It was anciently the custom to draw lots on this day. The names of an equal number of each sex were put into a box, in separate partitions, out of which every one present drew a name, called the Valentine, which was regarded as a good omen of their future marriage. It would appear from a curious passage quoted in the "Dictionary of Archaisms," that any lover was hence termed a Valentine; not necessarily an affianced lover, as suggested in "Hampson's Calendarium," vol. i. p. 163. Lydgate, the poet of Bury, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions this practice-- "St. Valentine, of custom year by year Men have an usance in this region To look and search Cupid's calendere, And choose their choice by great affection: Such as be prick'd with Cupid's motion, Taking their choice as their lot doth fall: But I love one which excelleth all." The divinations practised on Valentine's day are a curious subject. Herrick mentions one by rose-buds-- "She must no more a-Maying; Or by rose-buds divine Who'll be her Valentine." Perhaps the poet may here allude to a practice similar to the following, quoted by Brand: "Last Friday was Valentine day; and the night before I got five bay-leaves, and pinned four of them to the four corners of my pillow, and the fifth to the middle; and then, if I dreamt of my sweetheart, Betty said we should be married before the year was out. _But, to make it more sure_, I boiled an egg hard, and took out the yolk, and filled it with salt; and, when I went to bed, eat it shell and all, without speaking or drinking after it. We also wrote our lover's names upon bits of paper, and rolled them up in clay, and put them into water; and the first that rose up was to be our Valentine. Would you think it? Mr. Blossom was my man. I lay abed, and shut my eyes all the morning, till he came to our house, for I would not have seen another man before him for all the world." According to Mother Bunch, the following lines should be said by the girl on retiring to rest the previous night-- "Sweet guardian angels, let me have What I most earnestly do crave, A Valentine endowed with love, That will both kind and constant prove." We believe the old custom of drawing lots on this eventful day is obsolete, and has given place to the favorite practice of sending pictures, with poetical legends, to objects of love or ridicule. The lower classes, however, seldom treat the matter with levity, and many are the offers of marriage thus made. The clerks at the post-offices are to be pitied, the immense increase of letters beyond the usual average adding very inconveniently to their labors. Such is Mr. Halliwell's account of Valentine's day. In "Poor Robin's Almanack," 1676, the _drawing_ of Valentines is thus alluded to-- "Now, Andrew, Antho- Ny, and William, For Valentines _draw_ Prue, Kate, Jilian."