PLAY
1. In all the many centuries of our history there have been boys and
girls; and, whatever has been going on in the world around them,
they have found time to play. Many of their games go back so far
in the history of man that their origin is forgotten. Yet there
are games which children play now just as they did in the days of
Queen Elizabeth; and those queer rhymes, which you know so well, and
understand nothing about, have been repeated, some of them, since
England began to be England.
2. There is plenty to say about games, but not enough space to say it
all here. There are some games which come and go as regularly as the
seasons. The queer part of it all is: Who starts the game? As sure as
the early spring evenings arrive you will find boys playing at marbles.
Town or country, it does not matter, all at once "marbles are _in_".
Nobody says it is "marble season"; nobody ever yet found the boy who
brings out the first marble of the season. Somehow a _something_ inside
a boy tells him it is "marble" time, and the marbles appear in his
pocket.
3. It is just the same with "tops"; they come and they go with absolute
regularity. They come as if by magic, and by magic they disappear. When
the errand-boy, who has left school a month or two, stops, basket on
arm, to watch the game, you may be sure that it is the height of the
season. When the ground is occupied by the little chaps who have just
come up from the infant school, and the errand-boy passes whistling by
on the other side, it is quite certain that the season is over and gone.
4. These are games that want no clubs, associations, nor subscriptions.
Yet they are governed by time-honoured rules, which have never been
written down, but must be strictly observed, or there is much talking
and wrangling over the game.
5. =Sports= have an important place in the life of towns and villages
nowadays; but, though cricket and football are old games really, they
have not always been as popular as they are now. =Cricket=, in some
form or other, was played in the thirteenth century; indeed all games
where a ball is used are more or less ancient. It seems to have been
played at Guildford as early as 1598, but modern cricket only dates
from the middle of the eighteenth century. Kent seems to have led the
way, and Hampshire was the home of the game in 1774.
6. =Football= has almost driven every other game out of our towns, but
it is only within the last thirty years that it has become so popular.
Football of some kind has been played for many centuries, especially
in the streets of towns. Kingston, Chester, and Dorking, amongst other
places, have a custom of playing football on Shrove Tuesday. The story
as to how the custom arose is the same in most of these places.
7. Far back in the ninth century a party of Danes ravaged the district
and attacked the town. The townsmen made a brave stand against them
till help came. Then the Danes were defeated, their leader slain, his
head struck off, and kicked about the streets in triumph. That is said
to have given rise to the custom; but it was a very hideous football.
8. Football was not always regarded with favour. Folk often wanted to
play football when their lords and masters wanted them to practise with
their bows and arrows. So the young men and apprentices were frequently
told what a dangerous game it was, and over and over again it was
forbidden. Football was always apparently a game over which the players
fell out, much as they do now. Nearly four hundred years ago a worthy
gentleman wrote of the game:--
"It is nothyng but beastely fury and extreme violence, whereby
procedeth hurte, and consequently rancour and malice do remayne with
thym that be wounded".
[Illustration]
9. There are some places where the school-boys of long, long ago have
left their marks. In the cloisters at Westminster Abbey and Gloucester
Cathedral, for instance, are some roughly cut marks in the old stone
benches, forming the "tables" or "boards" on which they played some
almost forgotten games with stones.
=Summary.=--_Children's games_ are very ancient, and the rhymes
have been handed down from very early times, so that we do not
know now what they mean. Marbles, tops, and hop-scotch are games
which come and go regularly, and are governed by unwritten rules.
_Football_ and _cricket_ are old games. Both games have altered
very much. The marks of some old games, which were played with
stones, are still to be seen in the cloisters at Westminster and
Gloucester. (See cut on previous page.)