The old guidwife's well-hoarded nuts, Are round and round divided, And many lads' and lasses' fates Are there that night decided: Some kindle cosily, side by side, And burn together trimly; Some start away, with saucy pride, And jumpout over the chimney Full high that night. Robert Burn's poem "Halloween" (1786) was still a favourite in Victorian England, where in the last days of October and the first days of November, the would write their name on nuts, as well as the name of their…
