine, When maids are brisk, and at the break of day Start up and turn their pillows, curious all To know what happy swain the fates provide A mate for life. Then follows thick discharge Of true-love knots and sonnets nicely penued. St. Valentine is the lover's saint. Not that lovers have more superstition than other people, but their imaginings are more. As it is fabled that Orpheus “played so well, he moved old Nick;" so it is true that Love, "cruel tyrant," moves the veriest brute. Its influence renders the coarsest nature somewhat interesting. A being of this kind, so possessed, is almost as agreeable as a parish cage with an owl inside; you hear its melancholy tee-whit tee-who, and wonder how it got there. Its place of settlement becomes a place of sentiment; nobody can liberate the starveling, and it will stay there Its mural notes seem so many calls for pity, which are much abated on the recollection,that there are openings enough for its escape. The "tender passion" in the two mile an hour Jehu of an eighthorse waggon, puzzles him mightily. He "sighs and drives, sighs and drives, and drives and sighs again," till the approach of this festival enables him to buy "a valentine," with a “halter" and a " couple o' hearts" transfixed by an arrow in the form of a weathercock, inscribed "I'll be yours, if you'll be mine, I am your pleasing Valentine." This he gets his name written under by the shopkeeper, and will be quite sure that it is his name, before he walks after his waggon,which he has left to go on, because neither that nor his passion can brook delay. After he is out of the town, he looks behind him, lest any body should see, and for a mile or two on the road, ponders on the "two hearts made one," as a most singular device, and with admired devotion. He then puts it in the trusty pocket under his frock, which holds the waggon bill, and flogs his horses to quicken their pace towards the inn, where "she," who is "his heart's delight," has been lately promoted to the rank of under kitchen-maid, vice her who resigned, on being called "to the happy estate of matrimony" by a neighbouring carter. He gives her the mysterious paper in the yard, she receives it with a "what be this?" and with a smack on the lips, and a smack from the whip on the gown. The gods have made him poetical, and, from his recollection of a play he saw at the statute-fair, he telis her that "love, like a worm in the mud, has played upon his Lammas cheek" ever since last Lammas-tide, and she knows it has, and that she's his valentine. With such persons and with nature, this is the season of breaking the ice. St. Valentine, be it repeated, is the saint of all true lovers of every degree, and hence the letters missive to the fair, from wooers on his festival,bear his naine. Brand thinks "one of the most elegant jeu-d'esprits on this occasion," is one wherein an admirer reminds his mistress of the choice attributed by the legend to the choristers of the air on this day, and inquires of her Shall only you and I forbear Fut, ah! when I the proffer nake, A better might have been selected from the Magazine of Magazines," the "Gentleman's," wherein Mr. Urban has sometimes introduced the admirers of lades to the admirers of antiquities-under wach class ladies never come. Thence, ever and anon, as from some high barbi can or watchtower old, " songs of loves and maids forsaken," have aroused the contemplation from "facts, fancies, and recollections" regarding other times, to vers "sighing like furnace" in our own. Through Sylvanus, nearly a century ago, there was poured this Invocation of St. Valentine. Seize her-yet treat the nymph divine With gentle usage, Valentine ! Then, tell her, she, for what was done, Must bring my heart, and give her own. So pleasant, so descriptive an illustration of the present custom, requires a companion equally amiable: MY VALENTINE. Mark'd you her eye's resistless glance, Mark'd you her cheek that blooms and glows A living emblem of the rose? Mark'd you her vernal lip that breathes Mark'd you her face, and did not there, Sense, softness, sweetness, all appear! Mark'd you her form, and saw not you A heart and mind as lovely too! And felt you not, as I now feel, Delight no tongue could e'er reveal? Mark'd you all this, and you have known The treasured raptures that I own; Mark'd you all this, and you like me, Have wandered oft her shade to see, For you have felt, as I now feel, Delight no tongue could e'er reveal! High Wycombe. Every lady will bear witness that the roll of valentine poesy is interminable ; and it being presumed that few would object to a peep in the editor's budget, he offers a little piece, written, at the desire of a lady, under an engraving, which represented a girl fastening a letter to the neck of a pigeon : THE COURIER DOVE. "Va, porter cet écrit à l'objet de mon cœur !" Outstrip the winds my courier dove! It bids him mark thy plume whereon It tells him thou return'st again He'll thus resemble thee? Lastly, from "Sixty-five Poems and Sonnets," &c. recently published, he ventures to extract one not less deserving the honour of perusal, than either that he has presented : A VALENTINE. No hidden flame discover, I glory in the name of friend, And now, while each fond sighing youth The drunkard heed with cold disdain; To none of these your heart incline, But should some generous youth appear, Whose honest mind is void of art, Who shall his Maker's laws revere, And serve him with a willing heart; Who owns fair Virtue for his guide, Nor from her precepts turns aside; To him at once your heart resign, And bless your faithful VALENTINE. Though in this wilderness below You still imperfect bliss shall find, Yet such a friend will share each woe, And bid you be to Heaven resign'd: While Faith unfolds the radiant prize, And Hope still points beyond the skies, At life's dark storms you'll not repine, But bless the day of VALENTINE. IVit at a pinch. A gentleman who left his snuffbox at a friend's on St. Valentine's Eve, 1825, received it soon after his return home in an envelope, sealed, and superscribed-. To JE, Esq. Dear Sir, I've just found proof enough, You are not worth a pinch of snuff; Receive the proof, seal'd up with care, And extract from it, that you are. Valentine, 1825 CHRONOLOGY. SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE died on the 14th of February, 1780. He was born at the house of his father, a silkman, in Cheapside, London, on the 10th of July, 1723; sent to the Charter-house in 1730; entered Pembroke-college, Cambridge, in 1738; of the Middle Temple, 1741; called to the bar in 1746; elected recorder of Wallingford in 1749; made doctor of civil law in 1750; elected Vinerian professor of common law in 1758; returned a representative to Parliament in 1761; married in 1761; became a justice of the court of Common Pleas in 1770. In the course of his life he filled other offices. He was just and benevolent in all his relations, and, on the judicial seat, able and impartial. In English literature and jurisprudence he holds a distinguished rank for his "Commentaries on the Laws of England." This work originated in the legal lectures he commenced in 1753: the first volume was published in 1759, and the remaining three in the four succeeding years. Through these his name is popular, and so will remain while law exists. The work is not for the lawyer alone, it is for every body. It is not so praiseworthy to be learned, as it is disgraceful to be igno rant of the laws which regulate liberty and property. The absence of all information in some men when serving upon juries and coroners' inquests, or as constables, and in parochial offices, is scandalous to themselves and injurious to their fellow men. The "Commentaries" of Blackstone require only common capacity to understand. Wynne's "Eunomus " is an excellent introduction to Blackstone, if any be wanting. With these two works no man can be ignorant of his rights or obligations; and, indeed, the "Commentaries" are so essential, that he who has not read them has no claim to be considered qualified for the exercise of his public duties as an Englishman. He is at liberty, it is true, for the law leaves him at liberty, to assume the character he may be called on to bear in common with his fellow-citizens; but, with this liberty, he is only more or less than a savage, as he is more than a savage by his birth in a civilized country, and less than a savage in the animal instinct, which teaches that self-preservation is the first law of nature; and still further is he less, because, beside the safety of others, it may fall to him, in this state of igno rauce, to watch and ward the safety of the commonwealth itself. Blackstone, on making choice of his profession, wrote an elegant little poem, entitled "The Lawyer's Farewell to his Nurse." It is not more to be admired for ease and grace, than for the strong feeling it evinces in relinquishing the pleasures of poesy and art, and parting for ever from scenes wherein he had happily spent his youthful days. Its conclusion describes his anticipations Lost to the field and torn from you— In frighted streets their orgies hold; A SUIT AT LAW. Its origin and progress may be traced in the Tree engraved on the opposite page. 1. The root of the engraved Tree exhibits a diversity of suits and actions for the remedy of different wrongs. 2. The trunk shows the growth of a suit, stage by stage, until its conclusion 3. The branches from each stage show the proceedings of the plaintiff on one side, and the proceedings of the defendant on the other. 4. The leaves of each branch show certain collateral proceedings whereby the suit is either advanced or suspended. 5. Supposing the form of action suitable to the case, and no stay of proceedings, the suit grows, on the "sure and firm set earth" of the law, into a "goodly tree," and, attaining to execution against either the plaintiff or the defendant, terminates in consuming fire. proceedings, and attending same 0 13 4 Foreman having filed a demurrer, preparing argument against same 0 6 & Attending long argument on demurrer, when same overruled..... Perusing foreman's plea Excepting to same Entering exceptions Perusing notice of motion to remove suit, and preparing valid objections to lay before you Same being overruled, consent thereto, on an undertaking.. 0 3 4 0 10 0 068 003 Expenses on removal of suit-paid Writing you my extreme dissatisfacby you at the time............. tion on finding the suit removed into the King's Bench, and that I should move, the court, when you promised to obtain a Rule as soon as term commenced, and attend me thereon ..... 0 10 C Conferring with you, in presence of your attendant, at my house, on the first day of term, when you succeeded in satisfying me that you were a Gent. one, &c, and an honourable man, and expressed great dissatisfaction at the pro ceedings had with the suit while out of my hands; receiving your instructions to demand of your Uncle that same should return to me, on my paying him a lien he claimed thereon, and received from you his debenture for that purpose ..... 0 13 4 Perusing same, and attending him in St. George's-fields therewith and thereon..... 0 10 0 Paid him, principal and interest 2 10 4 Carried forward....£18 18 0 |