—Earls Heaton, Yorkshire (Herbert Hardy).
(b) One set of children stand against a wall, another set stand opposite, facing them. The first set sing the first line, the others replying with the second line, and so with the third and fourth lines. The two sides then rush over to each other, and the second set are caught. The child who is caught last becomes one of the first set for another game. This is the Earls Heaton version. The Lancashire game, as described by Miss Dendy, is: One child stands opposite a row of children, and the row run over to the opposite side, when the one child tries to catch them. The prisoners made, join the one child, and assist her in the process of catching the others. The rhyme is repeated in each case until all are caught, the last one out becoming “Blackthorn” for a new game. Harland and Wilkinson describe the game somewhat differently. Each player has a mark, and after the dialogue the players run over to each other’s marks, and if any can be caught before getting home to the opposite mark, he has to carry his captor to the mark, when he takes his place as an additional catcher.
(c) Miss Burne’s version (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 521) is practically the same as the Earls Heaton game, and Easther in his Almondbury Glossary gives a version practically like the Sheffield. Mr. Hardy says it is sometimes called “Black-butt,” when the opposite side cry “Away we cut.” Miss Dendy quotes an old Lancashire rhyme, which curiously refers to the different subjects in the Lancashire game rhyme. It is as follows:—
Another version is given in Notes and Queries, 3rd Series, vii. 285.
(d) This is a dramatic game, in which the children seem to personate animals, and to depict events belonging to the history of the flock. Miss Burne groups it under her “dramatic games.”
A game formerly common in Berwickshire, in which all the players were hoodwinked except the person who was called the Bell. He carried a bell, which he rung, still endeavouring to keep out of the way of his hoodwinked partners in the game. When he was taken, the person who seized him was released from the bandage, and got possession of the bell, the bandage being transferred to him who was laid hold of.—Jamieson.
(b) In “The Modern Playmate,” edited by Rev. J. G. Wood, this game is described under the name of “Jingling.” Mr. Wood says there is a rougher game played at country feasts and fairs in which a pig takes the place of the boy with the bell, but he does not give the locality (p. 7). Strutt also describes it (Sports, p. 317).
In Somersetshire the game of “Blind Man’s Buff.” Also in Cornwall (see Couch’s Polperro, p. 173). Pulman says this means “Blind buck and have ye” (Elworthy’s Dialect).
A name for “Blind Man’s Buff.”—Jamieson.
The Suffolk name for “Blind Man’s Buff.”—Halliwell’s Dictionary; Moor’s Suffolk Glossary.
—Shrewsbury (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 525).
—Deptford (Miss Chase).
—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 57, 58).
—Cumberland (Dickinson’s Glossary).
(b) In the Deptford version one of the players is blindfolded. The one who blindfolds ascertains that the player cannot see by putting the first question. When the players are satisfied that the blindfolding is complete, the dialogue follows, and the blind man is turned round three times. The game is for him to catch one of the players, who is blindfolded in turn if the blind man succeeds in guessing who he is. Players are allowed to pull, pinch, and buffet the blind man.
(c) This sport is found among the illuminations of an old missal formerly in the possession of John Ives, cited by Strutt in his Manners and Customs. The two illustrations are facsimiles from drawings in one of the Bodleian MSS., and they indicate the complete covering of the head, and also the fact that the game was played by adults. Gay says concerning it—
And another reference is quoted by Brand (ii. 398)—
—The Newe Metamorphosis, 1600, MS.
Other names for this game are “Belly Mantie,” “Billy Blind,” “Blind Bucky Davy,” “Blind Harie,” “Blind Hob,” “Blind Nerry Mopsey,” “Blind Palmie,” “Blind Sim,” “Buck Hid,” “Chacke Blynd Man,” “Hoodle-cum-blind,” “Hoodman Blind,” “Hooper’s Hide,” “Jockie Blind Man.”
(d) There is some reason for believing that this game can be traced up to very ancient rites connected with prehistoric worship. The name “Billy Blind” denoted the person who was blindfolded in the game, as may be seen by an old poem by Lyndsay, quoted by Jamieson:
And also in Clerk’s Advice to Luvaris:
“It is probable,” says Jamieson, “that the term is the same as Billy Blynde, said to be the name of a familiar spirit or good genius somewhat similar to the brownie.” Professor Child identifies it with Odin, the blind deity. Another name in Scotland is also “Blind Harie,” which is not the common Christian name “Harry,” because this was not a name familiar in Scotland. Blind Harie may therefore, Jamieson thinks, arise from the rough or hairy attire worn by the principal actor. Auld Harie is one of the names given to the devil, and also to the spirit Brownie, who is represented as a hairy being. Under “Coolin,” a curious Highland custom is described by Jamieson, which is singularly like the game of “Belly Blind,” and assists in the conclusion that the game has descended from a rite where animal gods were represented. Sporting with animals before sacrificing them was a general feature at these rites. It is known that the Church opposed the people imitating beasts, and in this connection it is curious to note that in South Germany the game is called blind bock, i. e., “blind goat,” and in German blinde kuhe, or “blind cow.” In Scotland, one of the names for the game, according to A. Scott’s poems, was “Blind Buk”:
It may therefore be conjectured that the person who was hoodwinked assumed the appearance of a goat, stag, or cow by putting on the skin of one of those animals.
He who is twice crowned or touched on the head by the taker or him who is hoodwinked, instead of once only, according to the law of the game, is said to be brunt (burned), and regains his liberty.—Jamieson.
A boys’ game, played with the eggs of small birds. The eggs are placed on the ground, and the player who is blindfolded takes a certain number of steps in the direction of the eggs; he then slaps the ground with a stick thrice in the hope of breaking the eggs; then the next player, and so on.—Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
The Whitby name for “Blind Man’s Buff.”—Robinson’s Glossary.
One of the names given to the game of “Blindman’s Buff.”—Jamieson.
Suffolk name for “Blind Man’s Buff.”—Forby’s Vocabulary of East Anglia.
This is a boys’ game, and requires seven players. One boy, the Block, goes down on all fours; another, the Nail, does the same behind the Block, with his head close to his a posteriori part. A third boy, the Hammer, lies down on his back behind the two. Of the remaining four boys one stations himself at each leg and one at each arm of the Hammer, and he is thus lifted. He is swung backwards and forwards three times in this position by the four, who keep repeating “Once, twice, thrice.” When the word “Thrice” is repeated, the a posteriori part of the Hammer is knocked against the same part of the Nail. Any number of knocks may be given, according to the humour of the players.—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
A fellow lies on all fours—this is the Block; one steadies him before—this is the Study; a third is made a Hammer of, and swung by boys against the Block (Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia). Patterson (Antrim and Down Glossary) mentions a game, “Hammer, Block, and Bible,” which is probably the same game.
Strutt considers this to have been a children’s game, played by blowing an arrow through a trunk at certain numbers by way of lottery (Sports, p. 403). Nares says the game was blowing small pins or points against each other, and probably not unlike “Push-pin.” Marmion in his Antiquary, 1641, says: “I have heard of a nobleman that has been drunk with a tinker, and of a magnifico that has played at blow-point.” In the Comedy of Lingua, 1607, act iii., sc. 2, Anamnestes introduces Memory as telling “how he played at blowe-point with Jupiter when he was in his side-coats.” References to this game are also made in Apollo Shroving, 1627, p. 49; and see Hawkins’ English Drama, iii. 243.
See “Dust-Point.”
A children’s game, consisting in jumping at cherries above their heads and trying to catch them with their mouths (Halliwell’s Dictionary). It is alluded to in Herrick’s Hesperides as “Chop Cherry.” Major Lowsley describes the game as taking the end of a cherry-stalk between the teeth, and holding the head perfectly level, trying to get the cherry into the mouth without using the hands or moving the head (Berkshire Glossary). It is also mentioned in Peacock’s Manley and Corringham Glossary. Strutt gives a curious illustration of the game in his Sports and Pastimes, which is here reproduced from the original MS. in the British Museum.
The Staffordshire St. Clement Day custom (Poole’s Staffordshire Customs, &c., p. 36) and the northern Hallowe’en custom (Brockett’s North-Country Words) probably indicate the origin of this game from an ancient rite.
A favourite play among young people in the villages, in which one hunts several others (Brockett’s North-Country Words). The game is alluded to in one of the songs given by Ritson (ii. 3), and Jamieson describes it as a Scottish game.
See “Barley-break.”
The child’s play of finding the hidden person in the company.—Robinson’s Whitby Glossary. See “Hide and Seek.”
This is a boys’ game. The players place their bonnets or caps in a pile. They then join hands and stand in a circle round it. They then pull each other, and twist and wriggle round and round and over it, till one overturns it or knocks a bonnet off it. The player who does so is hoisted on the back of another, and pelted by all the others with their bonnets.—Keith, Nairn (Rev. W. Gregor).
[Play]
—Norfolk.
—Norfolk, 1825-30 (J. Doe).
(b) One boy lies down and personates Booman. Other boys form a ring round him, joining hands and alternately raising and lowering them, to imitate bell-pulling, while the girls who play sit down and weep. The boys sing the first verse. The girls seek for daisies or any wild flowers, and join in the singing of the second verse, while the boys raise the prostrate Booman and carry him about. When singing the third verse the boys act digging a grave, and the dead boy is lowered. The girls strew flowers over the body. When finished another boy becomes Booman.
(c) This game is clearly dramatic, to imitate a funeral. Mr. Doe writes, “I have seen somewhere [in Norfolk] a tomb with a crest on it—a leek—and the name Beaumont,” but it does not seem necessary to thus account for the game.
A game at marbles. Strutt describes it as follows:—“One bowls a marble to any distance that he pleases, which serves as a mark for his antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the marble first bowled, or lay his own near enough to it for him to span the space between them and touch both the marbles. In either case he wins. If not, his marble remains where it lay, and becomes a mark for the first player, and so alternately until the game be won.”—Sports, p. 384.
The same as “Boss-out.” It is mentioned, but not described, in Baker’s Northamptonshire Glossary.
[Play]
—The Dancing Master, 1728, vol. ii., p. 138.
—Useful Transactions in Philosophy, p. 44.
This rhyme is repeated when it is decided to begin any game, as a general call to the players. The above writer says it occurs in a very ancient MS., but does not give any reference to it. Halliwell quotes the four first lines, the first line reading “Boys and girls,” instead of “Boys, boys,” from a curious ballad written about the year 1720, formerly in the possession of Mr. Crofton Croker (Nursery Rhymes). Chambers also gives this rhyme (Popular Rhymes, p. 152).
A game formerly common at fairs, called also “Hit my Legs and miss my Pegs.”—Dickinson’s Cumberland Glossary.
A game at marbles. The boys have a board a foot long, four inches in depth, and an inch (or so) thick, with squares as in the diagram; any number of holes at the ground edge, numbered irregularly. The board is placed firmly on the ground, and each player bowls at it. He wins the number of marbles denoted by the figure above the opening through which his marble passes. If he misses a hole, his marble is lost to the owner of the Bridgeboard.—Earls Heaton (Herbert Hardy). [The owner or keeper of the Bridgeboard presumably pays those boys who succeed in winning marbles.]
See “Nine Holes.”
A boys’ game, undescribed.—Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
Ebenezer is sent out of the room, and the remainder choose one of themselves. Two children act in concert, it being understood that the last person speaking when Ebenezer goes out of the room is the person to be chosen. The medium left in the room causes the others to think of this person without letting them know that they are not choosing of their own free will. The medium then says, “Brother Ebenezer, come in,” and asks him in succession, “Was it William, or Jane,” &c., mentioning several names before saying the right one, Ebenezer saying “No!” to all until the one is mentioned who last spoke.—Bitterne, Hants (Mrs. Byford).
A child’s game, undescribed.—Halliwell’s Dictionary.
The name of a game probably the same as “Nine Holes.”—Halliwell’s Dictionary.
A boy stoops so that his arms rest on a table; another boy sits on him as he would on a horse. He then holds up (say) three fingers, and says—
The stooping boy guesses, and if he says a wrong number the other says—
When the stooping boy guesses rightly the other says—
The boy then gets off and stoops for the other one to mount, and the game is played again.—London (J. P. Emslie).
Similar action accompanies the following rhyme:—
—Almondbury (Easther’s Glossary).
A different action occurs in other places. It is played by three boys in the following way:—One stands with his back to a wall; the second stoops down with his head against the stomach of the first boy, “forming a back;” the third jumps on it, and holds up his hand with the fingers distended, saying—
Should the stooper guess correctly, they all change places, and the jumper forms the back. Another and not such a rough way of playing this game is for the guesser to stand with his face towards a wall, keeping his eyes shut.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 59).
In Nairn, Scotland, the game is called Post and Rider. One boy, the Post, takes his stand beside a wall. Another boy stoops down with his head touching the Post’s breast. Several other boys stoop down in the same way behind the first boy, all in line. The Rider then leaps on the back of the boy at the end of the row of stooping boys, and from his back to that of the one in front, and so on from back to back till he reaches the boy next the Post. He then holds up so many fingers, and says—
The boy makes a guess. If the number guessed is wrong, the Rider gives the number guessed as well as the correct number, and again holds up so many, saying—
This goes on till the correct number is guessed, when the guesser becomes the Rider. The game was called “Buck, Buck” at Keith. Three players only took part in the game—the Post, the Buck, and the Rider. The words used by the Rider were—
If the guess was wrong, the Rider gave the Buck as many blows or kicks with the heel as the difference between the correct number and the number guessed. This process went on till the correct number was guessed, when the Rider and the Buck changed places.—Rev. W. Gregor.
(b) Dr. Tylor says: “It is interesting to notice the wide distribution and long permanence of these trifles in history when we read the following passage from Petronius Arbiter, written in the time of Nero:—‘Trimalchio, not to seem moved by the loss, kissed the boy, and bade him get up on his back. Without delay the boy climbed on horseback on him, and slapped him on the shoulders with his hand, laughing and calling out, “Bucca, bucca, quot sunt hic”?’—Petron. Arbitri Satiræ, by Buchler, p. 84 (other readings are buccæ or bucco).”—Primitive Culture, i. 67.
A rude game amongst boys.—Dickinson’s Cumberland Glossary.
“A kind of play used by boys in London streets in Henry VIII.’s time, now disused, and I think forgot” (Blount’s Glossographia, p. 95). Hall mentions this game, temp. Henry VIII., f. 91.
For this the boys divide into sides. One “stops at home,” the other goes off to a certain distance agreed on beforehand and shouts “Buckey-how.” The boys “at home” then give chase, and when they succeed in catching an adversary, they bring him home, and there he stays until all on his side are caught, when they in turn become the chasers.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 60).
—Shropshire (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 526).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:—
—Cheltenham (Miss E. Mendham).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:—
—London (J. P. Emslie).
(b) Five or six children stand in a row. Another child comes up to the first of the row, and strikes smartly on the ground with a stick. The child facing him asks the first question, and the one with the stick answers. At “strokes his face” he suits the action to the words, and then thumps with his stick on the ground at the beginning of the last line. The object of all the players is to make Buff smile while going through this absurdity, and if he does he must pay a forfeit.
Another version is for one child to be blindfolded, and stand in the middle of a ring of children, holding a long wand in his hand. The ring dance round to a tune and sing a chorus [which is not given by the writer]. They then stop. Buff extends his wand, and the person to whom it happens to be pointed must step out of the circle to hold the end in his hand. Buff then interrogates the holder of the wand by grunting three times, and is answered in like manner. Buff then guesses who is the holder of the wand. If he guesses rightly, the holder of the stick becomes Buff, and he joins the ring (Winter Evening’s Amusements, p. 6). When I played at this game the ring of children walked in silence three times only round Buff, then stopped and knelt or stooped down on the ground, strict silence being observed. Buff asked three questions (anything he chose) of the child to whom he pointed the stick, who replied by imitating cries of animals or birds (A. B. Gomme).
(c) This is a well-known game. It is also called “Buffy Gruffy,” or “Indian Buff.” The Dorsetshire version in Folk-lore Journal, vii. 238, 239, is the same as the Shropshire version. Halliwell (Nursery Rhymes, cclxxxii.) gives a slight variant. It is also given by Mr. Addy in his Sheffield Glossary, the words being the same except the last two lines, which run—
This seems to be an old name for some game, probably “Blindman’s Buff,” Sw. “Blind-bock,” q. “bock” and “hufwud head” (having the head resembling a goat). The sense, however, would agree better with “Bo-peep” or “Hide and Seek.”—Jamieson.
One child places himself in the centre of a circle of others. He then asks each of the circle in turn, “Where’s the key of the park?” and is answered by every one, except the last, “Ask the next-door neighbour.” The last one answers, “Get out the way you came in.” The centre one then makes a dash at the hands of some of the circle, and continues to do so until he breaks through, when all the others chase him. Whoever catches him is then Bull.—Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).
“The Bull in the Barn” is apparently the same game. The players form a ring; one player in the middle called the Bull, one outside called the King.
Bull: “Where is the key of the barn-door?”
Chorus: “Go to the next-door neighbour.”
King: “She left the key in the church-door.”
Bull: “Steel or iron?”
He then forces his way out of the ring, and whoever catches him becomes Bull.—Berrington (Burne’s Shropshire Folk-lore, pp. 519, 520).
Another version is that the child in the centre, whilst the others danced around him in a circle, saying, “Pig in the middle and can’t get out,” replies, “I’ve lost my key but I will get out,” and throws the whole weight of his body suddenly on the clasped hands of a couple, to try and unlock them. When he had succeeded he changed the words to, “I’ve broken your locks, and I have got out.” One of the pair whose hands he had opened took his place, and he joined the ring.—Cornwall (Folk-lore Journal, v. 50).
(b) Mr. S. O. Addy says the following lines are said or sung in a game called “T’ Bull’s i’ t’ Barn,” but he does not know how it is played:—
A play amongst boys, in which, all having joined hands in a line, a boy at one of the ends stands still, and the rest all wind round him. The sport especially consists in an attempt to heeze or throw the whole mass on the ground.—Jamieson.
See “Eller Tree,” “Wind up Jack,” “Wind up the Bush Faggot.”
A play of children. “Bummers—a thin piece of wood swung round by a cord” (Blackwood’s Magazine, Aug. 1821, p. 35). Jamieson says the word is evidently denominated from the booming sound produced.
A hole is scooped out in the ground with the heel in the shape of a small dish, and the game consists in throwing a marble as near to this hole as possible. Sometimes, when several holes are made, the game is called “Holy.”—Addy’s Sheffield Glossary; Notes and Queries, xii. 344.
Played by children in pairs (one kneeling and one standing) in a ring. The inner child of each pair kneels. The following dialogue begins with the inner circle asking the first question, which is replied to by the outer circle.
“What time does the King come home?”
“One o’clock in the afternoon.”
“What has he in his hand?”
“A bunch of ivy.”
The rhyme is repeated for every hour up to six, the outer circle running round the inner as many times as the number named. The children then change places and repeat.—Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).
[Play]
—London (J. P. Emslie).
A number of boys divide themselves into two sides. One side, the Buckets, stoop down, as for “Leap-frog,” arranging themselves one in front of the other. The hindmost supports himself against the one in front of him, and the front one supports himself against a wall (fig.). They thus make an even and solid row of their backs. The other side, the Bungs, leap on to the backs of the Buckets, the first one going as far up the row as possible, the second placing himself close behind the first, and so on. If they all succeed in getting a secure place, they cry out twice the two first lines—
If no breakdown occurs, the Buckets count one in their favour, and the Bungs repeat the process. When a breakdown occurs the Bungs take the place of the Buckets.—Barnes, Surrey (A. B. Gomme).
(b) Mr. Emslie, to whom I am indebted for the tune to this game, gives me the words as—