The Hon. Henry C. Murphy of Brooklyn, N. Y., late United States minister at the Hague, has furnished us with the following note in relation to this Nederduitsche custom: "As to its being a Dutch custom, it was so to a limited extent in Holland in former times, and may yet be, though I did not hear of it when I was there. Sewell gives the word _queesten_, or _kweesten_, in his dictionary, printed over a century ago. The word is defined in the dictionary of Wieland, the principal lexicographer in that country, as follows: '_Kweesten_. Upon the islands of Texel and Vlieland[16] they use this word for a singular custom of wooing, by which the doors and windows are left open, and the lover, lying or sitting outside the covering, woos the girl who is underneath.' Sewell confines the custom to certain islands or lands near the sea." LOVE AND COURTSHIP IN THE 14TH CENTURY. In feudal times, in the last part of the fourteenth century, it became the practice for the vassals, or feudatories, to send their sons to be educated in the family of the suzerain, while the daughters were similarly placed with the lady of the castle. These formed a very important part of the household, and were of gentle blood, claiming the honorary title of _chambriéres_ or chamber-maidens. The demoiselles of this period were very susceptible to the passion of love, which was the ruling spirit of the inmates of the castle. Feudal society was, in comparison to the previous times, polished and even brilliant, but it was not, under the surface, pure. Many good maxims were taught, but they were not all practiced. "There was an extreme intimacy between the two sexes, who commonly visited each other in their chambers or bedrooms. Thus in the poem of Guatier d'Aupias, the hero is represented as visiting in her chamber the demoiselle of whom he is enamored. Numerous similar examples might be quoted. At times, one of the parties is described as being actually in bed, as is the case in the romance of _Blonde of Oxford_, where Blonde visits Jehan in his chamber when he is in bed, and stays all night with him, in perfect innocence as we are told in the romance. We must remember that it was the custom in those times for both sexes to go to bed perfectly naked."[17] IN SWITZERLAND, According to an English observer,[18] analogous modes of courtship still exist. In speaking of the canton _Unterwald_ he says: "In the story of the destruction of the castles, we read that the surprise was effected by a young girl admitting her lover to her room by a ladder, and an English guide-book remarks, that this is still the fashion of receiving lovers in Switzerland. Reference is had to the manner of wooing, which in some cantons is called _lichtgetren_, in others _dorfen_ and _stubetegetren_, and answers to the old-fashioned _going-a-courting_ in England. The customs connected with it vary in different cantons, but exist in some form in all except two or three.