Northamptonshire.
In this county children go from house to house, on the morning of St. Valentine’s Day, soliciting small gratuities. The children of the villages go in parties, sometimes in considerable numbers, repeating at each house the following salutations, which vary in different districts:[18]
“Good morrow, Valentine!
First it’s yours, and then it’s mine,
So please give me a Valentine.”
“Morrow, morrow, Valentine!
First ’tis yours, and then ’tis mine,
So please to give me a Valentine.
Holly and ivy tickle my toe,
Give me red apples and let me go.”
“Good morrow, Valentine!
Parsley grows by savoury,
Savoury grows by thyme,
A new pair of gloves on Easter day.
Good morrow, Valentine!”
[18] See History and Antiquities of Weston Favell (1827, p. 6). Brand in his Pop. Antiq. mentions this custom as existing in Oxfordshire.—1849, vol. i. p. 60.
It was formerly customary for young people to catch their parents and each other on their first meeting on St. Valentine’s morning. Catching was no more than the exclamation, “Good morrow, Valentine!” and they who could repeat this before they were spoken to, were entitled to a small present from their parents or the elderly persons of the family; consequently there was great eagerness to rise early, and much good-natured strife and merriment on the occasion.[19]
[19] The custom was observed at Norfolk.—Brand, Pop. Antiq. vol. i. p. 60.
In Peterborough and in some of the villages in the northern part of the county sweet plum buns were formerly given, and I believe are still made, called Valentine buns; and these buns, I am told, are in some villages given by godfathers and godmothers to their godchildren on the Sunday preceding and the Sunday following St. Valentine’s Day.—Baker, Glossary of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, 1854, vol. ii. p. 373.