Note 327:B — Chapter IX
Reading edition
Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. ii. p. 258.—"I have found unquestionable authority," remarks Mr. Brand, "to evince that the custom of chusing Valentines was a sport practised in the houses of the gentry in England as early as the year 1476." Brand apud Ellis, vol. i. p. 48.
The authority alluded to by Mr. Brand, is a letter, in Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. ii. p. 211., dated February 1476.