Menage, in his Etymological Dictionary, has accounted for the term
“Valentine,” by stating that Madame Royale, daughter of Henry the Fourth
of France, having built a palace near Turin, which, in honour of the
saint, then in high esteem, she called the Valentine, at the first
entertainment which she gave in it, was pleased to order that the ladies
should receive their lovers for the year by lots, reserving to herself
the privilege of being independent of chance, and of choosing her own
partner. At the various balls which this gallant princess gave during
the year, it was directed that each lady should receive a nosegay from
her lover, and that, at every tournament, the knight’s trappings for his
horse should be furnished by his allotted mistress, with this proviso,
that the prize obtained should be hers. This custom, says Menage,
occasioned the parties to be called “Valentines.”[50]
* * * * *
An elegant writer, in a journal of the present month, prepares for the
annual festival with the following