Folk-Lore/Volume 5/St. Valentine's Day Custom at Northrepps

by W. B. Gerish

VALENTINE'S DAY CUSTOM AT NORTHREPPS.

BY MR. W. B. GERISH.

Mr. R. D. Gurney has kindly forwarded me the following note, which is quite new to me, and may be to other folklorists:—

"As long as can be remembered by the old people, it has been the custom for the children, some seventy more or less, going very early in the morning of the 14th February to the chief houses, where they sing:

"'Good morrow, Valentine,
How it do Hail.
When Father's pig die,
Yow shall ha' its tail.

"'Good morrow, Valentine,
How thundering Hot.
When Father's pig die,
Yow shall ha' its jot.'

"The rest of the time is whiled away in School-Board songs. The custom is not known in the neighbouring villages, as far as I know."

The jot, I may say, is the tripe or intestines of the pig, and is the peculiar delicacy of the poorer class in Norfolk. I do not think the tail can be considered a bonne bouche.