Part 33

Brockett says of this game, as played in Durham: It is called "Spell and Ore," Teut. "spel," a play or sport; and Germ. "knorr," a knot of wood or ore. The recreation is also called "Buckstick, Spell, and Ore," the buckstick with which the ore is struck being broad at one end like the butt of a gun (_North Country Words_). In Yorkshire it is "Spell and Nurr," or "Knur," the ore or wooden ball having been, perhaps, originally the knurl or knot of a tree. The _Whitby Glossary_ also gives this as "Spell and Knor," and says it is known in the South as "Dab and Stick." The author adds, "May not 'tribbit,' or 'trevit,' be a corruption of 'three feet,' the required length of the stick for pliable adaptation?"

Robinson (_Mid-Yorkshire Glossary_), under "Spell and Nur," says: "A game played with a wooden ball and a stick fitted at the striking end with a club-shaped piece of wood. The 'spell' made to receive and spring the ball for the blow at a touch, is a simple contrivance of wood an inch or so in breadth and a few inches long. . . . The players, who usually go in and out by turns each time, after a preliminary series of tippings of the spell with the stick in one hand, and catches of the ball with the other, in the process of calculating the momentum necessary for reach of hand, are also allowed two trial 'rises' in a striking attitude, and distance is reckoned by scores of yards. The long pliable stick, with a loose club end, used in the game, is called the 'tribit' or 'trivit' stick. . . . The trevit is, in fact, the trap itself, and the trevit-stick the stick with which the trap is struck." The tribbit-stick is elsewhere called "primstick," "gelstick," "buckstick," "trippit," and "trevit." Atkinson says that "spell" is O.N., "spill" meaning a play or game, and the probability is that the game is a lineal descendant from the Ball-play of the Old Danes, or Northmen, and Icelanders. "Spell and knor" is a corruption of "spell a' knor," the play at ball. Nurspel is simply ball-play, therefore which name, taken in connection with the fact that the game is elsewhere called "Spell and Knor," and not "Knor and Spell," is significant. There is one day in the year, Shrove Tuesday, when the play is customarily practised, though not quite exclusively.--Atkinson's _Cleveland Glossary_.

Easther (_Almondbury Glossary_) describes it as played with a wooden ball, a spel, and a pommel. Two may play, or two sides. When a player goes in he drives the knor for, say, 100 yards, _i.e._, five score, and he reckons five. Each person has the same number of strokes previously agreed upon, but generally only one innings. The "spell" is a kind of stage with three or four feet, to drive it into the ground. On the top of this stage is a spring made of steel, containing a cup to receive the "knor," which is about one or two inches in diameter, and is made of holly or box. The spring is kept down by a sneck, which is tapped by the pommel when the knor is intended to be struck. The pommel is thus formed--the driving part is frequently of ash-root or owler, in shape like half a sugar-loaf split lengthwise, but only three or four inches long, and the handle is of ash, wrapped with a wax band where held, which is in one hand only.

See "Kibel and Nerspel," "Trap Ball," "Trippit and Coit."

Nuts in May

[Music]

--Shropshire (Miss Burne).

I. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, On a fine summer morning.

Whom will you have for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Whom will you have for nuts in May, On a fine summer morning?

We'll have ---- for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, We'll have ---- for nuts in May, On a fine summer morning.

Who will you send to fetch her [or him] away, To fetch her away, to fetch her away? Who will you send to fetch her away, On a fine summer morning?

We'll send ---- to fetch her away, Fetch her away, fetch her away, We'll send ---- to fetch her away, On a fine summer morning.

--Liphook and Winterton, Hants (Miss Fowler).

II. Here we come gathering nuts and May [Nuts and May, nuts and May], Here we come gathering nuts and May, On a cold and frosty morning.

Pray who will you gather for nuts and May, Pray who will you gather for nuts and May, On a cold and frosty morning?

We'll gather ---- for nuts and May, We'll gather ---- for nuts and May, On a cold and frosty morning.

Pray who will you send to take her away, Pray who will you send to take her away, On a cold and frosty morning?

We'll send ---- to take her away, We'll send ---- to take her away, On a cold and frosty morning.

--Penzance (Mrs. Mabbott).

III. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, May, May, May.

Who will you have for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will you have for nuts in May, May, May, May?

[Bessie Stewart] for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, [Bessie Stewart] for nuts in May, May, May, May.

Very well, very well, so you may, So you may, so you may, Very well, very well, so you may, May, may, may.

Whom will you have to take her away, Take her away, take her away? Whom will you have to take her away, Way, way, way?

---- ---- to take her away, Take her away, take her away, ---- ---- to take her away, Way, way, way.

--Belfast (W. H. Patterson).

IV. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning.

Where do you gather your nuts in May? On Galloway Hill we gather our nuts. Who will you gather for nuts in May? We'll gather ---- for nuts in May. Who will you send to fetch her away? We'll send ---- to fetch her away.

--Bocking, Essex (_Folk-lore Record_, iii. 169).

V. Here we go gathering nuts away, Nuts away, nuts away, Here we go gathering nuts away, On a cold and frosty morning.

[Then follow verses beginning--]

Whose nuts shall we gather away? We'll gather [Minnie Brown's] nuts away. Whom shall we send to fetch them away?

[And the final verse is--]

We'll send [Johnny Cope] to fetch them away, Fetch them away, fetch them away, We'll send [Johnny Cope] to fetch them away, On a cold and frosty morning.

--Newbury, Berks (Mrs. S. Batson).

VI. Who will go gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will go gathering nuts in May, At five o'clock in the morning?

--N.-W. Lincolnshire (Rev. ---- Roberts).

VII. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning.

Who will you have for your nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will you have for your nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning?

We will have a girl for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, We will have a girl for nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning.

--Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy).

VIII. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, This cold frosty morning.

Who will you have for your nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will you have for your nuts in May, This cold frosty morning?

We will have ---- for our nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, We will have ---- for our nuts in May, This cold frosty morning.

Who will you have to pull her away, Pull her away, pull her away? Who will you have to pull her away, This cold frosty morning?

We will have ---- to pull her away, Pull her away, pull her away, We will have ---- to pull her away, This cold frosty morning.

--Settle, Yorks. (Rev. W. S. Sykes).

IX. Here we come gathering nuts to-day, Nuts to-day, nuts to-day, Here we come gathering nuts to-day, So early in the morning.

Pray, whose nuts will you gather away, Gather away, gather away? Pray, whose nuts will you gather away, So early in the morning?

We'll gather Miss A----'s nuts away, Nuts away, nuts away, We'll gather Miss A----'s nuts away, So early in the morning.

Pray, who will you send to take them away, To take them away, take them away? Pray, who will you send to take them away, So early in the morning?

We'll send Miss B---- to take them away, To take them away, take them away, We'll send Miss B---- to take them away, So early in the morning.

--Symondsbury, Dorsetshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 226-7).

[Illustration: Fig. 1.]

[Illustration: Fig. 2.]

(_b_) The children form in two lines of equal length, facing one another, with sufficient space between the lines to admit of their walking in line backwards and forwards towards and away from each other, as each line sings the verses allotted to it (fig. 1). The first line sings the first, third, and fifth verses, and the opposite line the second and fourth. At the end of the fifth verse a handkerchief or other mark is laid on the ground, and the two children (whose names have been mentioned, and who are as evenly matched as possible), take each other's right hand and endeavour to pull each other over the handkerchief to their own side (fig. 2). The child who is pulled over the handkerchief becomes the "captured nut," and joins the side of her capturers. Then the game begins again by the second line singing the first, third, and fifth verses, while advancing to gather or capture the "nuts," the first line responding with the second and fourth verses, and the same finish as before. Then the first line begins the game, and so on until all the children are in this way matched one against the other.

(_c_) Other versions have been sent me, with slight variations: NUTS IN MAY, with the verses ending, "On a fine summer morning," from Lincoln and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock); "So early in the morning," Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews); "Six o'clock in the morning," Nottingham (Miss Wenfield); "On a cold and frosty morning," East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan); Barnes (A. B. Gomme), Colchester (Miss G. M. Frances). NUTS AND MAY: "On a bright and sunny morning" (Mr. C. C. Bell); "On a cold and frosty morning," Forest of Dean (Miss Matthews); "Every night and morning," Gainford, Durham (Miss Edleston); "We've picked [Sally Gray] for nuts in May," "All on a summer's morning," Sheffield (Mr. S. O. Addy). A version by Miss Kimber (Newbury, Berks, and Marlborough, Wilts) ends each verse, "Nuts and May." In other respects these variants are practically the same. Printed versions not given above are Hersham, Surrey (_Folk-lore Record_, v. 85); Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 516; Sulhampstead, Berks (_Antiquary_, vol. xxvii., Miss E. E. Thoyts); and Dorsetshire, "Gathering nuts away" (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 225). From Longcot, Berks, a version sent me by Miss I. Barclay has no fourth line to the verses.

(_d_) This game is probably, unless we except "Mulberry Bush," the most popular and the most widely played of any singing game. It might almost be called universal. This is shown by the fact that there are few counties where it is not known, and also that important variants, either in the words or in the method of playing, are rarely met with. In all the versions which have been sent there are only the following variations in the words, and these are principally in the refrain, or last line of each verse: "On a cold and frosty morning" ends by far the greater number of versions; "On a fine summer's morning," "So early in the morning," "All on a summer's morning," "Five o'clock in the morning," "On a cold and sunny morning," coming next in number. The Belfast version ends, "May! May! May!" and a Newbury and Marlborough fourth line is simply a repetition of the second, "Nuts in May, nuts in May."

In the first line of the verse the only important variant seems to be the Symondsbury "Gathering nuts away" and "Gathering nuts to-day." "Gathering nuts away" also occurs in one version from Newbury (Berks), "Nuts and May" appearing in the larger number after the more usual "Nuts in May." In only one version is a specific place mentioned for the gathering. This is in the Bocking version, where Galloway Hill is named, in reply to the unusual question, "Where do you gather your nuts in May?" A player is usually gathered for "Nuts in May." In three or four cases only is this altered to gathering a player's "nuts away," which is obviously an alteration to try and make the action coincide exactly with the words. The game is always played in "lines," and the principal incidents running throughout all the versions are the same, _i.e._, one player is selected by one line of players from their opponents' party. The "selected" one is refused by her party unless some one from the opposite side can effect her capture by a contest of strength. In all versions but two or three this contest takes place between the two; in one or two all the players join in the trial of strength. In another instance there appears to be no contest, but the selected player crosses over to the opposite side. Two important incidents occur in the Bocking and Symondsbury versions. In the Bocking game the side which is victorious has the right to begin the next game first: this also occurs in the Barnes version. In Symondsbury, when one child is drawn over the boundary line by one from the opposite side she has to be "crowned" immediately. This is done by the conqueror putting her hand on the captured one's head. If this is not done at once the captured one is at liberty to return to her own side. In some versions (Shropshire and London) the player who is selected for "Nuts" is always captured by the one sent to fetch her. Some Barnes children also say that this is the proper way to play. When boys and girls play the boys are always sent to "fetch away" the girls. In Sheffield (a version collected by Mr. S. O. Addy) a boy is chosen to fetch the girl away; and in the Earls Heaton version the line runs, "We'll have a girl for nuts in May."

(_e_) There is some analogy in the game to marriage by capture, and to the marriage customs practised at May Day festivals and gatherings. For the evidence for marriage by capture in the game there is no element of love or courtship, though there is the obtaining possession of a member of an opposing party. But it differs from ordinary contest-games in the fact that one party does not wage war against another party for possession of a particular piece of ground, but individual against individual for the possession of an individual. That the player sent to fetch the selected girl is expected to conquer seems to be implied--first, by a choice of a certain player being made to effect the capture; secondly, by the one sent "to fetch" being always successful; and thirdly, the "crowning" in the Symondsbury game. Through all the games I have seen played this idea seems to run, and it exactly accords with the conception of marriage by capture. For examples of the actual survivals in English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish customs of marriage by capture see Gomme's _Folk-lore Relics of Early Village Life_, pp. 204-210.

The question is, How does this theory of the origin of the game fit in with the term "Nuts in May"? I attribute this to the gathering by

## parties of young men of bunches of May at the May festivals and dances,

to decorate not only the Maypole, May "kissing-bush," but the doors of houses. "Knots of May" is a term used by children, meaning bunches of May. Thus, a note by Miss Fowler in the MS. of the games she had collected says, "In Bucks the children speak of 'knots of May,' meaning each little bunch of hawthorn blossom." The gathering of bunches of May by parties of young men and maidens to make the May-bush round which the May Day games were held, and dancing and courting, is mentioned by Wilde (_Irish Popular Superstitions_, p. 52), the game being "Dance in the Ring." Holland (_Cheshire Glossary_) says, "May birches were branches of different kinds of trees fastened over doors of houses and on the chimney on the eve of May Day. They were fastened up by parties of young men who went round for the purpose, and were intended to be symbolical of the character of the inmates." I remember one May Day in London, when the "May girls" came with a garland and short sticks decorated with green and bunches of flowers, they sang--

Knots of May we've brought you, Before your door it stands; It is but a sprout, but it's well budded out By the work of the Lord's hands,

and a Miss Spencer, who lived near Hampton (Middlesex), told me that she well remembered the May girls singing the first verse of this carol, using "knots" instead of the more usual word "branch" or "bunch," and that she knew the small bunch of May blossom by the name of "knots" of May, "bringing in knots of May" being a usual expression of children.

The association of May--whether the month, or the flower, or both--with the game is very strong, the refrain "cold and frosty morning," "all on a summer's morning," "bright summer's morning," "so early in the morning," also being characteristic of the early days of May and spring, and suggests that the whole day from early hours is given up to holiday. The familiar nursery rhyme given by Halliwell--

Here we come a-piping, First in spring and then in May,

no doubt also refers to house-to-house visiting of May.

The connection between the May festival and survival in custom of marriage by capture is well illustrated by a passage from Stubbe's _Anatomie of Abuses_, p. 148. He says: "Against May Day, Whitsonday, or other time, euery Parishe, Towne and Village assemble themselves together, bothe men women and children, olde and yong, . . . and either goyng all together or diuidyng themselues into companies, they goe some to the Woodes and groves where they spend all the night in plesant pastimes; and in the morning they return bringing with them birch and branches of trees to deck their assemblies withall . . . and then they fall to daunce about it like as the heathen people did. . . . I have heard it credibly reported (and that _viva voce_) by men of great grauitie and reputation, that of fortie, threescore or a hundred maides going to the wood ouer night, there haue scaresly the third part of them returned home againe undefiled." Herrick's _Hesperides_ also describes the festival, and the custom of courting and marriage at the same time.

The tune sung to this game appears to be the same in every version.

END OF VOL. I.

BALLANTYNE PRESS

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.

EDINBURGH AND LONDON

Transcriber's notes:

General:

This eBook is Volume I of a two-volume work. Volume II is available as ebook number 41728 via the website of Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41728). Because Volume I was published in 1894 and Volume II in 1898, there is no symmetry in the references between the two volumes (for example, Gled Wylie from Volume I does not refer to Shue-Gled-Wylie from Volume II, whereas Shue-Gled-Wylie does refer to Gled Wylie).

This text follows the original printed work, including inconsistencies. Inconsistencies include differences in spelling of the names of games and locations, differences in transcription of dialect, inconsistencies in lay-out, etc. Where changes were made, these are documented below.

References:

Both volumes contain some uncertain references to (other) games, caused by the naming and/or spelling of game names. Where these differences were trivial (for example, Wolf and Lamb versus Wolf and the Lamb), their identity has been assumed silently. Following is a list of less trivial references.

The game Stag is often referred to as Stag Warning, but occasionally they are listed as thought they were separate games.

Volume I.

Page 51: reference to Wind Up Jack: this game is not mentioned separately, but under Wind Up the Bush Faggot.

Page 120: reference to Wind up the Watch, which is not listed as a separate game, but as a local name for Wind up the Bush Faggot.

Page 137: reference to Crosspurposes: according to the description and Vol. II, this could be Cross-questions.

Page 300: reference to How many miles to Barley Bridge?, which is not listed as a separate game; the phrase occurs in some of the versions of How many miles to Babylon?

Page 318, section (c): The author refers to the Belfast version, but describes the Isle of Man version. This has not been changed.

Page 328: reference to the game Spanish Fly, which does not occur in either volume (nor does the phrase).

Page 402: reference to Ghost in the Garden and Ghost in the Copper. Neither is described as a separate game; probably the reference is to Ghost at the Well.

Textual remarks:

At least some of the quotations presented by the author are not verbatim quotations, they have been edited by the author (for example Aubrey on cockle-bread).

Volume II.

In the Addenda, the original work uses Arabic rather than Roman numerals for different variants; this has not been changed.

The original work uses both 2-4 and 2/4 to indicate musical time; this has not been standardised.

Page 199: Love another like sister and brother is probably a mistake (Love one another like sister and brother).

Page 336/7: The original work does not give a source or authority for variation XXV.

Changes made to the original text:

Footnotes have been moved to end of the description of the game.

Sources (when printed in smaller type in the original work) have been moved to a separate line where necessary.

Volume I.

The Errata have already been changed in the text.

Gallovidian Encyclopedia/Encyclopædia has been standardised to Gallovidian Encyclopædia.

Page xvi: Conqueror changed to Conqueror or Conkers (as in text)

Page xvii: Duckstone was missing from the list and has been added

Page xix: Lend me your Key was missing from the list and has been added

Page 19: we'll go the king changed to we'll go to the king

Page 24: Hurstmonceaux changed to Hurstmonceux (as elsewhere)

Page 56: he jostled away changed to be jostled away

Page 128: [They pull him out. changed to [They pull him out.]

Page 180 (table) row 16: [ added before Write

Page 270: so that won't do changed to so _that_ won't do (as elsewhere in the song)

Page 329: cul léve changed to cul levé (as in Nares's work)

Page 364 uniniated changed to uninitiated

Page 387: the Sheffield is changed to the Sheffield version is.