There was a pretty custom observed by gentlefolk on the 1st of May. The maypoles had been restored, but the old dances were well-nigh forgotten. The people on this day flocked to Hyde Park; but gentlemen escorted their mistresses into the country to bid welcome to the spring. There was always a collation in the seventeenth century to mark the day or the function, whichever it was. [Illustration: English: Gentle:woman Noble Gentle woman of England From contemporary engravings by Hollar.] Kissing was as common as shaking hands. When a man was introduced to a lady he kissed her; men kissed each other. In 1667 Pepys, having made a successful speech, was complimented by Mr. Montagu, who kissed him. It appears that husbands and lovers were not always pleased at this indiscriminate kissing, and there are instances where the ladies rebelled against the custom. The day of St. Valentine was universally observed. Everybody chose, or received by lot, a valentine. On the eve of the 14th of February the bachelors and maidens assembled together in equal companies; each wrote his or her name on a paper. These were rolled up; the men drew the girls’ names, the girls the men’s. This arrangement gave an opening for some choice, because everybody had the girl whose name he had drawn and the girl who had drawn his name. These matters settled, and every man having his Valentine chosen or assigned, it became the duty of the man to make a present to the girl and to treat her as if she was indeed his mistress. In Pepys’s _Diary_, however, it is apparent that married men might have their wives for Valentines and that children might have married women. Pepys had his wife for a Valentine two years running. In the first he gave her £5, in the second a Turkey stone set with diamonds. Poets wrote Valentines. Thus in 1629 J. Howell wrote the following pretty lines to his Valentine:— “Could I charm the Queen of Love To lend a quill of her white Dove; Or one of Cupid’s pointed wings Dipt in the fair Castalian Springs; Then would I write the all-divine Perfections of my Valentine. As ’mongst all Flow’rs the Rose excels, As amber ’mongst the fragrant’st smells, As ’mongst all Minerals the Gold, As marble ’mongst the finest Mould, As Diamonds ’mongst jewels bright, As Cynthia ’mongst the lesser Lights; So ’mongst the Northern Beauties shine, So far excels my Valentine. In Rome and Naples I did view Faces of Celestial Hue; Venetian Dames I have seen many (I only saw them, touch’d not any), Of Spanish Beauties, Dutch and French, I have beheld the Quintessence; Yet I saw none that could outshine Or parallel my Valentine.