iland_, 3, 4.
"_larea_ stodun thar stenuatu sehsi=_empty_ stood there stone-vats six."
I need not call to your mind the O.H.G. _lari_.

I think, therefore, we cannot doubt that what is intended to be
expressed by the A.-S. _laerig_ is _empty_, _hollow_, _concave_. But if
we wanted further confirmation, _leer_, _leery_, _leary_ are still in
use in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and perhaps elsewhere, for _empty_,
_hollow_, as the provincial Glossaries will show. Skinner has the word
_leer_, vacuus, and says, "foeliciter alludit Gr. [Greek: lagaros],
laxus, vacuus." In _Layamon_ we have (244, 16.), "the put waes _i-laer_."
I have found but one instance in Middle English, and that is in the
curious old _Phrase-Book_ compiled by William Horman, Head Master of
Eton School in the reign of Henry VIII:--

"'At a soden shyfte _leere_ barellis, tyed together, with
boardis above, make passage over a streme.' Tumultuario opere,
_inanes_ cuppae colligatae et tabulatis instratae fluminis transitu
perhibent."--_Hormanni Vulgaria_, Lond. 1519, f. 272 b.

Instances of the word are not frequent, possibly because we had another
word for empty (_toom_) in common with the Danes; but perhaps there was
no necessity for dwelling upon it in the sense of _empty_; it was only
its application as an epithet to a _concave_ or _hollow shield_ that
your question could have had in view. {293}

Once more thanking you most heartily for the pleasure and profit I have
derived from the _Deutsche Grammatik_, and all your other important
labours, I am, sir, your grateful and obliged servant,

S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, Nov. 23. 1849.

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

ST. VALENTINE IN NORWICH--COOK-EELS, &c. &c.

The day appropriated to St. Valentine is kept with some peculiarity in
the city of Norwich. Although "Valentines," as generally understood,
that is to say billets sent by means of the post, are as numerously
employed here as in other places, yet the _custom_ consists not in the
transmission of a missive overflowing with hearts and darts, or poetical
posies, but in something far more substantial, elegant and costly--to
wit, a goodly present of value unrestricted in use or expense. Though
this custom is openly adopted among relatives and others whose
friendship is reciprocated, yet the secret mode of placing a friend in
possession of an offering is followed largely,--and this it is curious
to remark, not on the