Volume 1 — CHILDREN’S GAMES (continued 5)

Halliwell (Dictionary) also describes the game, and indicates its origin. The boy chosen for the game clasps his hands together, and, holding them out, threatens his companions as though pursuing them with horns, and a chase ensues in which the Stag endeavours to strike one of them, who then becomes Stag in his turn. Unfortunately, Halliwell does not, in this instance, give his authority, but if it is taken from the players themselves, it is a sufficient account of the origin of the game, apart from the evidence of the name. All this group of games is evidently to be traced to one original, though in different places the detail of the game has developed somewhat differently. It evidently comes down from the time when stags were hunted not so much for sport as for food.

See “Chickidy Hand,” “Hornie,” “Hunt the Stagie,” “Shepherds,” “Warney.”[Addendum]

Stagging

A man’s game. Two men have their ankles tied together and their wrists tied behind their backs. They then try to knock each other down.—Patterson’s Antrim Glossary.

See “Hirtschin Hairy.”

Steal the Pigs

The game represents the stealing of a woman’s children and the recovery of them. The mother, before beginning to wash, disposes of her children in a safe place. She proceeds to do her washing. While she is busy a child-snatcher comes and takes away one. The others begin to cry. The mother hears them crying. She goes and asks the reason of their crying, and is told that a woman came and took away one of them. She scolds and beats them all; tells them to be more careful for the time to come, and returns to her washing. Again the children cry, and the mother goes to see what is the matter with them, and is told the same thing. She repeats her admonition and bodily correction, and returns to her work. This process is repeated till all the children are stolen. After finishing her washing, she goes to her children and finds the last one gone. She sets out in search of them, and meets a woman whom she questions if she had seen her children. She denies all knowledge of them. The mother persists, and at last discovers all her stolen children. She demands them back. The stealer refuses, and puts them behind her and stands on her defence. A tussel takes place. The mother in the long run rescues her children.—Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).

See “Mother, Mother, Pot boils over,” “Witch.”

Stealy Clothes

See “Scots and English.”

Steik and Hide

The game of Hide and Seek.—Aberdeen (Jamieson).

Sticky-stack

A game among young people in running up the face or cut part of a hay-stack to try who can put in a stick the highest.—Brockett’s North Country Words.

Sticky Toffey

Name of a game (undescribed) recorded by the Rev. S. D. Headlam, as played by Hoxton School children at Hoxton.—Church Reformer, 1894.

Stiff Police

A game (undescribed) recorded by the Rev. S. D. Headlam, as played by Hoxton School children.—Church Reformer, 1894.

Stik-n Snael (Stick and Snell)

Game of cat.—Elworthy, West Somerset Words. The short stick, pointed at both ends, is called a snell.

Stocks

A schoolboys’ game. Two boys pick a side, and there is one den only, and they toss to see which side shall keep it. The side which wins the toss then goes out, and when two boys have got a good distance off they cry “Stocks.” The boys who keep the den run after them to catch them. When one is caught his capturer counts ten while he holds him (in a more primitive but less refined state, spat over his head) and cries Stocks. This prisoner is taken into the den. If they are all caught the other side turns out. But if one of the outer side can manage to run through the den and cry “Stocks,” all the prisoners are relieved, and can go out again.—Easther’s Almondbury Glossary. See “Stacks.”

Stones

A circle of stones is formed according to the number of players, generally five or seven each side. One of the out party stands in the centre of the circle, and lobs at the different stones in rotation; each hit a player gives all his side must change stations, in some places going round to the left and in others to the right. The stones are defended by the hand or a stick, according as a ball or stick is lobbed. All the players are out if the stone is hit, or the ball or stick caught, or one of the players is hit while running. In different counties or places these games are more or less modified.—Dublin, Folk-lore Journal, ii. 264-265.

Mr. Kinahan, who describes this game, adds a very instructive note, which is worth quoting:—

“These games I have seen played over half a century ago, with a lob-stick, but of later years with a ball, long before a cricket club existed, in Trinity College, Dublin, and when the game was quite unknown in a great part of Ireland. At the same time, they may have been introduced by some of the earlier settlers, and afterwards degenerated into the games mentioned above; but I would be inclined to suspect that the Irish are the primitive games, they having since been improved into cricket. At the present day these games nearly everywhere are succeeded by cricket, but often of a very primitive form, the wickets being stones set on end, or a pillar of stones; while the ball is often wooden, and very rudely formed.”

Stool-ball

The first mention of this game is by Smyth in his Berkeley Manuscripts. In the reign of Elizabeth, the Earl of Leicester, with an extraordinary number of attendants and multitudes of country people, and “whom my neighbours parallel to Bartholomew faire in London, came to Wotton, and thence to Michaelwood Lodge, castinge down part of the pales, which like a little park then enclosed the Lodge (for the gates were too narrow to let in his Trayne), and thence went to Wotton Hill, where hee plaid a match at stoball.”—Gloucestershire County Folk-lore, p. 26.

The earliest description of the game, however, is by Aubrey. He says “it is peculiar to North Wilts, North Gloucestershire, and a little part of Somerset near Bath. They smite a ball, stuffed very hard with quills and covered with soale leather, with a staffe, commonly made of withy, about three feet and a half long. Colerne down is the place so famous and so frequented for stobball playing. The turfe is very fine and the rock (freestone) is within an inch and a halfe of the surface which gives the ball so quick a rebound. A stobball ball is of about four inches diameter and as hard as a stone. I do not heare that this game is used anywhere in England but in this part of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire adjoining.” (Aubrey’s Natural History of Wiltshire, p. 117; Collections for North Wilts, p. 77). It is no doubt the same game as Stool-ball, which is alluded to by Herrick in 1648 (Hesperides), and in Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1677 (see Halliwell’s Dictionary). D’Urfey’s Don Quixote, written in 1694, alludes to it as follows:—

It is also alluded to in Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1740:

It is described by Strutt in Sports and Pastimes, p. 103, as a variety of game more commonly known as “goff” or “bandy ball,” the paganica of the Romans, who also stuffed their balls with feathers. According to Dr. Johnson, the balls are driven from stool to stool, hence the name.

In spite of Aubrey’s opinion as to the limited range of this game, it appears to have been pretty generally played. Thus, Roberts’ Cambrian Antiquities says, “Stool-ball, resembling cricket, except that no bats are used and that a stool was substituted for the wicket, was in my memory also a favourite game on holydays, but it is now seldom or ever played. It generally began on Easter Eve” (p. 123). It was also an old Sussex game. Mr. Parish’s account is that it was “similar in many respects to cricket, played by females. It has lately been revived in East Sussex by the establishment of stool-ball clubs in many villages. The elevens go long distances to play their matches; they practise regularly and frequently, display such perfection of fielding and wicket-keeping as would put most amateur cricketers to shame. The rules are printed and implicitly obeyed.”—Parish’s Dictionary of Sussex Dialect.

Miss Edith Mendham says of the Sussex game, it is supposed to derive its name from being played by milkmaids when they returned from milking. Their stools were (I think) used as wickets, and the rules were as follows:—

1. The wickets to be boards one foot square, mounted on a stake, which, when fixed in the ground, must be four feet nine inches from the ground.

2. The wickets to be sixteen yards apart, the bowling crease to be eight yards from the wicket.

3. The bowler to stand with one foot behind the crease, and in bowling must neither jerk nor throw the ball.

4. The ball to be of that kind known as “Best Tennis,” No. 3.

5. The bats to be of wood, and made the same size and shape as battledores.

6. The striker to be out if the ball when bowled hits the wicket, or if the ball be caught in the hands of any of the opposing side, or if in running, preparing to run, or pretending to run, the ball be thrown or touch the wicket before the striker reaches it, and the ball in all cases must strike the face of the wicket, and in running the striker must at each run strike the wicket with her bat.

7. There should be eleven players on each side.

8. Overs to consist of eight balls.

Miss F. Hagden, in her short History of Alfriston, Sussex, says, “In the Jubilee year the game of stool-ball was revived and played in the Tye field. The rules resemble those of cricket, but the wickets are square boards on posts; the bowler stands in the centre of the pitch, the bats used are round boards with a handle. The game in Alfriston seems now to have died out again, but in many villages there are regular clubs for the girls,” p. 43. It also appears to be a game among Lancashire children to this day. A stool is used as a wicket, at which it is attempted to throw the ball; a player stands near the stool, and using his or her hand as a bat, wards off the blow. If the ball hits the stool the thrower takes the place at wicket; or if the ball is caught the catcher becomes the guardian of the stool. Stool-ball, like all ball games, was usually played at Easter for tansy cakes. Mr. Newell (Games and Songs) says this game is recorded by the second governor of Massachusetts as being played under date of the second Christmas of the colony.

See “Bittle-battle,” “Cricket,” “Stool-ball.”

Strik a Licht

A version of hide and seek. One player is chosen to be “it.” The other players go away to a distance and “show a light,” to let “it” understand they are ready. They then hide, and the first one found has to be “it” in place of the previous seeker.—Aberdeen (Rev. W. Gregor).

See “Hide and Seek.”

Stroke

A game at marbles, where each player places a certain number on a line and plays in turns from a distance mark called “scratch,” keeping such as he may knock off.—Lowsley’s Berkshire Glossary.

Stroke Bias

Brome, in his Travels over England, 1700, p. 264, says: “The Kentish men have a peculiar exercise, especially in the eastern parts, which is nowhere else used in any other country, I believe, but their own; it is called ‘Stroke Bias,’ and the manner of it is thus. In the summer time one or two parishes convening make choice of twenty, and sometimes more, of the best runners which they can cull out in their precincts, who send a challenge to an equal number of racers within the liberties of two other parishes, to meet them at a set day upon some neighbouring plain; which challenge, if accepted, they repair to the place appointed, whither also the county resort in great numbers to behold the match, when having stripped themselves at the goal to their shirts and drawers, they begin the course, every one bearing in his eye a particular man at which he aims; but after several traverses and courses on both sides, that side, whose legs are the nimblest to gain the first seven strokes from their antagonists, carry the day and win the prize. Nor is this game only appropriated to the men, but in some places the maids have their set matches too, and are as vigorous and active to obtain a victory.”

Sun and Moon

“A kinde of play wherein two companies of boyes holding hands all on a rowe, doe pull with hard hold one another, till one be overcome.”—Quoted by Halliwell (Dictionary), from Thomasii Dictionarium, London, 1644.

Sunday Night

I.

—Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).

II.

—Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy).

(b) The children stand in a row with backs against a wall or fence, whilst one stands out and stepping backwards and forwards to the tune sings the first verse. Then she rushes to pick out one, taking her by the hands and standing face to face with her, sings the other verse. Then the two separate their hands, and standing side by side sing the first verse over again, taking another girl from the row, and so on again.

“Monday night,” or “Pimlico,” is the name of a singing game mentioned by the Rev. S. D. Headlam, in The Church Reformer, as played by children in the schools at Hoxton, which he says was accompanied by a kind of chaunt of a very fascinating kind.[Addendum]

Sun Shines

—Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).

All sing to “especially,” boy chooses girl, and then the two whirl round, and all sing to the end.

Sweer Tree

Two persons sit down feet to feet and catch a stick with their hands; then whoever lifteth the other is the strongest.—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.

Compare “Honey pots.”

Swinging

Rhymes were said or sung by children and young people when swinging. They were of the same character, and in many instances the same as those given in “See-saw” and “Shuttlefeather,” and were used formerly for purposes of divination. The following extract, from the Pall Mall Gazette of Sept. 19th, 1895, seems to indicate an early notion connected with swinging. It is taken from one of the articles in that paper upon Jabez Balfour’s diary during his residence in the Argentine Republic:—“On the 2nd November he (Balfour) mentions a curious Bolivian custom on All Souls’ Day, when ‘they erect high swings, and old and young swing all day long, in the hope that while they swing they may approach the spirits of their departed friends as they fly from Purgatory to Paradise.’ Two days later he adds: ‘I have to-day heard another explanation of the Bolivian practice of swinging on All Souls’ Day. They swing as high as they can so as to reach the topmost branches of the trees, and whenever they are thereby able to pull off a branch they release a soul from Purgatory.’”—Notes and Queries, 8th series, vi. 345. With this may be compared one of the methods and words used while swinging which I remember playing, namely, that while swinging, either in a room or garden, the object was to endeavour to touch either a beam in the ceiling or the top branches of a tree, singing at the same time a rhyme of which I only recollect this fragment:

The last was said when the effort was made to touch the ceiling or tree with the feet.—(A. B. Gomme.)

Miss Chase has sent me the following rhymes:

Said while swing stops itself:—

—Deptford.

—Marylebone.

The Deptford version is practically the same as known in several parts of the country, and Mr. Gerish has printed a Norfolk version in Folk-lore (vi. 202), which agrees down to the line “sent him off to sleep,” and then finishes with—

When they came to the “heigh-ho” a more energetic push than usual was given to the occupant of the swing, who was then expected to vacate the swing and allow another child a turn. Thus the rhyme served as an allowance of time to each child.

An amusement of boys in Galloway is described as on the slack rope, riding and shoving one another on the curve of the rope: they recite this to the swings—

—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.

Brockett (North Country Words) describes as a swing: a long rope fastened at each end, and thrown over a beam, on which young persons seat themselves and are swung backwards and forwards in the manner of a pendulum.

See “Merritot.”

Tait

The Dorset game of “See-saw.”—Halliwell’s Dictionary.

Teesty-Tosty

The blossoms of cowslips collected together tied in a globular form, and used to toss to and fro for an amusement called “Teesty-Tosty,” or simply sometimes “Tosty.”—Somerset (Holloway’s Dict. of Provincialisms).

A writer in Byegones for July 1890, p. 142, says, “Tuswball” means a bunch. He gives the following rhyme, used when tossing the ball:—

Then repeating letters of the alphabet until the ball falls, and the letter last called will indicate the sweetheart’s name.

See “Ball,” “Shuttlefeather,” “Trip Trout.”

Teter-cum-Tawter

The East Anglian game of “See-saw.”—Halliwell’s Dictionary.

Tee-to-tum.

See “Totum.”

Thimble Ring

—Sheffield (S. O. Addy).

A number of young men and women form themselves into an oval ring, and one stands in the centre. A thimble is given to one of those who form the ring, and it is passed round from one to another, so that nobody knows who has it. Then the one who stands in the centre goes to the man at the top of the oval ring and says, “My lady’s lost her gold ring. Have you got it?” He answers “Me, sir? no, sir.” The one in the middle says, “I think you lie, sir, but tell me who has got it.” Then he points out the one who has the thimble, of which he takes possession, and then says the above lines. Then the one who was found to have had the thimble takes the place of the one inside the ring, and the game is repeated.

Halliwell gives a version of this game under the name of Diamond Ring (Nursery Rhymes, p. 223), but the words used consist only of the following lines:—

In the two following games from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire there are no words used in rhymes or couplets.

One child stands in the centre of a ring, which is formed by each member clasping the wrist of his or her left hand neighbour with the left hand, thus leaving the right hand free. A thimble is provided, and is held by one of the players in the right hand. No circular movement is necessary, but as the tune is sung, the right hand of each member is placed alternately in that of their right and left hand neighbour, each performing the action in a swinging style, as if they had to pass the ring on, and in such a manner, that the one standing in the centre cannot detect it. The thimble may be detained or passed on just as the players think fit. The words are the following:—

Varied with

Or

as the case may be, or rather may not be, in order to throw the victim in the centre off the scent.—West Riding of Yorkshire (Miss Bush).

The players sit in a row or circle, with their hands held palm to palm in their laps. The leader of the game takes a thimble, and going to every member of the company in turn, pretends to slip it between their fingers, or to hide it in their pinafores, saying as she does so—“I bring you my lady’s thimble, you must hold it fast, and very fast indeed.” Whereon each child thus addressed should assume an air of triumph suitable to the possession of such a treasure. After the whole party have gone through the farce of receiving the thimble, the girl who carried it round calls a player from the circle to discover who holds it. For every wrong guess a fine must be paid. When the searcher discovers the thimble she begins a new round of the game by taking the place of leader; and so on, till the accumulation of forfeits is sufficient to afford amusement in “loosing the tines.” The game is called “Lady’s Thimble.”—Lincoln, Scawby and Stixwould 76 years ago (Miss M. Peacock).

The rhyme used in the Sheffield game is that used in “Queen Anne,” but it appears to have no relevance to this game.

Thing done

A game described by Ben Jonson in his play of Cynthia’s Revels (act iv. scene 1). The passage is as follows:—

“Phantaste. Nay, we have another sport afore this, of ‘A thing done, and who did it,’ &c.

“Philantia. Ay, good Phantaste, let’s have that: distribute the places.

“Phantaste. Why, I imagine A thing done; Hedon thinks who did it; Maria, with what it was done; Anaides, where it was done; Argurion, when it was done; Amorphus, for what cause was it done; you, Philantia, what followed upon the doing of it; and this gentleman, who would have done it better. . . .”

Gifford thinks that this sport was probably the diversion of the age, and of the same stamp with our modern “Cross Purposes,” “Questions,” and “Commands,” &c.

Thread the Needle

[Play]

—Miss Dendy.

[Play]

—Harpenden (Miss Lloyd).

I.

—London (Miss Dendy).

II.

—Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

III.

—Bocking, Essex (Folk-lore Record, iii. 170).

IV.

—Harpenden (Mrs. Lloyd).

V.

—Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).

VI.

—Parish Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect.

VII.

—Blackwood’s Magazine, August 1821.

VIII.

—Ross-shire (Rev. W. Gregor).

IX.

—Lincoln (C. C. Bell).

X.

—Hanbury, Staffs. (Miss Edith Hollis).

XI.

—Warwickshire, Northall’s Folk Rhymes, 397.

XII.

—Ellesmere, Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 321.

(b.) The children stand in two long rows, each holding the hands of the opposite child, the two last forming an arch. They sing the lines, and while doing so the other children run under the raised arms. When all have passed under, the first two hold up their hands, and so on again and again, each pair in turn becoming the arch. Mrs. Lloyd (Harpenden version) says the two first hold up a handkerchief, and the children all run under, beginning with the last couple. In the London version (Miss Dendy) the “last line is called out in quite different tones from the rest of the rhyme. It is reported to have a most startling effect.” The Warwickshire version is played differently. The players, after passing under the clasped hands, all circle or wind round one of their number, who stands still.

(c.) In some cases the verse, “How many miles to Babylon?” is sung before the verses for “Thread the needle,” and the reference made (ante, vol. i., p. 238) to an old version seems to suggest the origin of the game. This, at all events, goes far to prove that the central idea of the game is not connected with the sewing needle, but with an interesting dance movement, which is called by analogy, Thread the needle. It is, however, impossible to say whether the verses of this game are the fragments of an older and more lengthy original, which included both the words of “How many miles to Babylon” and “Thread the needle,” or whether these two were independent games, which have become joined; but, on the whole, I am inclined to think that “Thread the needle,” at all events, is an independent game, or the central idea of an independent game, and one of some antiquity.

This game is well illustrated by custom. At Trowbridge, in Wilts, a game, known as “Thread the needle,” used to be the favourite sport with the lads and lasses on the evening of Shrove Tuesday festival. The vocal accompaniment was always the following:—

—Notes and Queries, 5th series, xi. p. 227.

At Bradford-on-Avon, as soon as the “pancake bell” rang at eleven A.M., the school children had holiday for the remainder of the day, and when the factories closed for the night, at dusk the boys and girls of the town would run through the streets in long strings playing “Thread the needle,” and whooping and hallooing their best as they ran, and so collecting all they could together by seven or eight o’clock, when they would adjourn to the churchyard, where the old sexton had opened the churchyard gates for them; the children would then join hands in a long line until they encompassed the church; they then, with hands still joined, would walk round the church three times; and when dismissed by the old sexton, would return to their homes much pleased that they “Clipped the Church,” and shouting similar lines to those said at Trowbridge.

At South Petherton, in South Somerset, sixty or seventy years ago, it was the practice of the young folk of both sexes to meet in or near the market-place, and there commence “Threading the needle” through the streets, collecting numbers as they went. When this method of recruiting ceased to add to their ranks, they proceeded, still threading the needle, to the church, which they tried to encircle with joined hands; and then, whether successful or not, they returned to their respective homes. Old people, who remember having taken part in the game, say that it always commenced in the afternoon or evening of Shrove Tuesday, “after having eaten of their pancakes.” In Leicestershire County Folk-lore, p. 114, Mr. Billson records that it was formerly the custom on Shrove Tuesday for the lads and lasses to meet in the gallery of the Women’s Ward in Trinity Hospital to play at “Thread the Needle” and similar games.

At Evesham the custom is still more distinctly connected with the game, as the following quotation shows:—“One custom of the town is connected with a sport called ‘Thread my needle,’ a game played here by the children of the town throughout the various streets at sunset upon Easter Monday, and at no other period throughout the year. The players cry while elevating their arms arch-wise—

—May’s History of Evesham, p. 319.

As all these customs occur in the early spring of the year, there is reason to think that in this game we have a relic of the oldest sacred dances, and it is at least a curious point that in two versions (Bocking and Ellesmere) the Anglo-Saxon title of “Lady” is applied to the Queen.

The writer in Blackwood’s Magazine, who quotes the rhymes as “immemorial,” says: “Another game played by a number of children, with a hold of one another, or ‘tickle tails,’ as it is technically called in Scotland, is ‘Through the needle-e’e.’” Moor (Suffolk Words and Phrases) mentions the game. Patterson (Antrim and Down Glossary) gives it as “Thread the needle and sew.” Barnes (Dorset Glossary) calls it “Dred the wold woman’s needle,” in which two children join hands, and the last leads the train under the lifted arms of the first two. Holloway (Dictionary of Provincialisms) says the children form a ring, holding each other’s hands; then one lets go and passes under the arms of two who still join hands, and the others all follow, holding either by each other’s hands or by a part of their dress. “At Ellesmere,” Miss Burne says, “this game was formerly called ‘Crew Duck.’ It now only survives among little girls, and is only played on a special day.” It is alluded to in Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1738: “The summer quarter follows spring as close as girls do one another when playing at Thread my needle; they tread upon each other’s heels.” Strutt calls this “Threading the Taylor’s needle.” Newell (Games of American Children) gives some verses, and describes it as played in America.

See “How many miles to Babylon,” “Through the Needle ’ee.”

Three Days’ Holidays

Two players hold up their joined hands, the rest pass under one by one, repeating, “Three days’ holidays, three days’ holidays!” They pass under a second time, all repeating, “Bumping day, bumping day!” when the two leaders strike each player on the back in passing. The third time they say, “Catch, catch, catch!” and the leaders catch the last in the train between their arms. He has the choice of “strawberries or grapes,” and is placed behind one of the leaders, according to his answer. When all have been “caught,” the two parties pull against each other.—Berrington (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 522).

“Holidays,” says Miss Burne, “anciently consisted of three days, as at Easter and Whitsuntide, which explains the words of this game;” and the manorial work days were formerly three a week. See “Currants and Raisins.”

Three Dukes

[Play]

—Madeley, Shropshire (Miss Burne).

[Play]

—Biggar, Lanarkshire (W. Ballantyne).

[Play]

—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

[Play]

—Isle of Man (A. W. Moore).

I.

—Madeley, Salop (Miss Burne), 1891.

[Another Shropshire version has for the fourth verse—

Or,

II.

—Chirbury (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 517).

III.

Or,

—Leicester (Miss Ellis).

IV.

—Oxfordshire version, brought into Worcestershire (Miss Broadwood).

V.

—Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).

VI.

—East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan).

VII.

—Wakefield, Yorks. (Miss Fowler).

VIII.

—Gainford, co. Durham (Miss A. Edleston).

IX.

—Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

X.

—Barnes, Surrey (A. B. Gomme).

XI.

—Bocking, Essex (Folk-lore Record, vol. iii., pt. ii., pp. 170-171).

XII.

—Suffolk (Mrs. Haddon).

XIII.

—Symondsbury, Dorsetshire (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 222-223).

XIV.

—Wrotham, Kent (Miss Dora Kimball).

XV.

—Earls Heaton, Yorks. (H. Hardy).

XVI.

[After all are taken, the dukes say]—

—Hurstmonceux, Sussex, about 1880 (Miss E. Chase).

[A Devon variant gives for the third verse—

And—

With the additional verse—

Ending with—

And something like—

—Devon (Miss E. Chase)].

XVII.

—Clapham, London (Mrs. Herbertson).

[Another version is played by the duke announcing that he wants a wife. The circle of maids and duke then reply to each other as follows:—

—Clapham Middle-class Girls School (Mrs. Herbertson)].

XVIII.

—Dublin (Mrs. Coffey).

XIX.

[There is more of this, but it has been forgotten by my authority.]

—Thos. Baker, junr. (Midland Garner, N. S., ii. 32).

XX.

—Settle, Yorks. (Rev. W. G. Sykes).

XXI.

—West of Scotland (Folk-lore Record, iv. 174).

XXII.

—Penzance, Cornwall (Mrs. Mabbott).

XXIII.

—Roxton, St. Neots (Miss E. Lumley).

XXIV.

[Forgotten, but the girls evidently decline to part with one of their number.]

—Isle of Man (A. W. Moore). Played at a Manx Vicarage nearly sixty years ago (Rev. T. G. Brown).

XXV.

—Forest of Dean, Gloucester (Miss Matthews).

XXVI.

—Biggar (Wm. Ballantyne).

XXVII.

—London, Regent’s Park (A. B. Gomme).

XXVIII.

—Rosehearty, Pitsligo (Rev. W. Gregor).

XXIX.

—London, Regent’s Park (A. B. Gomme).

XXX.

—Dorsetshire (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 223-224).

(c.) Three children, generally boys, are chosen to represent the three dukes. The rest of the players represent maidens. The three dukes stand in line facing the maidens, who hold hands, and also stand in line. Sufficient space is left between the two lines to admit of each line in turn advancing and retiring. The three dukes commence by singing the first verse, advancing and retiring in line while doing so. The line of maidens then advances singing the second verse. The alternate verses demanding and answering are thus sung. The maidens make curtseys and look coquettishly at the dukes when singing the fourth verse, and draw themselves up stiffly and indignantly when singing the sixth, bending and bowing lowly at the eighth. The dukes look contemptuously and criticisingly at the girls while singing the fifth and seventh verses; at the ninth or last verse they “name” one of the girls, who then crosses over and joins hands with them. The game then continues by all four singing “Here come four dukes a-riding,” and goes on until all the maidens are ranged on the dukes’ side.

This method of playing obtains in most versions of the game, though there are variations and additions in some places. In the Bocking, Barnes, Dublin, Hurstmonceux, Settle, Symondsbury, Sporle, Earls Heaton, and Clapham versions, where the verses begin with “Here comes one Duke a-riding,” one boy stands facing the girls, and sings the first verse advancing and retiring with a dancing step, or with a step to imitate riding. In some instances the “three Dukes” advance in this way. In the Barnes version, when the chosen girl has walked over to the duke, he takes her hands and dances round with her, while singing the tenth verse. In the Symondsbury (Dorset) version the players stand in a group, the duke standing opposite, and when singing the sixth verse, advances to choose the girl. When there is only one player left on the maidens’ side the dukes all sing the seventh verse; they then come forward and claim the last girl, and embrace her as soon as they get her over to their side. In the Hurstmonceux version, when the girls are all on the dukes’ side, they sing the last verse. Miss Chase does not say whether this is accompanied by dancing round, but it probably would be. In the Dublin version, after the third verse, the duke tries to carry off the youngest girl, and her side try to save her. In the Wrotham version, after the girls’ retort, “Quite as good, as you, sir,” the dukes select a girl, who refuses to go to them: they then sing the last six lines when the girl goes over. In the second Dorset version (which appeared in the Yarmouth Register, Mass., 1874) the players consisted of a dozen boys standing in line in the usual way, and a dozen girls on the opposite side facing them. The boys sing the first two verses alternately; the girl at first refuses and then consents to go. Dancing round probably accompanies this, but there is no mention of it. In Roxton, St. Neots, after the verses are sung, the duke and the selected girl clasp hands, and he pulls her across to the opposite side, as in “Nuts in May.” In Settle (Yorks.) the game is called “The Dukes of York and Lancaster.” The first duke advances with a dancing step. The game is then played in the usual way until all the players are ranged on the dukes’ side; then the two original dukes, one of whom is “red” and the other “white,” join hands, and the other players pass under their raised hands. The dukes ask each of them, in a whisper, “red?” or “white?” The player then goes behind the one he or she has chosen, clasping the duke’s waist. When all the players have chosen, a tug-of-war ensues between the two sides. In the Earls Heaton version, the duke sings the verses, offering gifts to the girl when she has been selected. In the Oxfordshire version (Miss Broadwood) one player sings the words of the verse, and all join in the refrain as chorus. In the Monton (Lancashire) version the duke sings the last verse, and then takes a girl from the opposite side; and in another version from Barnes, in which the words of the last verse are the same as these, one of the dukes’ side crosses over and fetches the girl. The duke bows lowly before the chosen girl in the Liphook version before she joins his side. In the East Kirkby, Lincolnshire, version, when the dukes sing the last verse, they advance towards the opposite side, who, when they see the direction in which they are coming, form two arches, by three of the players holding up their arms, the dukes’ side going through one arch and returning through the other, bringing the chosen girl with them. One Clapham version is played in a totally different manner: the maidens form a circle instead of a line, and the duke stands outside this until he is admitted at the line which says, “let him in.” At the conclusion of the dialogue he breaks in and carries one player off. This is an unusual form; I have only met with one other instance of it.

(d.) The action in many of these versions is described as very spirited: coquetry, contempt, and annoyance being all expressed in action as the words of the game demands. The dancing movement of the boys in the first verse to imitate riding, though belonging to the earlier forms, is, with the exception of two or three versions, only retained in those which are commenced by one player, partly, perhaps, because of the difficulty three or more players experience in “riding” or “prancing” while holding each other’s hands in line form. I have seen the game played when the “prancing” of the dukes (in a game where there were a dozen or more players on each side at starting, as in the Dorset version) was as important a feature as the maidens’ actions in the other verses. I think the oldest form of the game is that played by a fairly equal number of players on each side, boys on one side and girls on the other, rather than that of “one” or “three” players on the dukes’ side, and all the others opposite. The game then began with the present words, “Here come three dukes;” these three each chose a girl at the same time, and when these three were wived, another three “dukes” would pair with three more of the girls, and after that another three, and so on. This form would account for the modern idea that the number of dukes increases on every occasion that the verses are sung, after the first wife has been taken over, and until all the girls have been thus chosen. This idea is expressed in some versions by the change of words: “Here’s a fourth [or fifth, and so on] duke come a riding” to take a wife, the chosen maiden becoming a duke as soon as she has passed over on to the dukes’ side. The process of innovation may be traced by the methods of playing. Thus, in one version played at Barnes (similar in other respects to No. 10), beginning “three dukes a riding,” three girls were chosen by the three first dukes, one by each, at the same time, and all three girls walked across with the three dukes to the boys’ line, and stood next their respective partners. In two imperfect versions I have obtained in Regent’s Park, London, the same principle occurs. One girl began—“One duck comes a ridin’,” and two girls from the opposite side walked across; the other “Five dukes come here a ridin’” was played by five players on each side, and this was continued throughout. When the verses were said, each of the five dukes took a player from the opposite side and danced round with her. Again, in those versions (Symondsbury and Barnes), where when one player is left on the maidens’ side without a partner, and all the dukes are mated, the additional verse is sung, and this player is taken over too. Beyond these versions are the large number beginning with three or more children singing the formula of “three dukes,” and choosing one girl at a time, until all are taken over on to the dukes’ side. Finally, there are the versions, more in accord with modern ideas, which commence with one duke coming for a wife, and continue by the girls taken over counting as dukes, the formula changing into two dukes, and so on.

If this correctly represents the line of decadence in this game, those versions in which additional verses appear are, I think, instances of the tacking on of verses from the “invitation to the dance” or “May” games; particularly in the cases in which the words “Now I’ve got my bonny lass” appear. The Earls Heaton version is curious, in that it has several verses which remind us of the old and practically obsolete “Keys of Canterbury” (Halliwell, 96). It may well be that a remembered fragment of that old ballad, which was probably once danced as a dramatic round, has been tacked on to this game. The expression “walk with me,” or “walk abroad with me,” is significant of an engaged or betrothed couple. “I’m walking or walking out with so and so” is still an expression used by young men and young women to indicate an engagement. “She did ought to be married now; she’ve walked wi’ him mor’n’er a year now.” Some of the versions show still more marked signs of decadence. The altered wording, “Here comes a Jew a riding,” “Here comes the Duke of Rideo,” “A duck comes a ridin’,” and the Scotch “Campsie Dukes a riding;” a Berkshire version, collected by Miss Thoyts (Antiquary, xxvii. p. 195), similar to the Shropshire game, but with a portion of the verse of “Milking Pails” added to it, and the refrain of “Ransome, tansome, tismatee;” together with the disappearance of some of the verses, are all evidently the results of the words being learnt orally, and imperfectly understood, or not understood at all.

In this game, said in Lancashire to be the “oldest play of all,” judging both by the words and method of playing, we have, I believe, a distinct survival or remembrance of the tribal marriage—marriage at a period when it was the custom for men of a clan to seek wives from the girls of another clan, both clans belonging to one tribe. The game is a purely marriage game, and marriage in a matter-of-fact way. Young men of a clan or village arrive at the abode of another clan for the purpose of seeking wives, probably at a feast or fair time. The maidens are apparently ready and expecting their arrival. They are as willing to become wives as the dukes are to become husbands. It is not marriage by force or capture, though the triumphant carrying off of a wife appears in some versions. It is exogamous marriage custom, after the tribe had settled down and arranged their system of marriage in lieu of a former more rude system of capture. The suggested depreciation of the girls, and their saucy rejoinders, may be looked upon as so much good-humoured chaff and banter exchanged between the two parties to enhance each other’s value, and to display their wit. While it does not follow that the respective parties were complete strangers to one another, these lines may indicate that each individual wished “to have as good a look round as possible” before accepting the offer made. It will be seen that there is no mention of “love” in the game, nor is there any individual courtship between boy and girl. The marriage formula does not appear, nor is there any sign that a “ceremony” or “sanction” to conclude the marriage was necessary, nor does kissing occur in the game.

There is evidence of the tribal marriage system in the survivals of exogamy and marriage by capture occasionally to be noted in traditional local custom. Thus the custom recorded by Chambers (Book of Days, i. 722) of the East Anglians (Suffolk), where whole parishes have intermarried to such an extent that almost everybody is related to or connected with everybody else, is distinctly a case in point, the intermarrying of “parishes” for a long series of years necessarily resulting in close inter-relationship. One curious effect of this is that no one is counted as a “relation” beyond first cousins; for if “relationship” went further than that it might “almost as well include the whole parish.” The old proverb (also from East Anglia):

that is, it is unlucky for a woman to marry a man whose surname begins with the same letter as her own, also indicates a survival of the necessity of marrying into another clan or tribal family.

Another interesting point in the game is the refrain, “With a rancy, tancy, tay,” which with variations accompanies all versions, and separates this game from some otherwise akin to it. There is little doubt that this refrain represents an old tribal war cry, from which “slogans” or family “cries” were derived. These cries were not only used in times of warfare, tribes were assembled by them, each leader of a clan or party having a distinguishing cry and blast of a horn peculiar to himself, and the sounding of this particular blast or cry would be recognised by men of the same party, who would go to each other’s assistance if need were. The refrain is sung by all the players in Oxfordshire and Lancashire, and in some versions the players in this game put their hands to their mouths as if imitating a blast from a horn, and a Lancashire version (about 1820-1830), quoted by Miss Burne, has for the refrain, “With a rancy, tancy, terry boys horn, with a rancy, tancy, tee.” “The burden,” says Miss Burne, “evidently represented a flourish of trumpets.” The Barnes version, “With a rancy, tancy, terrimus hey!” and many others confirm this.

An interesting article by Dr. Karl Blind (Antiquary, ix. 63-72), on the Hawick riding song, “Teribus ye Teri Odin,” points out that this slogan, which occurs in the “Hawick Common-Riding Song,” a song used at the annual Riding of the Marches of the Common, is an ancient Germanic war-cry. Dr. Blind, quoting from a pamphlet, Flodden Field and New Version of the Common Riding Song, says, “It is most likely that the inspiring strains of ‘Terribus’ would be the marching tune of our ancestors when on their way for Flodden Field and other border battles, feuds, and frays. The words of the common-riding song have been changed at various periods, according to the taste and capacity of poets and minstrels, but the refrain has remained little altered. . . . The origin of the ancient and, at one time, imperative ceremony of the common-riding is lost in antiquity, and this old, no longer understood, exclamation, ‘Teribus ye Teri Odin,’ has (says Dr. Blind) all through ages in the meanwhile clung to that ceremony.”

If we can fairly claim that the words of this game have preserved an old slogan or tribal cry, an additional piece of evidence is supplied to the suggestion that the game is a reflection of the tribal marriage—a reflection preserved by children of to-day by means of oral tradition from the children of a thousand years ago or more, who played at games in imitation of the serious and ordinary actions of their elders.[Addendum] [Addendum]

Three Flowers

A group of lads and lasses being assembled round the fire, two leave the party and consult apart as to the names of three others, young men or girls, whom they designate Red Rose, the Pink, and the Gilliflower. If lads are first pitched upon, the two return to the fireside circle, and having selected a lass, they say the above verse to her. The maiden must choose one of the flowers named, on which she passes some approving epithet, adding, at the same time, a disapproving rejection of the other two; for instance, I will sink the Pink, swim the Rose, and bring home the Gilliflower to land. The two young men then disclose the names of the parties upon whom they had fixed those appellations respectively, when of course it may chance that she has slighted the person she is understood to be most attached to, or chosen him whom she is believed to regard with aversion; either of which events is sure to throw the company into a state of outrageous merriment.—Chambers’ Popular Rhymes, p. 127. Mr. W. Ballantyne has given me a description of this game as played at Biggar when he was a boy, which is practically the same as this.

Three Holes

Three holes were made in the ground by the players driving the heels of their boots into the earth, and then pirouetting. The game was played with the large marbles (about the size of racket balls) known as “bouncers,” sometimes as “bucks.” The first boy stood at “taw,” and bowled his marble along the ground into 1. (It was bad form to make the holes too large; they were then “wash-hand basins,” and made the game too easy.) Taking the marble in his hand, and placing his foot against 1, he bowled the marble into 2. He was now “going up for his firsts.” Starting at 2, he bowled the marble into 3, and had now “taken off his firsts,” and was “coming down for his seconds.” He then bowled the marble back again into 2, and afterwards into 1. He then “went up for his thirds,” bowling the marble into 2, and afterwards into 3, and had then won the game. When he won in this fashion, he was said to have “taken off the game.” But he didn’t often do this. In going up for his firsts, perhaps his marble, instead of going into 2, stopped at A; then the second boy started from taw, and, having sent his marble into 1, bowled at A; if he hit the marble, he started for 2, from where his marble stopped; if he missed, or didn’t gain the hole he was making for, or knocked his antagonist’s marble into a hole, the first boy played again, hitting the other marble, if it brought him nearer to the hole he was making for, or else going on. In such a case as I have supposed, it would be the player’s aim to knock A on to B, or some place between 2 and 3, so as to enter 2, and then strike again so as to near 3, enter 3, and strike on his way down for his seconds, and near 2 again. These were the chances of the game; but if the boy who started went through the game without his antagonist having a chance, he was said “to take off the game.”—London (J. P. Emslie).

Three Jolly Welshmen

One child is supposed to be taking care of others, who take hold of her or of each other. Three children personate the Welshmen. These try to rob the mother or caretaker of her children. They each try to capture as many as they can, and I think the one who gets most is to be mother next time.—Beddgelert (Mrs. Williams).

See “Gipsy,” “Mother, Mother,” “Shepherd and Sheep,” “Witch.”

Three Knights from Spain

I.

—Eccleshall, Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 222.

II.

—Cambridgeshire, Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, p. 222.

III.

—Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes, cccxxxiii.

IV.

[There is here a hiatus, the reply of the lovers being wanting.]

[Another hiatus.]

—Chambers’s Popular Rhymes, 143.

V.

—Leicester (Miss Ellis).

VI.

—Addy’s Sheffield Glossary.

VII.

—Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

VIII.

—Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

IX.

—Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

X.

—Middlesex (from Mrs. Pocklington-Coltman’s maid).

XI.

—Annaverna, Ravensdale, Co. Louth (Miss R. Stephens).

XII.

—London (Miss Dendy).

XIII.

—Colleyhurst, Manchester (Miss Dendy).

XIV.

—Bexley Heath (Miss Morris).

XV.

[Or,

—Swaffham, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

XVI.

—Kent (Miss Fowler).

XVII.

—Bocking, Essex (Folk-lore Record, iii. pt. ii. 171).

XVIII.

—Wenlock, Condover, Ellesmere, Market Drayton (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 516).

XIX.

—Pembrokeshire, Wales (Folk-lore Record, v. 89).

XX.

—People’s Friend, quoted in review of “Arbroath: Past and Present.”

XXI.

—Dublin (Mrs. Lincoln).

XXII.

—Notes and Queries (1852), vol. vi. 242.

XXIII.

—Yorkshire (Miss E. Cadman).

XXIV.

[This second one then joins hands with the “lord,” and they dance round together, saying—]

—Ballymiscaw school, co. Down (Miss C. N. Patterson).

XXV.

—Holywood, co. Down (Miss C. N. Patterson).

XXVI.

—Galloway (J. G. Carter).

XXVII.

—Berwickshire (A. M. Bell, Antiquary, vol. xxx. p. 15).

XXVIII.

—Cowes, Isle of Wight (Miss E. Smith).

XXIX.

—Perth (Rev. W. Gregor).

XXX.

—Clapham School (Mrs. Herbertson).

XXXI.

—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 46, 47).

XXXII.

—Gloucestershire (Northall’s Rhymes, p. 385).

XXXIII.

—Fochabers, N.E. Scotland (Rev. W. Gregor).

XXXIV.