If you have ‘good teeth, soft lips, bosom plump and white’ apply here

Shapely Ankle Preferr’d - A History of the Lonely Hearts Ad 1695-2010

Grubby pick-up joints, stop-watched speed-dating parties and anonymous internet introductions have no place in this fairytale. Or so the delusion goes.

In reality, finding a mate is often far from an organic experience and those in search of love, marriage or simply a legal union with no heartstrings attached have long turned for help with this most personal of problems to an unlikely intermediary — the very public press.