or love-letters in verse, to any lady who pleased their fancy; and sometimes ladies were gracious enough to address their lovers in rhyme. The outer door was usually slyly opened, and the verses, tied to an apple or an orange, thrown in. A loud rap then announced the event to the inmates of the house. Sometimes the boys, for the sake of sport, would chalk the size of a letter on the door-step, and then have fine fun when some person attempted to pick it up. There was a superstition that whoever was first seen on the morning of St. Valentine's day, would assuredly be the future spouse. On that day it was customary for a young lady to choose from among the gentlemen of her acquaintance one to be her gallant; he presented her with a bunch of flowers, or other trifling present, and thus bound himself to attend upon her with the most obsequious gallantry for the space of one year; before the service was completed a more serious partnership was often resolved on.

On St. Valentine's day, it is still usual for the common people of England to draw names by lot. The man whose name is drawn makes the fair one some trifling present, and is her partner in the dance. She considers him her beau until he is engaged to some one else, or till St. Valentine's day returns.

These customs, together with the superstitious observances of Hallow E'en, continued in full force during the seventeenth century, and fragments of hem are now found in various parts of the world. It may be necessary to say a few words concerning

the dress worn at the remote periods of which we have been speaking. The Saxon ladies wore a bodice and short petticoat, with a kind of mantle over the head and shoulders. Buskins, laced in front, were worn on the feet. The custom of combing the hair all back from the face, surmounted with a black coif and steeple hat, continued from the Norman conquest till near the seventeenth century. Queen Elizabeth was the first woman in England that wore silk stockings; embroidered gloves and perfumes were likewise first introduced into England from Italy, for her use. This magnanimous queen was extremely offended if any of the ladies of her court wore garments approaching to her own in magnificence. She had a new dress for every day in the year, and was much attracted by rich apparel in gentlemen. Sir Walter Raleigh had even his shoes embroidered with pearls, and the court dresses of her favorite Leicester were literally covered with jewels. Elizabeth enacted sumptuary laws, which defined with great precision what sort of bonnet might be worn by a gentlewoman, what by an esquire's wife, what by a baron's wife, &c. Aldermen's wives were permitted by an express law to wear the royal color of scarlet. Every alderman who failed to supply his wife with a scarlet gown before the ensuing Christmas, was fined ten pounds; and every lady, who failed to appear in these dresses at Christmas and Easter, forfeited twenty shillings for every default.

During Cromwell's time, ornaments were though sinful Women wore their hair plain and smooth

and muffled their persons from head to foot, as if beauty were a gift to be ashamed of. This unnatural restraint produced a violent reaction in the time of Charles the Second. Ladies began to copy the elegant drapery of Vandyke's pictures, which gradually degenerated into extreme immodesty.

The emperor Paul of Russia made very minute regulations concerning the dress both of men and women; and his laws were so capricious that it required the most vigilant attention to comply with them. He once ordered a lady of his court to be imprisoned and kept on bread and water, because she had been guilty of wearing her hair rather lower in the neck than was consistent with his decrees.

During the middle ages, the French women wore gowns quite high in the neck, and fitted closely to the shape. The right side was embroidered with their husbands' coat of arms, and the left with their own. The custom of displaying the shoulders was unknown before the time of Charles the Sixth. Widows were closely muffled, and wore caps and veils very much like nuns. Henry the Fourth found himself obliged to restrain extravagance by sumptuary laws; yet his mistress, Gabriella, was sometimes so loaded with pearls and diamonds, that she could not support her own weight.

A taste for rich and elegant dress displayed itself first and most conspicuously in Italy and France, and thence spread into more northern nations. Petrarch's Laura is described as wearing gloves bro caded with gold, and dressed magnificently in silk,

though a pound of silk at that period was valued at four pounds sterling in money.

Spanish ladies wore necklaces of steel, to which thin iron rods were fastened, curving upward to expand the veil when thrown over the head. Caps more than a foot high were likewise much in vogue; they were dressed in the form of a toupee on the top of the head, and covered with a black veil. These caps may still be seen in some of the Spanish provinces. Both in Scotland and Spain it was customary for a widow to wear mourning till she died, or married again. The first year was passed in a chamber hung with black, from which the sunlight was excluded; the second it was hung with gray, and jewels and mirrors prohibited.

All nations prided themselves on long and beautiful hair. Among the Saxons and Danes, married women only covered it with a head-dress; girls wore their tresses loose and flowing. A faithless wife had her head shaven, and the church sometimes ordered it as a penance for other sins. The Spanish and Italian ladies retained the Roman predilection for golden hair. In order to obtain the desired hue, they made use of sulphur and aquafortis, and exposed their heads to the sun during the hottest hours of the day.

During the middle ages, dwellings were vast, and in some respects magnificent, but remarkably comfortless. The wife of the proudest baron, though she wore

"A mantle of rich degree,

Purple pall and ermine fre,"

was obliged to live without many things, which th Least wealthy citizen of the United States would consider it absolutely necessary to provide for his household. Coffee and tea were unknown. Coaches were not used in England until 1680. Before that

time ladies rode on horseback or on palfreys; and sometimes double, with another on the pillion. A fondness for perfumes was universal; they were usu ally kept burning in censers.

The word lady is supposed to have been derived from the Saxon word hlaf-dig, meaning a loaf-giver from the custom of distributing bread among retain ers, after a feast in baronial halls. It was customary to bind the tender limbs of infants in tight bandages.

After the sixteenth century, books or verses in praise of women gradually diminished; tournaments were abolished; and manners became less reserved and respectful. Ladies of rank began to throw aside the pedantry of learned languages, and acquire what the French call "the talent of society." The French were the first to set the example of graceful accom. plishments, and fascinating vivacity of manners; and they soon became, what they have ever since remained, "the glass of fashion" for other nations.

The beautiful Mary Stuart carried the gay and graceful refinements of Paris into the bleak atmosphere of Scotland, and Henrietta Maria, with her brilliant eyes, lively manners, and ever-changing caprices, made them fashionable in old England.

Under the commonwealth, society assumed a new and stern aspect. The theatres were shut; games,