choosing valentines was formerly practised in North Wilts, in Kent, and many other parts of England. The maid-servants, observes our antiquary, were wont at night (after supper) to make smoothe the ashes on the hearthe, and then to make streakes on it with a stick; such a streake signified privately to her that made it, such an unmarried man, such a one such a mayd: the like for men, then the men and the mayds were to choose by this kind of way, their husbands and wyfes: or by this divination to know whom they should marry. The maydes, 1 remember, were very fond of this kind of magick.-Aubrey MS., A.D. 1686.

Of the customs on this day in the year 1666, Mr. Pepys affords us the following notice: This morning come up to my wife's bedside, I being up dressing myself, little Will Mercer to be her Valentine; and brought her name writ upon blue paper in gold letters, done by himself, very pretty; and we were both well pleased with it. But I am also this year my wife's Valentine, and it will cost me £5; but that I must have laid out if we had not been Valentines.' Again, continues our amusing chronicler,' I find that Mrs. Pierce's little girl is my Valentine, she having drawn me; which I was not sorry for, it easing me of something more that I must have given to others. But here I do first observe the fashion of drawing of mottos as well as names; so that Pierce, who drew my wife, did draw also a motto, and this girl drew another for me. What mine was I have forgot; but my wife's was, "Most courteous, most fair," which as it may be used, or an anagram made upon each name, might be very pretty. One wonder, I observed to-day, that there was no musique in the morning to call up our new-married people, which is very mean, methinks.'-Pepys's Memoirs.

The sweet St. Valentine' is, even in the present day, remembered with due honours throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland: perhaps the most

agreeable method of keeping this Day of Days' is that to which the young people of Norwich are accustomed. The Valentines are prepared, perhaps, some days before, and sent out on the evening of the 13th; not per post, for these are good substantial gifts, and are laid at the house-doors of the happy receivers, who often lose many a rare pre sent from numerous wicked urchins being on the watch to seize or snatch them away with a looped string, as soon as fairly out of the servants' hands. Cakes, oranges, packets of sweetmeats made purposely for the day, work-boxes and bags, silver knives and pencils, music, books, drawing materials, colours, puzzles, dissected maps, &c. &c., delight those fortunate children who have friends sufficiently rich to bestow them: but most of the inhabitants of Norwich think Valentines there an extremely 'costly custom,' and money very ill spent, so it is most probable that, in a few years, these presents will be discontinued. Children's balls are also held, on this eve, at in Scotland: the nobility and gentry of the town and neighbourhood, wishing for a select ball, have instituted a 'Valentine Club,' which, from the rules and the different orders of the members of it, is apparently a jocose model of the Society of the Knights Templars: to the sublime' Order of the Pincushion' belongs a Grand Master and a Grand Mistress; different ranks of females, who are all Ladies; and different titles and orders. of gentlemen, who are all Knights. The society, which is wholly of a private nature, meet for a ball twice in the year; and one time for the celebration of this assembly is on the night of the 14th of February.

It may here, probably, be amusing to the reader, and not entirely out of place (particularly as the Valentinian devotions of this day often lead their votaries to the Hymeneal altar), to notice a curious custom in Dublin, called Boarding. The stranger in that city will be frequently astonished to behold a young, healthy

looking man carried about the streets on a board by some of his own sex, attended by a few men and boys, more silent altogether than might be expected. This rabble is likely to be mistaken, in a catholic country, for a ragged procession in honour of one of the saints of that religion; but it is the apotheosis of the living, if the reader choose to consider it as such. The Irish, especially the lower orders, marry when very young, and while they are yet very poor; so poor, that the pair cannot afford to treat their visitors on the wedding-day with Erin's nectar and ambrosia-whiskey-cheap as it is. When this is the case, the gentlemen guests take down the door of the unlucky bridegroom's house, oblige him to lie down upon it, carry him forth, and go

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the rounds of the city with him, the whole day; while the bride and her company are left to divert themselves as they can in the doorless habitation.[M. L. B.]

*14.-LYNN MART, or FAIR.

The mart or fair of Lynn Regis, in Norfolk, lasts a fortnight. The first week is what is called a free mart, during which no tradesman of Lynn can be arrested. It is held in the market-place, which is very spacious, containing an area of about three acres, and having a very handsome market-cross of freestone, adorned with statues. In a semicircular form on each side are the butchers' shambles, in two divisions, the frontispieces being supported by Doric columns, and the pediments enriched with various appropriate decorations.

*14. 1789.-JAMES FRANK PENNIE BORN.

The subject of this notice is a poet of no common order, the events of whose life cannot fail to excite the most unfeigned pity. He was born of an ancient, but very reduced family, at East-Lulworth in Dorsetshire, where he still resides. His education was entirely neglected, as he was only at school for seven weeks; but notwithstanding his disadvantages in this respect, his thirst for knowledge was great, and he took every possible opportunity of satisfying his ardent desires. The companion of

his childhood was the son of a clergyman; and when this youth first went to school, Pennie anxiously anticipated his return at the vacations, that he might participate the knowledge he had acquired. The boy used to repeat some of the finest passages of Milton, Thomson, Pope, Shakspeare, and others; Pennie listened with rapture, and devoured the words as they fell from his lips. 'Twas then,' says he, in a MS. abstract of his life, which he drew up at the request of some friends, the enthusiasm of poetic inspiration took possession of my soul, which has ever since been my highest joy.' From this early period he began to compose and read incessantly, though his father decidedly opposed his wishes.

Before he was fifteen, he had written a tragedy, which, about the year 1802, he showed to a gentleman then residing in the neighbourhood, who was pleased with it, and on taking it to London obtained the promise of a situation for him in a public office. On Pennie's arrival in London, however, he found he was too late; the situation had been disposed of, and the gentleman left him a stranger in the vast metropolis, giving him a guinea, and telling him he could do no more for him. He was thus left without a friend. The only person to whom he had been introduced was connected with one of the minor theatres, He approved of the tragedy as a literary production, though unfit to be brought before the public; and encouraged Pennie to return home, with a promise that, if he would write others better suited for representation, he would bring them forward. Another was composed, but refused, and the disconsolate writer heard no more of his supposed friend. He afterwards obtained a situation in a solicitor's office at Bristol, but ill-health prevented his remaining there. He was next engaged as a tutor in a school in Devonshire.

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Some time after this he married, but his circumstances instead of improving, became worse; as at the birth of his first child, he had but five shillings in the world. Poverty, with all its attendant evils of sickness and distress, was then his lot. 'It was now,' he observes, among these scenes of trial and sorrow, that I commenced writing the “Royal Minstrel." I may say the ink with which I wrote was mingled with bitter tears; and one whole winter of the time we had not any fuel to burn, except what I picked up privately in the woods. After proceeding for some time, Pennie showed his work to some friends who had approved of a previous poem of Bonaparte,' written in 1804. He obtained one hundred subscribers; and, after much difficulty, got a printer at Dorchester to undertake the work; and while it was going through the press, frequently walked from Lulworth to Dorchester (about fifteen miles), and back again the same day, to correct the proof sheets. The work, however, was com

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pleted in 1818, and reprinted again in London in the following year.

About this time he commenced a small school, but a Roman Catholic schoolmaster in the village, who had a fixed salary, house, &c., opened his school for Protestant boys free, and hence all resource from such an undertaking was cut off. Finding his work remain unsold, he determined to dispose of it by travelling from town to town, and, after much fatigue, ultimately parted with nearly the whole impression. The cost of printing, and the expense of travelling, though on foot, was great; and after paying a few other debts, his circumstances were upon the whole but little improved. The sale of his work, however, procured him some letters of introduction to the London booksellers, and on going to the metropolis be sold the copyright of his poem for a trifling sum. It was on this journey, in 1818, by way of Bath, that he first met with the REV. JOSIAH ALLPORT, then curate of Chippenham, a man of christian kindness and extensive benevolence, who has since been Pennie's greatest benefactor. On returning home he composed, amidst much distress, his tragedy of Ethelwolf,' and a second epic poem, named • Rogvald.' He was again obliged to try his fortune among the BOOKSELLERS in London, and all he obtained for his copyright was barely sufficient to pay the expenses of his journey; so that on arriving at home he found he had scarcely enough to purchase a loaf of bread. His miseries seemed to have reached their climax: he lost all confidence in the GOD who had hitherto supported him; and was about to plunge at once into a dread, unknown futurity. At this moment of accumulated agony he determined to state his case fully to Mr. Allport. To this nobleminded individual the broken heart did not apply in vain. Mr. Allport entered with alacrity and true feeling into every part of the case, and having scrutinised Pennie's moral character, and proved his uncommon talents, made every effort to obtain for him temporary, and, if possible, permanent relief.

In the year 1823, his Rogvald, an Epic Poem in Twelve Books,' appeared, and the sale of this, with some pecuniary assistance from friends, enabled him to pursue his literary labours with a transient hope of success. His works, however, were never sufficiently brought before the public in the first reviews of the day; and through this unmerited neglect, the poet has been debarred from those opportunities of obtaining public patronage, which other writers enjoy. The wretchedness of extreme poverty was again his lot, and the unbounded gratitude he had evinced for what had been done for him before, induced his kind benefactor to devise fresh means for his relief. He stated the circumstances in the Bath and Cheltenham Gazette, and strongly urged his case upon the generosity of the public; while