Part 5
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.
Buck i' t' Neucks
A rude game amongst boys.--Dickinson's _Cumberland Glossary_.
Buckerels
"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.
Buckey-how
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).
Buff
1st player, thumping the floor with a stick: "Knock, knock!" 2nd ditto: "Who's there?" 1st: "Buff." 2nd: "What says Buff?" 1st: "Buff says Buff to all his men, And I say Buff to you again!" 2nd: "Methinks Buff smiles?" 1st: "Buff neither laughs nor smiles, But looks in your face With a comical grace, And delivers the staff to you again" (handing it over).
--Shropshire (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 526).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:--
Buff neither laughs nor smiles, But strokes his face With a very good grace, And delivers his staff to you.
--Cheltenham (Miss E. Mendham).
Same verses as in Shropshire, except the last, which runs as follows:--
Buff neither laughs nor smiles, But strokes his face for want of grace, And sticks his staff in the right place.
--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--
But shows his face with a comely grace, And leaves his staff at the very next place.
Buk-hid
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.
Bull in the Park
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:--
As I was going o'er misty moor I spied three cats at a mill-door; One was white and one was black, And one was like my granny's cat. I hopped o'er t' style and broke my heel, I flew to Ireland very weel, Spied an old woman sat by t' fire, Sowing silk, jinking keys; Cat's i' t' cream-pot up to t' knees, Hen's i' t' hurdle crowing for day, Cock's i' t' barn threshing corn, I ne'er saw the like sin' I was born.
Bulliheisle
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."
Bummers
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.
Bun-hole
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.
Bunch of Ivy
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).
Bung the Bucket
[Music]
--London (J. P. Emslie).
[Illustration]
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--
Bung the Bucket, One, two, three. Off, off, off!
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--
Jump a little nag-tail, One, two, three.
He says, "I once heard this sung three times, followed by 'Ha! ha! he!' to the tune of the last bar." Mr. W. R. Emslie says the game is known at Beddgelert as "Horses, Wild Horses," he believes, but is not quite certain.
Northall (_Rhymes_, p. 401) describes a game very similar to this under "Buck," in which the rhyme and method of play is the same as in that game. He continues, "This is closely allied to a game called in Warwickshire 'Jack upon the Mopstick.' But in this there is no guessing. The leaping party must maintain their position whilst their leader says--
Jack upon the mopstick, One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Count 'em off again."
Bunting
Name for "Tip-cat."--Cole's _S. W. Lincolnshire_ Glossary.
Burly Whush
A game played at with a ball. The ball is thrown up by one of the players on a house or wall, who cries on the instant it is thrown to another to catch or kep it before it falls to the ground. They all run off but this one to a little distance, and if he fails in kepping it he bawls out "Burly Whush;" then the party are arrested in their flight, and must run away no farther. He singles out one of them then, and throws the ball at him, which often is directed so fair as to strike; then this one at which the ball has been thrown is he who gives "Burly Whush" with the ball to any he chooses. If the corner of a house be at hand, as is mostly the case, and any of the players escape behind it, they must still show one of their hands past its edge to the Burly Whush man, who sometimes hits it such a whack with the ball as leaves it dirling for an hour afterwards.--Mactaggart's _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_.
See "Ball," "Keppy Ball," "Monday."
Buttons
Two or more boys take two buttons in their right hands, and try to throw them both into a small hole in the ground about two yards off. The boy who succeeds in getting both buttons in begins first next game, and takes a button as prize. [This seems merely a mild form of marbles.]--Lincolnshire (Rev. ---- Roberts).
There were several games played with buttons--some on level ground, in a ring or square; but the most approved was with a hole dug in the earth near a wall, or near the trunk of a large tree. The hole should be about the cavity of a small tea-cup, the players toeing a scratched line about four or five feet from the hole, after tossing for first innings. Each of the players (mostly two) contribute an equal number of buttons, say from two to ten, and of equal value or quality. The one having first turn takes the whole of them in his hand, and by an under-throw, or rather a pitch, endeavours to get the whole, or as many as possible, into the hole. If all go clean into the hole, he wins the game, and takes the whole of the buttons started with; but if one or more of the buttons are left outside the hole, the non-player has then the choice of selecting one which he considers difficult to be hit, and requesting the player to hit it with his _nicker_. This is made of solid lead, about the size of a florin, but twice its substance, and each player is provided with one of his own. Much judgment is required in making this selection, the object being to make it most difficult not only to hit it, but to prevent it being hit without being knocked into the hole, or sending the nicker in, or sending another button in, or even not striking one at all. In any one of these cases the player loses the game, and the non-player takes the whole of the stakes. In playing the next game, the previous non-player becomes the player.--London (C. A. T. M.).
The following was the value of the buttons:--
(1.) The plain metal 3 or 4-holed flat button, called a Sinkie, say, value 1 point.
(2.) The same kind of button, with letters or inscription on the rim, valued at 2 points.
(3.) The small metal shank button, called a Shankie, without any inscription, valued at 3 points; if with inscription, at 4 points; the large sizes and corresponding description were valued relatively 4 and 5 points.
(4.) The small Shankies, with a crest (livery waistcoat buttons), 6 points, and the large corresponding, 7 points.
(5.) The small Shankies, with coat of arms, value 8 points, and the large corresponding, 9 points.
(6.) Ornamental and various other buttons, such as regimental, official, mounted and engraved in flowers, and other designs according to arrangement, up to 20 points.
See "Banger," "Cots and Twisses."
Buzz and Bandy
A local name for "Hockey," which was formerly a very popular game among the young men of Shrewsbury and Much Wenlock. Called simply "Bandy" at Ludlow and Newport.--_Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 525.
Cache-pole
The game of "Tennis."--Jamieson.
Caiche
The game of "Handball."
Thocht I preich nocht I can play at the caiche. I wait thair is nocht ane among you all Mair ferilie can play at the fute ball.
--Lyndsay's _S. P. Repr_., ii. 243.
This language Lyndsay puts into the mouth of a Popish parson. The game seems to be that of ball played with the hand, as distinguished from "Football."--Jamieson.
See "Ball."
Call-the-Guse
This game is supposed by Jamieson to be equivalent to "Drive the Goose," and the game seems to be the same with one still played by young people in some parts of Angus, in which one of the company, having something that excites ridicule unknowingly pinned behind, is pursued by all the rest, who still cry out, "Hunt the Goose!"--Jamieson.
Camp
A game formerly much in use among schoolboys, and occasionally played by men in those parts of Suffolk on the sea coast--more especially in the line of Hollesley Bay between the Rivers Orwell and Alde, sometimes school against school, or parish against parish. It was thus played: Goals were pitched at the distance of 150 or 200 yards from each other; these were generally formed of the thrown-off clothes of the competitors. Each party has two goals, ten or fifteen yards apart. The
## parties, ten or fifteen on a side, stand in line, facing their own goals
and each other, at about ten yards distance, midway between the goals, and nearest that of their adversaries. An indifferent spectator, agreed on by the parties, throws up a ball, of the size of a common cricket-ball, midway between the confronted players, and makes his escape. It is the object of the players to seize and convey the ball between their own goals. The rush is therefore very great: as is sometimes the shock of the first onset, to catch the falling ball. He who first can catch or seize it speeds therefore home, pursued by his opponents (thro' whom he has to make his way), aided by the jostlings and various assistances of his own _sidesmen_. If caught and held, or in imminent danger of being caught, he _throws_ the ball--but must in no case give it--to a less beleaguered friend, who, if it be not arrested in its course, or be jostled away by the eager and watchful adversaries, catches it; and he hastens homeward, in like manner pursued, annoyed, and aided, winning the notch (or snotch) if he contrive to _carry_, not _throw_, it between his goals. But this in a well-matched game is no easy achievement, and often requires much time, many doublings, detours, and exertions. I should have noticed, that if the holder of the ball be caught with the ball in his possession, he loses a _snotch_; if, therefore, he be hard pressed, he _throws_ it to a convenient friend, more free and in breath than himself. At the loss (or gain) of a _snotch_, a recommence takes place, arranging which gives the parties time to take breath. Seven or nine notches are the game--and these it will sometimes take two or three hours to win. Sometimes a large football was used--and the game was then called "Kicking Camp"--and if played with the shoes on, "Savage Camp."--Moor's _Suffolk Words_.
(_b_) The sport and name are very old. The "Camping pightel" occurs in a deed of the 30 Henry VI.--about 1486; Cullum's _Hawstead_, p. 113, where Tusser is quoted in proof, that not only was the exercise manly and salutary, but good also for the _pightel_ or meadow:
In meadow or pasture (to grow the more fine) Let campers be camping in any of thine; Which if ye do suffer when low is the spring, You gain to yourself a commodious thing.
--P. 65.
And he says, in p. 56:
Get campers a ball, To camp therewithall.
Ray says that the game prevails in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. The Rev. S. Arnot, in _Notes and Queries_, 8th series, vol. ii. p. 138, who was rector of Ilket's Hall, in the county of Suffolk, says the ball was about the size of a cricket-ball, and was driven through a narrow goal; and from the evidence of the parish clerk it seems certain that it was not "Football." See also Spurden's _East Anglian Words_, and _County Folk-lore, Suffolk_, pp. 57-59.
There are Upper Campfield and Lower Campfield at Norton Woodseats. They are also called Camping fields. This field was probably the place where football and other village games were played. These fields adjoin the Bocking fields. In Gosling's Map of Sheffield, 1736, Campo Lane is called _Camper Lane_. The same map shows the position of the old Latin school, or grammar school, and the writing school. These schools were at a very short distance from Campo Lane, and it seems probable that here the game of football was played (Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_). "The camping-land appropriated to this game occurs in several instances in authorities of the fifteenth century" (Way's Note in _Prompt. Parv._, p. 60). In Brinsley's _Grammar Schoole_, cited by Mr. Furnivall in _Early English Meals and Manners_, p. lxii., is this passage: "By this meanes also the schollars may be kept euer in their places, and hard to their labours, without that running out to the Campo (as they tearme it) at school times, and the manifolde disorders thereof; as watching and striuing for the clubbe and loytering then in the fields."
See "Football."
Canlie
A very common game in Aberdeen, played by a number of boys, one of whom is by lot chosen to act the part of Canlie. A certain portion of a street or ground, as it may happen, is marked off as his territory, into which, if any of the other boys presume to enter, and be caught by Canlie before he can get off the ground, he is doomed to take the place of Canlie, who becomes free in consequence of the capture. The game is prevalent throughout Scotland, though differently denominated: in Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire it is called "Tig," and in Mearns "Tick."--Jamieson.
See "Tig."
Capie-Hole
A hole is made in the ground, and a certain line drawn, called a Strand, behind which the players must take their stations. The object is at this distance to throw the bowl into the hole. He who does this most frequently wins. It is now more generally called "The Hole," but the old designation is not quite extinct. It is otherwise played in Angus. Three holes are made at equal distances. He who can first strike his bowl into each of these holes thrice in succession wins the game (Jamieson). It is alluded to in _The Life of a Scotch Rogue_, 1722, p. 7.
See "Bun-hole."
Carrick
Old name for "Shinty" in Fife.--Jamieson.
Carry my Lady to London
I. Give me a pin to stick in my thumb To carry my lady to London. Give me another to stick in my other To carry her a little bit farther.
--Belfast (W. H. Patterson).
II. London Bridge is broken, And what shall I do for a token? Give me a pin to stick in my thumb And carry my lady to London.
--_Notes and Queries_, 4th series, xii. 479.
III. Give me a pin to stick in my chin (? cushion) To carry a lady to London; London Bridge is broken down And I must let my lady down.
--Northall's _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 353.
(_b_) In this game two children cross hands, grasping each other's wrists and their own as well: they thus form a seat on which a child can sit and be carried about. At the same time they sing the verse.
Carrying the Queen a Letter
The King and Queen have a throne formed by placing two chairs a little apart, with a shawl spread from chair to chair. A messenger is sent into the room with a letter to the Queen, who reads it, and joins the King in a courteous entreaty that the bearer of the missive will place himself between them. When he has seated himself on the shawl, up jumps the King and Queen, and down goes the messenger on the floor.--Bottesford and Anderly (Lincolnshire), and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peacock).
(_b_) This is virtually the same game as "Ambassador," described by Grose as played by sailors on some inexperienced fellow or landsman. Between the two chairs is placed a pail of water, into which the victim falls.
Cashhornie
A game played with clubs by two opposite parties of boys, the aim of each party being to drive a ball into a hole belonging to their antagonists, while the latter strain every nerve to prevent this.--Jamieson.
Castles
A game at marbles. Each boy makes a small pyramid of three as a base, and one on the top. The players aim at these from a distant stroke with balsers, winning such of the castles as they may in turn knock down (Lowsley's _Glossary of Berkshire Words_). In London, the marble alluded to as "balser" was called "bonsor" or "bouncer" (J. P. Emslie).
See "Cockly Jock," "Cogs."
Cat and Dog