Buy a bottle of reviver to renovate your coat and trousers for
forthcoming parties. Rout up old kid gloves, and send them to be
cleaned.
That, on the 14th, if there is any one you wish to insult, it can be
done cheaply and anonymously by a valentine, without the chance of being
tricked in return; whilst the shaft rankles the more, because it is not
known who has sent it.
Do not accept an invitation to Hampshire for wild-duck shooting, unless
you wish to catch a rheumatism that will last you for life. This sport
consists in sitting all night up to the knees in mud, half frozen, armed
with a long gun, which your fingers are too cold to let off. This,
however, is your only chance of safety, as, if it did go off, the recoil
would knock you backwards, and you would never get up again.
In early times the greater part of the month was dedicated to the Saxon
god, _Thaw_.