Mar. 9. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 293 
Once more thanking you most heartily for 
the pleasure and profit I have derived from the 
Deutsche Grammatik, and all your other im- 
portant labours, I am, sir, your grateful and 
obliged servant, S. W. Sincer. 
Mickleham, Nov. 23. 1849. 
FOLK LORE. 
ST. VALENTINE IN NORWI{CH—SOOK-EELS, &c. &e. 
The day appropriated to St. Valentine is kept 
with some peculiarity in the city of Norwich. 
Although “ Valentines,” as generally understood, 
that is to say billets sent by means of the post, 
are as numerously employed here as in other 
places, yet the custom consists not in the trans- 
mission of a missive overflowing with hearts and 
darts, or poetical posies, but in something far 
more substantial, elezant and costly —to wit, a 
goodly present of value unrestricted in use or ex- 
pense. Though this custom is openly adopted 
among relatives and others whose friendship is 
reciprocatel, yet the secret mode of placing a 
friend in possession of an offering is followed 
largely, —and this it is curious to remark, not on 
the day of the saint, when it might be supposed 
that the appropriateness of the gift would be duly 
ratified, the virtue of the season being in full 
vigour, but on the eve of St. Valentine, when it is 
fair to presume his charms are not properly ma- 
tured. The mode adopted among all classes is 
that of placing the presents on the door-sill of the 
house of the favoured person, and intimating what 
is done by a run-a-way knock or ring as the giver 
pleases. 
So universal is this custom in this ancient city, 
that it may be stated with truth some thousands 
of pounds are annually expended in the purchase 
of Valentine presents. At the time of writing 
(February 2) the shops almost generally exhibit 
displays of articles calculated for the approaching 
period, unexampled in brilliancy, taste and costli- 
ness, and including nearly every item suitable to 
the drawing room, the parlour, or the boudoir. 
The local papers contain numerous advertising 
announcements of “ Valentines;” the walls are 
oceupied with printed placards of a similar cha- 
racter, and the city crier, by means of a loud bell 
and an equally sonorous voice, proclaims the par- 
ticular advantages in the Valentine department of 
rival emporiums. All these preparations increase 
as the avator of St. Valentine approaches. At 
length the saint and his eve arrives— passes —and 
the custom, apparently expanding with age, is 
laced in abeyance until the next year. I am 
melined to believe that this mode of keeping 
St. Valentine is confined to this city and the 
county of Norfolk. 
As regards priority of occurrence this year, I 
should have first mentioned, that on Shrove 
Tuesday a custom commences of eating a small 
bun called coceque’els — cook-eels — coquilles — 
(the name being spelt indifferently) which is con- 
tinued through the season of Lent. Forby, in his 
Vocabulary of East Auglia, calls this production 
“a sort of cross bun,” but no cross is placed upon 
it, though its composition is not dissimilar. My 
inquiries, and, I may add, my reading, have not 
led me to the origin of either of the customs now 
detailed (with the exception of a few unsatisfactory 
words given by Forby on cook-eels), and I should 
be glad to find these brief notices leading by your 
means to more extended information on both sub- 
jects, not only as regards this part of the country, 
but others also. Joun WoppeERspoon. 
Norwich, 
Old Charms. —TI think that, if you are anxious 
to accumulate as much as you can of the Folk 
Lore of England, no set of men are more likely to 
help you than the clergy, particularly the younger 
part, viz., curates, to whom the stories they hear 
among their flock have the gloss of novelty. I 
send you a specimen of old charms, &c. that 
have come under my notice in the south-eastern 
counties. 
No. 1. is a dialogue between the Parson and the 
old Dame : — 
« P. Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to 
cure the toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I 
should be so much pleased to know it. 
“ Dame. Oh, your reverence, it’s not worth telling,” 
(Here a long talk —- Parson coaxing the Dame to 
tell him —old lady very shy, partly suspecting 
he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are 
proper things, partly willing to know what he 
thinks about it.) At last it ends by her saying — 
“ Well, your reverence, you have been very kind to 
me, and [’ll tell you: it’s just a verse from Scripture as 
I says over those as have the toothache ; — 
«<¢ And Jesus said unto Peter, What aileth thee? 
And Peter answered, Lord, I have toothache. And the 
Lord healed him.’ 
“ P, Well, but Dame Grey, I think I know my 
Bible, and [ don’t find any such verse in it. 
“ Dame. Yes, your reverence, that is just the charm, 
Tt’s in the Bible, but you can’t find it!” 
No.2. To avert sickness from a family, hang 
up a sickle, or iron implement, at the bed head. 
No. 3. Should a death happen in a house at 
night, and there be a hive or hives of bees in the 
garden, go out and wake them up at once, other- 
wise the whole hive or swarm will die. 
IT hope your Folk Lore is not confined to the 
fading memorials of a past age. The present 
superstitions are really much more interesting and 
valuable to he gathered together ; and I am sure 
your pages would be very well employed in re- 
cording these for a future generation, I would 
