COUNTRY LIFE
I CAME across the other day a singularly Pepysian extract from the Diary concerning St. Valentine's Day, February 14th, 1667; "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 "! Has St. Valentine any votaries left ? It does seem to have been a most expensive day three hundred years ago (Mrs. Pepys received jewels of value); and, indeed, a most merry one six hundred years ago. The older poets, who were often pretty good ornithologists were wont to give the birds first place. Donne, for example (said to be the first English poet to address a whole poem to a flower, to wit the primrose), picks out as likely pairs to celebrate the day, lark, dove, robin, blackbird and kingfisher, among " the chirping choristers " which were Bishop Valentine's " parishioners." It is a proper subject of rejoicing that recent legislation has prohibited the shooting of duck at this date.
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