The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 45

The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, The old whiskey bottle lies empty on the shelf, As we go marching home.

-Earls Heaton, Yorks.h.i.+re (Herbert).

(_b_) In Lincolns.h.i.+re and Nottinghams.h.i.+re the game is played by the children forming a circle and dancing round, singing. The first and third lines are sung three times. Partners are chosen during the singing of the last line. Miss Peac.o.c.k adds, "The rest wanting, as my informant had forgotten the game." In the Sharleston version the children march round two by two, in a double circle, with one child in the centre, singing the verse. At the conclusion, the children who are marching on the inner side of the circle leave their partners and take the place of one in front of them, while the centre child endeavours to get one of the vacant places, the child turned out taking the place of the one in the centre, when the game begins again. In the Earls Heaton version there is the circle of children, with one child in the centre, who chooses a partner after the lines have been sung.

(_c_) From this it would seem that while the Lincolns.h.i.+re and Nottinghams.h.i.+re words appear to be the most complete, the action has been preserved best at Sharleston. The acting of this version is the same as that of "The Jolly Miller." The third variant is evidently an imitation of the song, "John Brown."

Green Grow the Leaves (2)

[Music]

-Northants (R. S. Baker).

Green grow the leaves on the hawthorn tree, Green grow the leaves on the hawthorn tree, We jangle and we wrangle and we never can agree, But the tenor of our song goes merrily, merrily, merrily, The tenor of our song goes merrily.

-R. S. Baker (_Northants Notes and Queries_, ii. 161).

(_b_) One couple is chosen to lead, and they go off, whither they will, followed by a long train of youths and maidens, all singing the refrain.

Sometimes the leaders part company, and branch off to the right or left; the others have to do the same, and not until the leaders meet can they join again. They march arm in arm.

(_c_) Mr. R. S. Baker, who records this, says a Wellingborough lady sent him the tune and words, and told him the game was more like a country dance than anything else, being a sort of dancing "Follow My Leader."

Gully

A sink, or, failing that, a particular stone in the pavement was the "Gully." Some boy chosen by lot, or one who volunteered in order to start the game, laid his top on the ground at some distance from the "Gully." The first player then spun his top, pegging at the rec.u.mbent top, so as to draw it towards the "Gully." If he missed the top, he stooped down and took up his own top by pus.h.i.+ng his hand against it in such a manner that the s.p.a.ce between his first and second finger caught against the peg and forced the top into the palm of his hand. He then had "a go" at the rec.u.mbent top (I forget what this was called), and sent his own top against it so as to push it towards the "Gully." If he missed, he tried again and again, until his own top could spin no longer. If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other's place. This was called "kissing," and was not allowed by some players. When one player succeeded in sending the top into the "Gully,"

he took it up and fixed it by its peg into a post, mortar of a wall, or the best place where it could be tolerably steady. Holding it by one hand, he drove the peg of his own top as far as he could into the crown of the victim top. This was called "taking a grudge." He then held either his own or the victim top and knocked the other against the wall, the object being to split the victim. He was allowed three "grudges." If the top did not give way, the other players tried in turn. If the top did not split, it was returned to its owner, but any boy who succeeded in splitting it through the middle, so that the peg fell out, took possession of the peg. I have seen a top split at the side in such a way as to be quite useless as a top, though no peg was gained. I remember, too, a schoolfellow of mine drawing from his pocket some seven or eight pegs, the trophied memorials of as many tops.-London (J. P. Emslie).

See "Hoatie," "Hoges," "Peg-top."

Hairry my Bossie

This is a game of chance. The players are two, and may be boys or girls, or a boy and a girl. The stakes may be pins, b.u.t.tons, marbles, or anything for which children gamble. One player puts a number, one, two, three or more, of the articles to be gambled for into the hollow of the closed hand, and says, "Hairry my bossie;" the other answers, "Knock 'im down," upon which he puts his closed hands down with a blow on his knees, and continues to strike them upwards and downwards on the knee, so as to give the opponent in play an idea of the number of objects concealed by the sound given forth. He then says, "How many blows?" and gets the reply, "As many's goes." A guess is then made. If the guess is correct the guesser gets the objects. If the guess is incorrect the guesser has to make up the difference between the number guessed and the real number. The players play alternately. This game was played for the most part at Christmas.-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

(_b_) Hairry = "rob," Bossie = "a wooden bowl," commonly used for making the leaven in baking oat-cakes, and for making "brose."

This is a very general game amongst schoolboys.

Half-Hammer

The game of "Hop-step-and-jump," Norfolk. This game is played in the west of Suss.e.x, but not in the east. It is played thus by two or more boys. Each boy in his turn stands first on one leg and makes a hop, then strides or steps, and lastly, putting both feet together, jumps. The boy who covers the most ground is the victor.-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Han'-and-Hail

A game common in Dumfries, thus described by Jamieson. Two goals called hails, or dules, are fixed on at about a distance of four hundred yards. The two parties then place themselves in the middle between the goals or dules, and one of the players, taking a soft elastic ball, about the size of a man's fist, tosses it into the air, and, as it falls, strikes it with his palm towards his antagonists. The object of the game is for either party to drive the ball beyond the goal which lies before them, while their opponents do all in their power to prevent this. As soon as the ball is gowf't, that is, struck away, the opposite party endeavour to intercept it in its fall. This is called keppan' the ba'. If they succeed in this attempt, the player who does so is ent.i.tled to throw the ball with all his might towards his antagonists. If he kep it in the first bound which it makes off the ground, called a stot, he is allowed to haunch, that is, to throw the ball by bringing his hand with a sweep past his thigh, to which he gives a stroke as his hand pa.s.ses, and discharging the ball at the moment when the stroke is given.

If the ball be caught in the second bounce, the catcher may hoch the ball, that is, throw it through below one of his houghs. If none of the party catch the ball, it must be gowf't in the manner before described.

As soon as either of the parties succeed in driving the ball, or, as it is called, hailin' the dules, the game then begins by one of the party which was successful throwing the ball towards the opposing goal and the other party striving to drive it back.

Hand in and Hand out

A game played by a company of young people who are drawn up in a circle, when one of them, pitched upon by lot, walks round the band, and, if a boy, hits a girl, or, if a girl, she strikes a boy whom she chooses, on which the party striking and the party struck run in pursuit of each other till the latter is caught, whose lot it then becomes to perform the same part. A game so called was forbidden by statute of Edward IV.-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

See "Drop Handkerchief."

Handy-Croopen

A game in which one of the players turns his face to the wall, his hand resting upon his back. He must continue in position until he guesses who struck his hand, when the striker takes his place.-Orkney and Shetland (Jamieson's _Dictionary_).

See "Hot c.o.c.kles."

Handy Dandy

I. Handy dandy, Sugary candy- Top or bottom?

Handy spandy, Jack a dandy- Which good hand will you have?

-Halliwell's _Dictionary_: _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 216.

II. Handy dandy riddledy ro- Which will you have, high or low?

-Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 216.

III. Handy pandy, Sugary candy, Which will you have- Top or bottom?

-London (A. B. Gomme).

IV. Handy pandy, Jack a dandy, Which hand will you have?

-Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 530.

(_b_) The hands are closed, some small article is put in one of them behind the back of the player. The closed fists are then turned rapidly round one another while the rhyme is being said, and they are then placed one on top of the other. A guess is then made by any one of the players as to which hand the object is in. If correct, the guesser obtains the object; if incorrect, the player who performs "Handy dandy"

keeps it.

(_c_) This game is mentioned in _Piers Plowman_, p. 69 of Wright's edition. Douce quotes an ancient MS. which curiously mentions the game as "men play with little children at 'handye-dandye,' which hand will you have" (ii. 167). Johnson says: "'Handy dandy,' a play in which children change hands and places: 'See how yon justice rails upon yon simple thief! Hark, in thine ear: change places, and, handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?" (_King Lear_, iv. 6). Malone says, "'Handy dandy' is, I believe, a play among children, in which something is shaken between two hands, and then a guess is made in which hand it is retained." See Florio's _Italian Dictionary_, 1598: "Bazzicchiare, to shake between the hands; to play 'Handy dandy.'" Pope, in his _Memoirs of Cornelius Scriblerus_, in forbidding certain sports to his son Martin till he is better informed of their antiquity, says: "Neither cross and pile, nor ducks and drakes, are quite so ancient as 'Handy dandy,' though Macrobius and St. Augustine take notice of the first, and Minutius Foelix describes the latter; but 'Handy dandy' is mentioned by Aristotle, Plato, and Aristophanes." Browne, in _Britannia's Pastorals_ (i. 5), also alludes to the game.

See "Neiveie-nick-nack."

Hap the Beds

A singular game, gone through by hopping on one foot, and with that foot sliding a little flat stone out of an oblong bed, rudely drawn on a smooth piece of ground. This bed is divided into eight parts, the two of which at the farther end of it are called the Kail-pots. If the player then stands at one end, and pitches the smooth stone into all the divisions one after the other, following the same on a foot (at every throw), and bringing it out of the figure, this player wins not only the game, but is considered a first-rate daub at it; failing, however, to go through all the parts so, without missing either a throw or a hop, yet keeping before the other gamblers (for many play at one bed), still wins the curious rustic game.-Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopaedia_.