Despite our reluctance to express ourselves, there is still a yearning appetite for romantic correspondence, the National Trust found.

The poll to discover our favourite romantic message was commissioned by British life insurance company Beagle Street to encourage Brits to be more romantic on February 14.

For longer, particularly romantic love letters, E-mail writers also reach back into the language of poetry, "Your calf-blue14 eyes" is typical for the kind of phrasings found in email love letters.