played in the playground, or yard, attached to a school. Any number can
play. A place is chalked out in a corner or angle formed by the walls or
hedges surrounding the playground. This is called the den, and a boy
stands within the den. Sometimes the den is formed by chalking an area
out upon a footpath, as in the game of "Bedlams." The boy in the den
walks or runs out, crying, "Rag-stag, jinny I over, catching," and
having said this he attempts to catch one of the boys in the playground
who have agreed to play the game. Having caught him he takes him back
into the den. When they have got into the den they run out hand-in-hand,
one of them crying, "Rag-stag, jinny I over, touching," whilst the other
immediately afterwards calls out, "Rag-stag, jinny I over, catching."
They must keep hold of each other's hands, and whilst doing so the one
who cried out "Touching" attempts to touch one of the boys in the
playground, whilst the one who cried "Catching" attempts to catch one of
such boys. If a boy is caught or touched, the two boys who came out of
the den, together with their prisoner, run back as quickly as possible
into the den, with their hands separated. If whilst they are running
back into the den any boy in the playground can catch any one of the
three who are running back, he jumps on his back and rides as far as the
den, but he must take care not to ride too far, for when the boys who
are already caught enter the den they can seize their riders, and pull
them into the den. In this case the riders too are caught. The process
is repeated until all are caught.--Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_.
Another name for the game is "Stag-out." One player is Stag, and has a
place marked out for his bounds. He stands inside, and then rushes out
with his hands clasped together, and endeavours to touch one of the
other players, which being accomplished, he has the privilege of riding
on the boy's back to his bounds again.--_Book of Sports._ In a London
version the hands were held above the head, and joined by interlacing
the thumbs, the fingers being outspread, the boy had to touch another
while in this position.
In Shropshire it is called "Stag-warning." One boy is chosen Stag; he
runs about the playground with his clasped hands held palms together in
front of him, trying to tick (= touch) others. Each whom he touches
joins hands with him, and they run together in an ever-lengthening
chain, sweeping the playground from end to end, the boys at each end of
the chain "ticking" others with their disengaged hands, till all are
caught but one, who becomes the next "Stag." The Stag gives notice of
his start by exclaiming--
Stag-warning, stag-warning,
Come out to-morrow morning!
--Shrewsbury.
Stag a-rag a-rorning
Very frosty morning!
What I cannot catch to-night I'll catch to-morrow morning!
--Chirbury (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 523).
The game is mentioned by Mr. Patterson in his _Antrim and Down
Glossary_. Northall's _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 392, gives a
Warwickshire and Staffordshire version, in which the first player
"ticked" or "tagged" becomes Stag when the first game is concluded, all
having been caught. The words used are--
Stag aloney,
My long poney,
Kick the bucket over.
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."
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:--
"Down in a vale, on a summer's day,
All the lads and lasses met to be merry;
A match for kisses at stool-ball to play,
And for cakes and ale, and cider and perry."
_Chorus;_
"Come all, great, small, short, tall--
Away to stool-ball."
It is also alluded to in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1740:
"Now milkmaids pails are deckt with flowers,
And men begin to drink in bowers,
The mackarels come up in shoals,
To fill the mouths of hungry souls;
Sweet sillabubs, and lip-lov'd tansey,
For William is prepared by Nancy.
Much time is wasted now away,
At pigeon-holes, and nine-pin play,
Whilst hob-nail Dick, and simpring Frances,
Trip it away in country dances;
At _stool-ball_ and at barley-break,
Wherewith they harmless pastime make."
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. Sunday night an' Nancy, oh!
My delight and fancy, oh!
All the world that I should know
If I had a Katey, oh!
"He! ho! my Katey, oh!
My bonny, bonny Katey, oh!
All the world that I should keep
If I had a Katey, oh!"
--Liphook, Hants (Miss Fowler).
II. Sunday night and brandy, O!
My life and saying so,
My life and saying so,
Call upon me Annie, O!
I Annie, O!
Bonnie, bonnie Annie, O!
She's the girl that I should like
If I had an Annie, O!
--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.
Sun Shines
The sun shines above and the sun shines below,
And a' the lasses in this school is dying in love I know,
Especially (girl's name) she's beautiful and fair;
She's awa wi' (a boy's name) for the curl o's hair.
In comes (girl's name) mother with the glass in her han',
Says--My dearest daughter, I'm glad you're gettin a man,
I'm glad you're gettin a man and a cooper to trade,
And let a' the world say he is a rovin' blade.
--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:
One to earth and one to heaven,
And _this_ to carry my soul to heaven.
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:
I went down the garden
And there I found a farth'ng;
I gave it to my mother
To buy a little brother;
The brother was so cross
I sat him on the horse;
The horse was so bandy
I gave him a drop (_or_ glass) of brandy;
The brandy was so strong
I set him on the pond;
The pond was so deep
I sent him off to sleep;
The sleep was so sound
I set him on the ground;
The ground was so flat
I set him on the cat;
The cat ran away
With the boy on his back;
And a good bounce [A great push here]
Over the high gate wall.
Said while swing stops itself:--
Die, pussy, die,
Shut your little eye,
When you wake,
Find a cake;
Die, pussy, die.
--Deptford.
Wingy, wongy,
Days are longy,
Cuckoo and the sparrow;
Little dog has lost his tail,
And he shall be hung to-morrow.
--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--
With a heigh-ho!
Over the bowling green.
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--
Shuggie show, druggie draw,
Haud the grip, ye canna fa';
Haud the grup or down ye come,
And danceth on your braid bum.
--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:--
Tuswball, tuswball, tell unto me
What my sweetheart's name shall be.
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
I come with my ringle jingles
Under my lady's apron strings.
First comes summer, and then comes May,
The queen's to be married on midsummer day.
Here she sits and here she stands,
As fair as a lily, as white as a swan;
A pair of green gloves to draw on her hands,
As ladies wear in Cumberland.
I've brought you three letters, so pray you read one,
I can't read one unless I read all,
So pray, Miss Nancy, deliver them all.
--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:--
My lady's lost her diamond ring,
I pitch upon you to find it.
In the two following games from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire there are no
words used in rhymes or couplets.