Misson, in his _Travels in England_ (translated by Ozell, p. 330), describes the amusing practices of his time connected with this day. He tells us that on the eve of the 14th February, St. Valentine’s day, the young folks in England and Scotland, by a very ancient custom, celebrate a little festival. An equal number of maids and bachelors get together, and each writes their true or some feigned name upon separate billets, which they roll up, and draw by way of lots, the maids taking the men’s billets, and the men the maids’; so that each of the young men lights upon a girl that he calls his Valentine, and each of the girls upon a young man which she calls hers. By this means each has two Valentines; but the man sticks faster to the Valentine that is fallen to him, than the Valentine to whom he is fallen. Fortune having thus divided the company into so many couples, the Valentines give balls and treats to their mistresses, wear their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves, and this little sport often ends in love. There is another kind of Valentine, which is the first young man or woman that chance throws in your way in the street, or elsewhere, on that day. In some places, says Hone (_Every Day Book_, vol. i. p. 226), at this time, and more particularly in London, the lad’s Valentine is the first lass he sees in the morning, who is not an inmate of the house; the lass’s Valentine is the first youth she sees. Gay mentions this usage on St. Valentine’s Day; he makes a rustic housewife remind her good man-- “I early rose just at the break of day, Before the sun had chas’d the stars away; A-field I went, amid the morning dew To milk my kine (for so should house-wives do); Thee first I spied, and the first swain we see, In spite of Fortune shall our true-love be.” Shakespeare bears witness to the custom of looking for your Valentine, or desiring to be one, through poor Ophelia’s singing: “Good morrow! ’tis St. Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine!” DERBYSHIRE. At Ashborne the following custom is observed on Valentine’s Eve. When a young woman wishes to divine who her future husband is to be, she goes into the churchyard at midnight, and as the clock strikes twelve commences running round the church, repeating without intermission: “I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow, He that loves me best Come and after me mow.” Having thus performed the circuit of the church twelve times without stopping, the figure of her lover is supposed to appear and follow her.--_Jour. Arch. Assoc._ 1852, vol. vii. p. 209. DEVONSHIRE. The peasants and others believe that if they go to the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past twelve o’clock on the Eve of St. Valentine’s day, with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the time above-named, then proceed homewards, scattering the seed on either side, repeating these lines: