FOLK LORE.

_Valentine's Day_ (Vol. v., p. 55.).--Your correspondent J. S. A. will

find the following notice of a similar custom to the one he alludes to

in Mr. L. Jewitt's paper on the Customs of the County of Derby, in the

last number of the _Journal of the British Archæological Association_:

"Of the latter (divinations) there is a curious instance at

Ashborne, where a young woman who wishes to divine who her future

husband is to be, goes into the church-yard at midnight, and as

the clock strikes twelve, commences running round the church,

repeating without intermission--

'I sow hemp-seed, hemp-seed I sow,

He that loves me best

Come after me and mow.'

Having thus performed the circuit of the church twelve times

without stopping, the figure of her lover is supposed to appear

and follow her."

Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 120, February 14, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. · 第 34 / 152 题