Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

by Various

"The. Gift. Is. Small.

Good. will. Is. all.

Jeneuery. y^e 12 day.

1688."

The shepherd's love gift is a wooden implement, very neatly carved, and intended to hold knitting-needles. On the front it has this couplet:

"WHEN THIS YOV SEE.

REMEMBER MEE. MW.

(On one side.)

MW. 1673."

To an uninformed mind these sincere records of honest men seem as much "signs of the times" as the perfumed sonnets dropped by expiring swains into the vases of "my lady Betty," and "my lady Bab," with a view to publication.