[This is repeated for “kings,” and the game ends as in the previous versions. “Three” hundred pounds being substituted for “five.”]
—Deptford, Kent (Miss Chase).
—Isle of Man (A. W. Moore).
(c) The players form in two lines, and stand facing one another. One line consists of a mother and daughters. The other of the suitors. The mother stands a little in advance of her daughters. They remain stationary during the game, the mother alone singing the words on her side. The suitors advance and retire in line while singing their verses. The mother turns partly round when singing the two first lines of her verses addressing her daughters, and then faces the suitors when singing to them the remaining two lines. When she accepts the “kings” she brings one of her daughters forward, presents her to the suitors, and shows them the money in her pocket, and the ring on her finger. The daughter goes with the kings, who take her a little way apart, pretend to rob her of her ring, money, and clothes, and then bring her back to her mother, and sing the last verse. They then run off in all directions, and the mother and daughters chase and catch them, and they change sides. Sometimes all the daughters are taken by the suitors before they are robbed and brought back. The game is also played by five players only; three representing the sailors or suitors, and two the mother and daughter. The mother then chases the suitors, and whoever she catches becomes the daughter the next game. These are the usual methods of playing. In the Norfolk version the middle one of the three suitors takes the girl, robs her, and all three bring her back and sing the verses. In the Isle of Man version one player sits down, the others join hands, advance and retire singing the lines. The girl who is chosen joins the one sitting down.
(d) This game points to that period of tribal society, when the youths of one tribe sought to obtain their wives from the maidens of another tribe according to the laws of exogamy, but a definite person is here selected for the wife, and it is to the relatives or persons having authority (as in “Three Knights”) that the demand for the bride is made, and not to the girl personally, as in “Three Dukes.”
The game, while not so interesting a one to us as “Three Dukes,” and “Three Knights,” has its particular or peculiar features. It is probably later, and shows more clearly that position and wealth were of importance to a man in the obtaining of a wife. Individually he has not (apparently) courted the girl before, but he comes for that purpose now. He may be announcing himself under the various ranks or professions mentioned, before stating his real position; or, this may show that the girl having many suitors, and those of all degrees, the “mother” or relatives are actuated by purely mercenary motives, and wish to select the best and richest suitor for her. We must remember that it was accounted great honour to a girl to have many suitors and amongst these men distinguished by the performance of brave deeds, which had gained them renown and pre-eminence, or wealth. The fact that the rejection or acceptance of the suitors is made known to the girl by the “mother,” or person having authority, shows that “sanction” or permission is necessary, and that “rejection” or “acceptance” is signified to the suitors in the words, you “may not,” or, you “may” have a lodging here, signifies admission into the family. This is a most interesting feature. The girl is to “wake up,” that would be to rouse up, be merry, dress in bridal array and prepare for the coming festival. She is also given to the suitors with “in her pocket one hundred pounds,” and “on her finger a gay gold ring.” This, it will be seen, is given her by her “mother” or person having authority, and probably refers to the property the girl brings with her to her new abode for her proper maintenance there; the ring shows likewise her station and degree in her former abode, and is the token that she is fit bride for a king, and must be treated accordingly. Curious, too, is “Here’s my daughter safe and sound,” which looks like a warrant or guarantee of the girl’s fitness to be a bride. The expression “walk with,” meaning “to marry,” again occurs in this game as in “Three Dukes.” The line occurring in two versions, “And down by the door they bend their knee,” is suggestive of courtesy shown to the bride and her family at the threshold of the house.
The incident of the three kings becoming robbers is not easily understood. Robbery was common of course, particularly when money and valuables were known to be carried on the person; but I do not think this is sufficient in itself to account for the incident. It may be a reflection of the later fact that a man always took possession of his wife’s personal property after marriage, and considered it his own to do as he pleased with. When this idea became codified in written law, the idea might readily get reflected in the game, when kings would not be understood as apparently taking things that did not belong to them, unless they were bandits in disguise. This last verse and the robbery may be a later addition to the game, when robbery was of everyday occurrence. There may have been (although there is nothing now in any version to warrant the idea) some similar action on the part of the kings, such as a further arraying of the bride, and presenting her to their party or house, which has been misunderstood. Mr. Newell suggests that children having forgotten the original happy finish, and not understanding the “haggling” over the suitors, turned the kings into bandits. Children think it such a natural thing to wish to marry kings, princes, and princesses, and are so sincere in thinking it a matter of course to refuse a sailor or soldier for a king, when it is only a question of marriage, and not of choosing the one you like the best, that this reason does not to me seem to apply to a game of this kind.
Two leaders each choose a name such as “Golden Apple” and “Golden Pear.” The remaining children all hold each other’s waists in a long string, the “Golden Apple” and “Golden Pear” holding hands aloft like an arch. The string of children then runs under the arch. The last child that passes under is detained by the “Golden Apple” and “Golden Pear” (they having dropped hands previously). The detained child is asked in a whisper which she prefers, “Golden Apple,” “Golden Pear;” she chooses, and then stands at the back of the “Golden Apple” or “Golden Pear.” When all the children have passed through, the “Golden Apple” and “Golden Pear” hold each other’s hands and stand with the others behind them and pull like a “Tug of War.” There should be a line drawn between the “Golden Apple” and the “Golden Pear,” and whichever side pulls the other over the line, wins the game.—Northumberland (from a lady friend of Hon. J. Abercromby).
The formula sung in Fraserburgh when the players are running under the raised arms is—
After the tug of war the victors call out “Rotten eggs, rotten eggs” (Rev. W. Gregor).
The words used in Galloway are—
—Galloway (J. G. Carter).
Jamieson describes this game in the south of Scotland as follows: “Two children form an arch with both hands. The rest, who hold each other by the skirts following in a line, attempt to pass under the arch. The first, who is called the king, is sometimes laid hold of by those who form the arch, each letting fall one of his arms like a portcullis for enclosing the passenger. But more generally the king is suffered to pass, the attempt being reserved for the last; whoever is seized is called the prisoner. As soon as he is made captive he takes the place of one of those who formed the arch, and who afterwards stand by his side.”
It is differently played in Mearns, Aberdeen, and some other counties. A number of boys stand with joined hands in a semicircle, and the boy at one end of the link addresses the boy at the other end of the line:
The boy to whom this is addressed makes room between himself and his next neighbour, as they raise and extend their arms to allow the opposite boy to run through the opening followed by all the other boys still linked to each other. If in running through the link should be broken, the two boys who are the cause suffer some punishment.—Ed. Jamieson’s Dictionary.
The Northumberland game resembles “Oranges and Lemons.” The other versions are nearer the “Thread the Needle” and “How many Miles to Babylon” games. Both games may be derived from the same custom.
See “How many Miles to Babylon,” “Thread the Needle.”
A thin lath of wood, about six inches long and three or four inches broad, is taken and rounded at one end. A hole is bored in that end, and in the hole is tied a piece of cord between two and three yards long. It is then rapidly swung round, so as to produce a buzzing sound. The more rapidly it is swung, the louder is the noise. It was believed that the use of this instrument during a thunder-storm saved one from being struck with “the thun’er bolt.” I have used it with this intention (Keith). In other places it is used merely to make a noise. It is commonly deeply notched all round the edges to increase the noise.
Some years ago a herd boy was observed making one in a farm-kitchen (Udny). It was discovered that when he was sent to bring the cows from the fields to the farmyard to be milked, he used it to frighten them, and they ran frantically to their stalls. The noise made the animals dread the bot-fly or “cleg.” This torment makes them throw their tails up, and rush with fury through the fields or to the byres to shelter themselves from its attacks. A formula to effect the same purpose, and which I have many and many a time used when herding, was: Cock tail! cock tail! cock tail! Bizz-zz-zz! Bizz-zz-zz.—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
Dr. Gregor secured one of these that was in use in Pitsligo, and sent it to the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford, where it now lies. Professor Haddon has made a collection of these toys, and has written on their connection with the Australian boomerang.
They are still occasionally to be met with in country districts, but are used simply for the purpose of making a noise.
See “Bummers.”
A game mentioned by Drayton, and still played in Warwickshire.—Halliwell’s Dictionary. The same game as “Touch.”
An old game (undescribed) mentioned in Taylor’s Motto, 1622, sig. D, iv.
—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
Addy (Sheffield Glossary, under “Tiggy Touchwood”) says, “One player who is called Tiggy stands out, and each of the others takes hold of or touches a piece of wood, such as a door, or rail, &c. One then leaves his ‘wood’ and runs across the playground, and if whilst doing so Tiggy can touch him he must stand out or take Tiggy’s place.”
One child is chosen to be “Ticky,” i.e., to be on the qui vive to lay hold of or touch any one who is not touching wood. If played out of doors it must be clearly defined what is wood, trees and all growing wood being forbidden. The fun consists in the bold ventures of those who tempt “Ticky” to run after them, and contrive to touch “wood” just before he touches them. When one is caught he is “Ticky” in turn.—Swaffham, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).
Played within a given boundary, in which were wooden buildings or fences. When one of the players was being pursued by the tigger, if he touched wood he could not be made prisoner, but he was not allowed to remain long in that position, and directly his hand left wood he was liable to instant capture. If when pursued he called out “a barla!” he was again exempt from capture, but he could not move from the position or place where he or she was when they called out, a barla! When wishing to move he had to call out “Ma barla oot!” No den in this game, but constant running.—Biggar (Wm. Ballantyne).
Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary) says, “Boys have games called Touch-wood and Touch-iron, where any one not touching either of the substances named is liable to be caught by the one standing out.”
Ross and Stead (Holderness Glossary) give this game as Tiggy Touchwood, a game similar to Tig, but in which the player must touch wood. It is called Ticky, Ticky Touchwood by Brogden (Lincolnshire Provincial Words), and Tiggy in Addy’s Sheffield Glossary.
Also played in another way. One tree or piece of wood was selected for “Home,” and the players darted out from this saying, “Ticky, Ticky Touchwood,” then running back to the tree and touching it before Ticky caught them. “Parley” or “fainits” were the words called out when exempt.—London (A. B. Gomme).
It is also described in Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
A game in which one player touches another, then runs off to be pursued and touched in turn.
Mr. Addy says, “Children tig each other when they leave school, and there is a rivalry among them to get the last tig. After a boy has said tig-poison, he is not to be ‘tigged’ again.” Brockett says: “Tig, a slight touch (as a mode of salutation), a play among children on separating for the night, in which every one endeavours to get the last touch; called also Last Bat.”—Brockett’s North Country Words, and consult Dickinson (Cumberland Glossary), also Jamieson. A boys’ game, in which the player scores by touching one who runs before him.—Stead’s Holderness Glossary. A play among children when separating for the night.—Willan’s Dialect Words of West Riding of Yorks. Called also “Touch” and “Tigga Tiggy,” in East and West Cornwall; (Courtney and Couch), also Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
The players stand in a line. Two are chosen, who stand apart, and fix on any hour, as one, two, three, &c., or any half-hour. A nestie is marked off at some distance from the row of players. One of the two goes in front of the line of players, and beginning at one end asks each the hour. This is done till the hour fixed on between the two is guessed. The one that makes the right guess runs to catch the other of the two that fixed the hour, and she makes off to the “nestie.” If she is caught she goes to the line of players, and the one that caught her takes her place. If she reaches the “nestie” without being caught, she has still to run to the line of players; if she does this without being caught she holds her place as one of the time-fixers, but if caught she takes her stand in the line, and the one that caught her becomes time-fixer.—Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).
This is played by six players, divided into two sides of three each, with one captain to each side. A ring or other small object is taken by the side which wins the toss, and then both sides sit down to a small table. The in-side puts their hands under the table, and the ring is given to one of the three players. At a given signal they all bring up their closed hands on to the table, and the other side has to guess in which closed fist the ring is. The guesser has the privilege of ordering “off” the hands which he thinks are empty. If he succeeds in getting the empty hands off, he says “tip it” to the remaining one. If he guesses right the ring changes sides. The game is to keep the ring or other object on one side as long as possible.—London (Alfred Nutt).[Addendum]
Strutt says this is so denominated from the piece of wood called a cat, about six inches in length, and an inch and a half or two inches in diameter, diminished from the middle to both ends. When the cat is on the ground the player strikes it smartly, when it rises with a rotatory motion high enough for him to hit it again before it falls, in the same manner as a ball. He says there are various methods of playing the game, and describes the two following: A large ring is made in the ground; in the middle of this the striker takes his station; his business then is to hit the cat over the ring. If he fails in doing so he is out, and another player takes his place; if successful, he judges with his eye the distance the cat is driven from the centre of the ring, and calls for a number at pleasure to be scored towards his game: if the number demanded be found upon measurement to exceed the same number of lengths of the bludgeon, he is out; on the contrary, if it does not, he obtains his call. The second way of playing is to make four, six, or eight holes in the ground in a circular direction, and at equal distances from each other, at every hole is placed a player with his bludgeon: one of the opposite party who stand in the field tosses the cat to the batsman who is nearest him, and every time the cat is struck the players are obliged to change their situations, and run once from one hole to another in succession; if the cat be driven to any great distance they continue to run in the same order, and claim a score towards their game every time they quit one hole and run to another; but if the cat be stopped by their opponents and thrown across between any two of the holes before the player who has quitted one of them can reach the other, he is out.
Mr. Kinahan says there is among old Irish games one sometimes called cat, played with three or more players on each side, two stones or holes as stations, and a lobber, but the regular cat is played with a stick four inches long, bevelled at each end, called the cat. This bevelled stick is laid on the ground, and one end hit with a stick to make it rise in the air, when it is hit by the player, who runs to a mark and back to his station. The game is made by a number of runs; while the hitter is out if he fails three times to hit the cat, or if he is hit by the cat while running.—(Folk-lore Journal, ii. 264.) The common game of “tip-cat” was called cat-and-kitten by Dorset children. The long stick represented the “cat” and the small pieces the “kitten.”—(Folk-lore Journal, vii. 234.) Elworthy (West Somerset Words) calls it Stick and Snell. Brogden (Provincial Words, Lincolnshire) gives it as tip-cat, as does Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary), also Trippit and Coit, and Trippit and Rack in some parts of the North.—Brockett’s North Country Words. Once commonly played in London streets, now forbidden.
See “Cudgel,” “Waggles.”[Addendum]
A square is drawn having nine smaller squares or houses within it. Two persons play. They alternately make the one a square and the other a cross in any one of the houses. He that first gets three in a line wins the game.—Peacock’s Manley and Corringham Glossary. Brogden (Provincial Words, Lincolnshire) calls it Tit-tat-toe, also Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary).
Northall says called Tick-tack-toe in Warwickshire and Staffordshire; the rhyme is “Tick-tack-toe, I’ve caught you.”
This game is called “Noughts and Crosses,” in London, probably from those marks being used in the game.
See “Kit-Cat-Cannio,” “Noughts and Crosses.”
An old game with iron rods and rings.—Holland’s Cheshire Glossary.
See “Shuttlefeather,” “Teesty Tosty.”
The game of see-saw.—Halliwell’s Dictionary.
A game played by school children on slates. A round is drawn, which is divided into as many divisions as is thought necessary, sixteen being generally the least. These divisions are each numbered, the centre containing a higher figure than any in the divisions, usually 25, 50, or 100. Several children can play. They each have a place or square allotted to them on the slate in which to record the numbers they obtain. A space is allotted to “Old Nick” or the “Old Man.” The players alternately take a pencil in their right hand (holding it point downwards on 1, and tapping on each number with it), and shutting their eyes move round and round the diagram saying—
stopping and keeping the pencil in an upright position when the last word is said. The player then opens his eyes, and registers in his square the number at which the pencil stopped. This number is then scratched through on the diagram, to signify that it is taken, the other players proceed in the same manner as the first; then the first one begins again. This is continued till all the numbers are scratched out, or till one of the players puts his pencil into the centre, and thus wins the game. If all the figures are taken before the centre is touched, the game goes to the “Old man” or “Old Nick.” Also, if one player puts his pencil in a division already taken, he records nothing and loses that turn; this is also the case if, after the verse is repeated, the pencil is found to be on a division or boundary line or outside the round.—London (A. B. Gomme).
I was taught by a maid servant to play this game on the ground. This girl drew the round and divisions and figures on the gravel path or mould in the garden, and sharpened a piece of stick at one end for the pointer. She did not know the game as one played on slates, but always played it on the ground in this way.
This game appears to indicate a lottery, and might originally have had something to do with allotting pieces of land or other property to prospective owners under the ancient common field system. The places when taken by one player not being available for another, and the fact of it being known as played on the ground, and not on slates, are both significant indications of the suggested origin. The method of allotting lands by lottery is described in Gomme’s Village Community. Mr. Newell, Games, p. 140, records a similar game called “Wheel of Fortune.”
A game played on a perforated board with wooden pins.—Jamieson. The Editor adds that the game is materially the same as the English “Fox and Geese.”
See “Fox and Geese” (2).
[Play]
—Liverpool (Mrs. Harley).
A line is drawn on the ground, one player stands behind it. The piece so protected is “Tom Tiddler’s ground.” The other players stand in a row on the other side. The row breaks and the children run over, calling out, “Here we are on Tom Tiddler’s ground, picking up gold and silver.” Tom Tiddler catches them, and as they are caught they stand on one side. The last out becomes Tom Tiddler.—Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
Tom Tiddler’s Ground is played at Chirbury under the name of “Boney” = Bonaparte! one boy taking possession of a certain area, and the others trespassing on it, saying, “I am on Boney’s ground.” If they are caught there, they are put “in prison” till released by a touch from a comrade.—Chirbury (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 523-524).
—Derbyshire (Folk-lore Journal, i. 386).
Northall (Folk Rhymes) gives the following lines, and describes it as played as above, except that Tom Tinder is provided with a knotted handkerchief, with which he buffets any one caught on his property:—
In the Liverpool district the game is called “Old Daddy Bunchey” (Mrs. Harley), and in Norfolk “Pussey’s Ground” (Miss Matthews).
It is also mentioned by Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary).[Addendum]
The special games now played with tops are mentioned under their respective titles, but the general allusions to the ancient whipping-tops are important enough to note.
Strutt says the top was known with us as early at least as the fourteenth century, when its form was the same as now, and the manner of using it can admit of but little if any difference. Representations of boys whipping tops occur in the marginal paintings of the MSS. written at this period; and in a work of the thirteenth century, “Le Miracle de Saint Loys,” the whipping top (Sabot) is mentioned. The top was probably in use as a toy long before. Strutt records the following anecdote of Prince Henry, son of James I., which he met with in a MS. at the Museum, the author of which speaks of it as perfectly genuine. His words are—“The first tyme that he, the prince, went to the towne of Sterling to meete the king, seeing a little without the gate of the towne a stack of corne in proportion not unlike to a topp wherewith he used to play; he said to some that were with him, ‘Loe there is a goodly topp;’ whereupon one of them saying, ‘Why doe you not play with it, then?’ he answered, ‘Set you it up for me, and I will play with it.’”—Sports, p. 385.
Northbroke, in his Treatise against Dicing, 1579, p. 86, says: “Cato giveth counsell to all youth, saying, ‘Trocho lude, aleas fuge, playe with the toppe, and flee dice-playing.’”
In the English translation of Levinus Lemnius, 1658, p. 369: “Young youth do merrily exercise themselves in whipping-top, and to make it run swiftly about, that it cannot be seen, and will deceive the sight.”
Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: “I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick.”—Pope’s Works, vi. 115.
Among well-known classical allusions may be noted the following mention of whipping the top, in Persius’s third Satire:
Thus translated by Dryden:
Thus also in Virgil’s Æneid, vii. 378:
Thus translated by Dryden:
And so Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. Eleg. 12:
Passing from these general allusions to the top as a form of amusement, we enter on more significant ground when we take into consideration the various passages in the early dramatists and other writers (collected together in Nares’ Glossary), which show that tops were at one time owned by the parish or village.
“He’s a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn like a parish-top.”—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, i. 3.
—Ben Jonson, New Inn, ii. 5.
—Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Theod., ii. 1.
—Ibid., Night Walker, i. 1.
Every night I dream I am a town-top, and that I am whipt up and down with the scourge stick of love.—“Grim, the Collier of Croydon,” ap. Dodsley, xi. 206.
In the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 143, we read: “Another tells ’em of a project he has to make town tops spin without an eel-skin, as if he bore malice to the school-boys.”
Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1677, tells us, in the Fanatick’s Chronology, it was then “1804 years since the first invention of town-tops.”
These passages seem to refer to a custom of keeping tops by a township or parish, and they are confirmed by Evelyn, who, speaking of the uses of willow wood, among other things made of it, mentions great “town-topps” (Sylva, xx. 29). The latest writers who give positive information on the subject are Blackstone, who, in his note on Shakespeare, asserts that to “sleep like a town top” was proverbial, and Hazlitt, who, in his collection of English Proverbs, has “like a parish-top.” (See also Brand, ii. 448.)
Steevens, in his notes on Shakespeare, makes the positive assertion that “this is one of the customs now laid aside: a large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work.”
This passage is repeated in Ellis’s edition of Brand, so that there is only one authority for the two statements. The question is whether Steevens was stating his own independent knowledge, or whether he based his information upon the passage in Shakespeare which he was illustrating. I think there can be no doubt that the custom existed, in whatever way we accept Steevens’ statement, and the question is one of considerable interest.
“Tops” is one of those games which are strictly limited to particular seasons of the year, and any infringement of those seasons is strictly tabooed by the boys. Hone (Every Day Book, i. 127), records the following rhyme:—