Tops

Tune Tom Tiddler's Ground—Liverpool (Mrs. Harley).

—Liverpool (Mrs. Harley).

A line is drawn on the ground, one player stands behind it. The piece so protected is “Tom Tiddler’s ground.” The other players stand in a row on the other side. The row breaks and the children run over, calling out, “Here we are on Tom Tiddler’s ground, picking up gold and silver.” Tom Tiddler catches them, and as they are caught they stand on one side. The last out becomes Tom Tiddler.—Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy).

Tom Tiddler’s Ground is played at Chirbury under the name of “Boney” = Bonaparte! one boy taking possession of a certain area, and the others trespassing on it, saying, “I am on Boney’s ground.” If they are caught there, they are put “in prison” till released by a touch from a comrade.—Chirbury (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 523-524).

I’m on Tom Tinker’s ground,I’m on Tom Tinker’s ground,I’m on Tom Tinker’s ground,Picking up gold and silver.

—Derbyshire (Folk-lore Journal, i. 386).

Northall (Folk Rhymes) gives the following lines, and describes it as played as above, except that Tom Tinder isprovided with a knotted handkerchief, with which he buffets any one caught on his property:—

Here we are on Tom Tinder’s ground,Picking up gold and silver;You pick weeds, and I’ll pick seeds,And we’ll all pick carraway comfits.

In the Liverpool district the game is called “Old Daddy Bunchey” (Mrs. Harley), and in Norfolk “Pussey’s Ground” (Miss Matthews).

It is also mentioned by Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary).[Addendum]

The special games now played with tops are mentioned under their respective titles, but the general allusions to the ancient whipping-tops are important enough to note.

Strutt says the top was known with us as early at least as the fourteenth century, when its form was the same as now, and the manner of using it can admit of but little if any difference. Representations of boys whipping tops occur in the marginal paintings of the MSS. written at this period; and in a work of the thirteenth century, “Le Miracle de Saint Loys,” the whipping top (Sabot) is mentioned. The top was probably in use as a toy long before. Strutt records the following anecdote of Prince Henry, son of James I., which he met with in a MS. at the Museum, the author of which speaks of it as perfectly genuine. His words are—“The first tyme that he, the prince, went to the towne of Sterling to meete the king, seeing a little without the gate of the towne a stack of corne in proportion not unlike to a topp wherewith he used to play; he said to some that were with him, ‘Loe there is a goodly topp;’ whereupon one of them saying, ‘Why doe you not play with it, then?’ he answered, ‘Set you it up for me, and I will play with it.’”—Sports, p. 385.

Northbroke, in his Treatise against Dicing, 1579, p. 86, says: “Cato giveth counsell to all youth, saying, ‘Trocholude, aleas fuge,playe with the toppe, and flee dice-playing.’”

In the English translation of Levinus Lemnius, 1658, p. 369: “Young youth do merrily exercise themselves inwhipping-top, and to make it run swiftly about, that it cannot be seen, and will deceive the sight.”

Cornelius Scriblerus, in his Instructions concerning the Plays and Playthings to be used by his son Martin, says: “I would not have Martin as yet to scourge a top, till I am better informed whether the trochus which was recommended by Cato be really our present top, or rather the hoop which the boys drive with a stick.”—Pope’s Works, vi. 115.

Among well-known classical allusions may be noted the following mention of whipping the top, in Persius’s third Satire:

“Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello.”

Thus translated by Dryden:

“The whirling top they whip,And drive her giddy till she fall asleep.”

Thus also in Virgil’sÆneid, vii. 378:

“Ceu quondam torto volitans sub verbere turbo,Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circumIntenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habenâCurvatis fertur spatiis: stupet inscia supra,Impubesque manus, mirata volubile buxum:Dant animos plagæ.”

Thus translated by Dryden:

“As young striplings whip the top for sport,On the smooth pavement of an empty court;The wooden engine whirls and flies about,Admired with clamours of the beardless rout,They lash aloud, each other they provoke,And lend their little souls at ev’ry stroke.”

And so Ovid, Trist. 1. iii. Eleg. 12:

“Otia nunc istic: junctisque ex ordine ludisCedunt verbosi garrula bella fori.Usus equi nunc est, levibus nunc luditur armis:Nunc pila,nunc celeri volvitur orbe trochus.”

Passing from these general allusions to the top as a form ofamusement, we enter on more significant ground when we take into consideration the various passages in the early dramatists and other writers (collected together in Nares’Glossary), which show that tops were at one time owned by the parish or village.

“He’s a coward and a coystril that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn like a parish-top.”—Shakespeare,Twelfth Night, i. 3.

“A merry Greek, and cants in Latin comely,Spins like the parish-top.”

—Ben Jonson,New Inn, ii. 5.

“I’ll hazardMy life upon it, that a boy of twelveShould scourge him hither like a parish-top,And make him dance before you.”

—Beaumont and Fletcher,Thierry and Theod., ii. 1.

“And dances like a town top, and reels and hobbles.”

—Ibid.,Night Walker, i. 1.

Every night I dream I am a town-top, and that I am whipt up and down with the scourge stick of love.—“Grim, the Collier of Croydon,” ap.Dodsley, xi. 206.

In the Fifteen Comforts of Marriage, p. 143, we read: “Another tells ’em of a project he has to make town tops spin without an eel-skin, as if he bore malice to the school-boys.”

Poor Robin, in his Almanack for 1677, tells us, in the Fanatick’s Chronology, it was then “1804 years since the first invention of town-tops.”

These passages seem to refer to a custom of keeping tops by a township or parish, and they are confirmed by Evelyn, who, speaking of the uses of willow wood, among other things made of it, mentions great “town-topps” (Sylva, xx. 29). The latest writers who give positive information on the subject are Blackstone, who, in his note on Shakespeare, asserts that to “sleep like a town top” was proverbial, and Hazlitt, who, in his collection ofEnglish Proverbs, has “like a parish-top.” (See also Brand, ii. 448.)

Steevens, in his notes on Shakespeare, makes the positive assertion that “this is one of the customs now laid aside: a large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipt in frosty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work.”

This passage is repeated in Ellis’s edition of Brand, so that there is only one authority for the two statements. The question is whether Steevens was stating his own independent knowledge, or whether he based his information upon the passage in Shakespeare which he was illustrating. I think there can be no doubt that the custom existed, in whatever way we accept Steevens’ statement, and the question is one of considerable interest.

“Tops” is one of those games which are strictly limited to particular seasons of the year, and any infringement of those seasons is strictly tabooed by the boys. Hone (Every Day Book, i. 127), records the following rhyme:—

Tops are in, spin ’em agin;Tops are out, smuggin’ about,

but does not mention the season. It is, however, the early spring. This rhyme is still in use, and may occasionally be heard in the streets of London in the top season. Smugging is legitimate stealing when boys play out of season. “Marbles furst, then comes tops, then comes kites and hoops,” said a London boy who had acquired some tops by “smuggin;” but these rules are fast becoming obsolete, as is also the use of a dried eel skin as the favourite whip or thong used.

The keeping of a top by the parish in its corporate capacity is not likely to have arisen for the sake of supplying people with amusement, and we must look to a far more ancient origin for this singular custom. Hone mentions a doubtful story of a top being used in the ritual of one of the churches at Paris. (The burial of Alleluia. The top was whipped by a choir-boy from one end of the choir to the other:Every Day Book, i. 100), and if this can be confirmed it would be a link in the chain of evidence. But the whole subject requires much more evidence than it is now possible to go into here, though even, as far as we can now go, I am tempted to suggest thatthis well-known toy takes us back to the serious rites of ancient religions.

Brady’sClavis Calendaria, i. 209, mentions the discontinued custom of whipping tops on Shrove Tuesday as originating in the Popish Carnival as types of the rigour of Church discipline.

It is not improbable that the tee-totum is the earliest form of top, and as its use is for gambling, it is probable that this and the top were formerly used for purposes of divination.

See “Gully,” “Hoatie,” “Hoges,” “Peg Top,” “Peg in the Ring,” “Scurran-Meggy,” “Totum.”[Addendum]

The Totum is really only a top to spin by hand. It is made of a square piece of wood or bone, the four sides being each marked with a letter, and the peg is put through a hole in the centre. Sometimes the totum is shaped to a point on the under side, and a pin fixed in the upper part, by which it is twirled round.

The game played is one of chance; it may be played by two or more, either boys or girls, and is played only at Christmas. In Keith the letters are A, N, D, T. In playing the stake is one pin, and each plays in turn. If the side with A on it falls uppermost the player wins the whole stake—“A, tack a’.” If N turns up the player gets nothing—“N, nikil (nihil), nothing.” If T turns up one pin falls to the player—“T, tack ane.” If D comes uppermost the player has to lay down a pin—“D, dossie doon.” At times the game was played by paying a stake to all the letters except A, and the words used were—“D, dip it,” “T, tip it,” and “N, nip it.”—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

We played the game when children usually at Christmas time. The players sat round a table. A pool was made, each player putting in the same amount of stakes, either pins, counters, nuts, or money. One player collected the pool and then spun the tee-totum by his fingers. Whichever letter was uppermost when it stopped, the player had to obey.

T, was take all (the contents of the pool).

H, half the contents.

N, nothing.

P, to put into the pool the same amount as the stakes were at first.

When this was done the next player spun the totum in his turn. When one player got T a fresh pool had to be collected.—London (A. B. Gomme).

Jamieson’sDictionarysays children lay up stores of pins to play at this game at Christmas time.

William Dunbar, the Scottish poet (James IV.), seems to refer to this game in the poem,Schir, ȝit remembir as of befoir, in the words—

“He playis withtotum, and I withnichell” (l. 74).

Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, page 385) says the four sides were marked with letters, and describes the game as we now play it in London.

All tee-totums or whirligigs seem to have some reference to tops, except that the tee-totum is used principally for gambling.

Some have numbers on their sides like dice instead of letters, and some are of octagonal shape.

See “Lang Larence,” “Scop-peril,” “Tops.”

One player is chosen “he.” He then runs amidst the other players and tries to touch one, who then becomes “Tig” or “Touch” in turn.

See “Ticky Touchwood,” “Tig.”

The Tower is formed by a circle of children, two of whom constitute the gate. These two join hands, and raise or lower their arm to open or shut the gate. The Tower is summoned to open its gates to admit “King George and all his merry men,” how represented I can’t remember; but I know that at one point there is a chase, and the prisoner is caught and brought before the king, when there ensues a scrap of dialogue in song (Mrs. Harley).

See “How many miles to Babylon,” “King of the Barbarie.”

There is a girl of our town,She often wears a flowered gown;Tommy loves her night and day,And Richard when he may,And Johnny when he can;I think Sam will be the man!

—Halliwell’sNursery Rhymes, pp. 217-218.

A girl is placed in the middle of a ring and says the lines, the names being altered to suit the players. She points to each one named, and at the last line the one selected immediately runs away; if the girl catches him he pays a forfeit, or the game is commenced again, the boy being placed in the middle.

Sides are chosen. These stand apart from each other, inside the line of their den. One side chooses amongst themselves a trade, and then walk over to the other side, imitating the actions pertaining to different parts of that trade, and giving the initial letter. If the trade is guessed by the opposite side, that side chooses the next trade, and performs the actions. If the trade is not guessed, the side is at liberty to choose another, and continue until one is guessed.—Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire (Miss Matthews).

The players that are to act the dumb tradesmen agree among themselves what trades are to be imitated. When this point is settled they present themselves before those that are to guess the trade, and proclaim three poor tradesmen wanting a trade—dumb. They then begin the work of imitation. The onlooker that first discovers the trade calls it out, and he becomes the dumb tradesman during the next round.—Fraserburgh (Rev. W. Gregor).

Some of the players form a line, while three others come up and say—

“Here are three men from Botany Bay,Got any work to give us to-day.”

The others ask, “What can you do?” To which they reply, “Anything.” And the others retort, “Set to work, then.”

The three then do some imaginary work, while those in the line have to guess what it is.—Ogbourne, Wilts (H. S. May).

“Two broken tradesmen newly come over,The one from France and Scotland, the other from Dover.”“What’s your trade?”

Two boys privately arrange that the pass-word shall be some implement of a particular trade. The trade is announced after the above dialogue, and carpenters, nailors, sailors, smiths, tinkers, or any other is answered; and on guessing the instrument, “Plane him,” “Hammer him,” “Rasp him,” or “Solder him,” is called out; then the fun is that the unfortunate wight who guesses the “tool” is beaten with the caps of his fellows till he reaches a fixed goal, after which he goes out in turn.—Halliwell’sNursery Rhymes, cccxvi. In hisDictionaryit is called “Trades, and Dumb Motions.”

Northall (English Folk-Rhymes) records this game as being played in Warwickshire. The method is practically the same as the Forest of Dean, except that the “tradesmen” are beaten if their trade is easily guessed by the others. They may also be beaten if they show their teeth during the operations.

A game played with a trap, a ball, and a small bat. The trap is of wood made like a slipper, with a hollow at the heel end for the ball, and a kind of wooden spoon moving on a pivot, in the bowl of which the ball is placed. Two sides play—one side bats, the other fields. One of the batsmen strikes the end or handle of the spoon, the ball then rises into the air, and the art of the game is for the batsman to strike it as far as possible with the bat before it reaches the ground. The other side who are “fielding,” try either to catch the ball before it falls to the ground, or to bowl it from where it falls to hit the trap. If they succeed in catching the ball all the “ins” are out, and their side goes in to strike the ball, and the previous batsmen to field; if the trap is hit the batsman is out and another player of his side takes his place. The batsman is also out if he allows the ball to touch the trap when in the act of hitting it.—(A. B. Gomme.)

Halliwell (Dictionary) says, “Nurspell” in Lincolnshire is somewhat similar to “Trap Ball.” It is played with a kibble,a nur and a spell. By striking the end of the spell with the kibble the nur rises into the air, and the game is to strike it with the kibble before it reaches the ground. He who drives it the greatest distance is the winner. Miss Burne (Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 527) says, “Trib and Knurr,” otherwise “Dog Stick,” are local names for “Knur and Spell,” a superior form of “Trap Ball.” The “knurr” is a hard wooden ball, the “trib” is the trap or receptacle, the “Dog Stick” the sort of club with which it is struck. The game is played as described by Halliwell. She adds it was formerly the favourite pastime of young men on Shrove Tuesday.

At Bury St. Edmonds, on Shrove Tuesday, Easter Monday, and Whitsuntide festivals, twelve old women side off for a game at “Trap and Ball,” which is kept up with the greatest spirit and vigour until sunset.—Suffolk County Folk-lore, p. 56. See also Chambers’sBook of Days, i. p. 428, for a similar custom among women at Chester.

See “Nur and Spel,” “Tribet,” “Trippit and Coit.”

Grose says this was an ancient game, likeScotch-hop, played on a pavement marked out with chalk into different compartments. According to Halliwell (Dictionary), it was a game at dice.

See “Hop-scotch,” “Scotch Hop.”

A game in which generally six are engaged—one taking a station before two about 12 yards behind him, three 12 yards behind these two. One is the catch-pole. Never more than two can remain; the supernumerary one must always shift and seek a new station. If the catch-pole can get in before the person who changes his station, he has the right to take his place, and the other becomes pursuer.—Jamieson.

This is not very descriptive, but the game is evidently the same as “Round Tag” and “Twos and Threes,” played with a small number.

A common children’s game played in Lancashire; which, perhaps, may be the primitive form of “Trap.” It is playedwith a “pum,” a piece of wood about a foot long and two inches in diameter, and a “tribet,” a small piece of hard wood.—Halliwell’sDictionary.

See “Trap, Bat, and Ball.”

A game formerly known under the appellation of “Trippets,” Newcastle. It is the same as “Trip-cat” in some southern counties. The trippet is a small piece of wood obtusely pointed—something like a shoe—hollow at one end, and having a tail a little elevated at the other, which is struck with a buckstick. It is also called “Buckstick, Spell-and-Ore.”—Brockett’sNorth Country Words. See also Dickinson’sCumberland Glossary. Halliwell’sDictionarysays—The game is almost peculiar to the North of England. There is a poem called “The Trip Match” inMather’s Songs.

See “Nur and Spel,” “Trap, Bat, and Ball.”

Trip and go, heave and hoe,Up and down, to and fro;From the town to the grove,Two and two let us rove;A-maying, a-playing,Love hath no gainsaying;So merrily trip and go,So merrily trip and go.

—Halliwell’sNursery Rhymes, cccxlviii.

A game rhyme, but undescribed.

A game in which a common ball is used instead of the cork and feathers in “Shuttlecock.”—(Kinross) Jamieson.

See “Shuttlefeather,” “Teesty Tosty.”

A game played by two persons, with bandies or sticks hooked at the end, and a bit of wood called a nacket. At each end of the ground occupied a line is drawn. He whostrikes off the nacket from the one line, tries to drive it as near the other as possible. The antagonist who stands between him and the goal tries to throw back with his hand the nacket to the line from which the other has struck it. If he does this he takes the place of the other. If not, the distance is measured between the striking point and the nacket with one of the sticks used in striking, and for every length of the stick one is counted against the caster.—(Angus) Jamieson. The editor of Jamieson adds that the name must have been originally the same as the EnglishTrap, although in this game a ball is used instead of a nacket, and it is struck off as incricket.

This was an old English game formerly known as “trucks.” Strutt, p. 270, 299 (who gives an illustration of it), considers this game to be the original of billiards. Professor Attwell says,Notes and Queries, 7th series, xii. 137, “This game was played at Nassau House School, Barnes, for twenty years. It is played on a lawn with balls, cues, and rings.”

In the Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones, compiled by John Jones at the King’s Mede, nigh Darby, 1572, 4to. p. 12, we read: “The ladyes, gentle woomen, wyves, and maydes, maye in one of the galleries walke; and if the weather bee not aggreeable too theire expectacion, they may haue in the ende of a benche eleuen holes made, intoo the which to trowle pummetes, or bowles of leade, bigge, little, or meane, or also of copper, tynne, woode, eyther vyolent or softe, after their owne discretion; the pastymetroule-in-madameis termed.” Probably similar to “Nine Holes.”

A game at ball resembling trap, but having a hole in the ground for the trap, a flat piece of bone for a trigger, and a cudgel for a bat.—Norfolk, Holloway’sDictionary of Provincialisms.

See “Trunket.”

A game in which a plan of a labyrinth is drawn on a slate and presented as a puzzle by boys to their schoolfellows for them to find a way into the central citadel. It appears to owe its origin to the mediæval mazes or labyrinths called “Troy Towns,” or “Troy Walls,” many of which existed in different parts of England and Wales. It appears that games connected with the midsummer festivals were held in these labyrinths. This may, perhaps, account for the origin of this puzzle being considered a game. For accounts of labyrinths or mazes called “Troy Towns,” seeNotes and Queries, 1st series, xi. 132, 193; 2nd series, v. 211-213; 8th series, iv. 96, 97; in which many references are given;Tran. Cymmrodorion Soc., 1822, i. 67-69; Roberts’Cambrian Antiquities(in which is a plan), 212, 213; andFolk-lore Journal, v. 45.

A game requiring dexterity. A young man lies flat, resting only on his toes at a certain mark at one extremity and on a trencher in each hand at the other. He then tries to reach out the trenchers as far as possible, and if not held at the right angle and edgewise, down they go and he is defeated.—Dickinson’sCumberland Glossary.

A game at ball played with short sticks, and having a hole in the ground in lieu of stumps or wickets as in “Cricket”; and with these exceptions, and the ball being “cop’d,” instead of bowled or trickled on the ground, it is played in the same way; the person striking the ball must be caught out, or the ball must be deposited in the hole before the stick or cudgel can be placed there.—Halliwell’sDictionary.

See “Cudgel,” “Trounce Hole.”

A boy’s game like “Leap-Frog.”—Halliwell’sDictionary.

A childish amusement in Teviotdale, in which a number of boys take hold of each other’s hands and wrap themselvesround the one who is at the head; clasping themselves as firmly together as possible, and every one pushing till the mass falls over.—Jamieson.

See “Bulliheisle,” “Eller Tree,” “Snail-Creep,” “Wind the Bush Faggot.”

Green cheeses, yellow laces,Up and down the market places;First a penny and then a groat,Turn, cheeses, turn.

—Leicester (Miss Ellis).

Green cheeses, yellow laces,Up and down the market places,Turn, cheeses, turn!

—Halliwell’sNursery Rhymes, cccx.

This is acted by two or more girls who walk or dance up and down, turning, when they say “Turn, cheeses, turn.”—Halliwell.

I remember playing this game, but my remembrance is very imperfect. As far as I remember, there were two lines or rows of children. They danced forwards and backwards, crossing to the opposite side, and turning round. At the words, “Turn, cheeses, turn,” the cheeses all turned round rapidly and then sank on the ground. The players tried to inflate their dresses as much as possible, and then stooped down to the ground, so that the dress remained inflated; only the head and shoulders surrounded by a ball-like skirt then appeared, intended to represent a cheese. All joined hands and danced round at the end. The lines sang were the same as theLeicesterexcept the third, which was—“Some a penny, some a groat, turn, cheeses, turn.” It was necessary for skirts to be very “full” to make good cheeses—as wide at the waist as at the bottom of the skirt.—(A. B. Gomme.)

Holland (Cheshire Glossary) says, a frequent amusement of girls is making cheeses. They turn round and round till their dresses fly out at the bottom; then suddenly squatting down, the air confined under the dress causes the skirt to bulge out like a balloon. When skilfully done the appearance is that ofa girl’s head and shoulders peeping out of an immense cushion. Evans’Leicestershire Glossarymentions this game. He says, “The performers sing a song of which the refrain is ‘Turn, cheeses, turn,’ but I do not remember to have heard the example cited by Mr. Halliwell-Phillips.”—Percy Soc., iv. p. 122.

I always understood that the green cheeses were sage cheeses—cheeses containing sage. Halliwell says, “Green cheeses, I am informed, are made with sage and potato tops. Two girls are said to be ‘cheese and cheese.’”

A game at country balls, &c., in which young men compete by singing for their partners in the next dance.—Patterson’sAntrim and Down Glossary.

This is commonly a girls’ game. Two join hands and trip along, with hands crossed, turning from one side to the other, and crossing their arms over their heads without letting go their hold of each other, singing at the same time—

Tip, tip, toe, London, lo!Turn, Mary Ann, and away you go.

Or—

Tip, tip, toe, leerie, lo!Turn the ship and away you go;A penny to you, and a penny to me,And a penny to turn the basket.

—Fochabers (Rev. W. Gregor).

An indoor game played at Christmas time by children and adults. All the players in the room must be seated. They are then asked by the leader of the game to choose some article of a lady’s toilet, which article they will personally represent, such as diamond ring, bracelet, comb, brush, jug, basin, powder, hair-dye, dress, mantle, &c.—any article, in fact, belonging to the toilet.

The leader then goes to the centre of the room with asmall trencher, round card tray, plate, or saucer in her hand. She spins this (the trencher) round as quickly as possible, saying, “My lady’s going out and needs her ‘dress,’” or any other article she chooses to name. The player who has taken the name of “dress” must get up from her seat and catch the trencher before it falls. If successful this player then spins the trencher, calling out the name of another article of the toilet. If the player fails to catch it, a forfeit is demanded by the leader. Occasionally the spinner will say, “My lady’s going to a ball (or elsewhere), and needs the whole of her toilet.” When this is said, every player has to get up and take another place before the trencher falls; the last one to get a place has to take the trencher, and if it is down, to pay a forfeit. At the end of the game the forfeits are “cried” in the usual way.—(A. B. Gomme.)

This (called “Truckle the Trencher”) used to be a standard game for winter evenings. A circle was formed, and each one was seated on the floor, every player taking the name of a flower. This game was entered into with the greatest vivacity by staid and portly individuals as well as by their juniors.—Dorsetshire (Folk-lore Journal, vii. 238).

A trencher, saucer, or plate is used. The players sit in a circle, and one twirls the trencher, at the same time calling out the name of one of the players. He or she jumps up and tries to catch the whirling trencher before it falls. If it falls or is knocked over, a forfeit is lodged, and the player who lodged the forfeit now becomes the twirler. If the trencher is caught, it is handed back and twirled again, and another name called out. The game continues till all or, at least, most of the players have lodged forfeits. It is called “Turn the Plettie.”—Macduff (Rev. W. Gregor).

This game is played in the same way in Ireland. It is called “Twirl the Trencher,” and the players take names of towns or beasts.—(Miss Keane.)

Brogden (Provincial Words, Lincolnshire) and Halliwell (Dictionary) mention it as “Turn Trencher,” a game played at Christmas time. Moor (Suffolk Words and Phrases) calls it “Move all.”

Turvey, turvey, clothed in black,With silver buttons upon your back;One by one, and two by two,Turn about, and that will do.

—Haverfordwest (Notes and Queries, 3rd series, v. 394).

The children marched two and two, in a measured step to a given distance, then turned and marched back again.

See “Alligoshee.”

“Tut-ball,”[12]as played at a young ladies’ school at Shiffnal fifty years ago. The players stood together in their “den,” behind a line marked on the ground, all except one, who was “out,” and who stood at a distance and threw the ball to them. One of the players in the den then hit back the ball with the palm of the hand, and immediately ran to one of three brickbats, called “tuts,” which were set up at equal distances on the ground, in such positions that a player running past them all would describe a complete circle by the time she returned to the den. The player who was “out” tried to catch the ball, and to hit the runner with it while passing from one “tut” to another. If she succeeded in doing so, she took her place in the den, and the other went “out” in her stead. This game is very nearly identical with “rounders.”—Shropshire Folk-lore, p. 524.

A game at ball, now only played by boys, but half a century ago by adults on Ash Wednesday, believing that unless they did so they would fall sick in harvest time. This is a very ancient game, and was elsewhere called “Stool-ball,” indulged in by the clergy as well as laity to avert misfortune.—Ross and Stead’sHolderness Glossary. The game is not described.

Addy (Sheffield Glossary) says this game is the same as “Pize-ball.” Halliwell (Dictionary) says it is a sort of “Stob-ball Play.”

See “Cat and Dog,” “Rounders,” “Stool Ball.”

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