The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
History
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 1 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
This game has been very popular among schoolboys in all ages. Mr.
Micklethwaite, in a paper on the Indoor Games of School Boys in the
Middle Ages (_Arch. Journ._ xlix. 322), gives instances of finding
figures of this game cut “in the cloister benches of Gloucester
Cathedral and elsewhere, and there are several on the twelfth century
tomb at Salisbury, miscalled Lord Stourton’s,” and also at Norwich
Castle. For the date of these boards, Mr. Micklethwaite says for the
last three centuries and a half cloisters everywhere in England have
been open passages, and there have generally been schoolboys about. It
is therefore not unlikely that they should have left behind them such
traces as these play-boards. But if they are of later date they would
not be found to be distributed in monastic cloisters with respect to the
monastic arrangement, and we do find them so. Strutt describes the game
(_Sports_, p. 319).
See “Nine Men’s Morris,” “Noughts and Crosses.”
Fox in the Fold
“The Tod (Fox) i’ the Faul (Fold).” This game is commonly played by
boys. Any number of boys join hands and stand in a circle to form the
Faul. The boy that represents the Tod is placed within the circle. His
aim is to escape. To effect this he rushes with all his force, increased
by a run, against the joint hands of any two of the players. If the rush
does not unloose the grasp, he hangs on the two arms with all his
weight, pressing and wriggling. If he fails he makes a rush at another
two, always selecting those players he thinks weakest. When he does
break through he rushes off at the top of his speed, with all the
players in full cry, till he is caught and brought back. The game
begins anew with another boy as Tod.—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
See “Bull in the Park,” “Frog in the Middle.”
Fox in the Hole
All the players are armed with handkerchiefs. One of the players is
chosen for Fox, who has his den marked out. The Fox hops out on one leg,
with his handkerchief ready to strike. The players gather round him and
attack him. If he can strike one of his assailants without putting his
foot to the ground from his hopping position, the player so struck is
chased by the others into the den, and he then becomes the Fox for
another round of the game.—Cork (Miss Keane).
Halliwell (_Nursery Rhymes_, p. 228) describes the game in practically
the same manner, but adds that when the Fox is coming out he says—
The Fox gives warning
It’s a cold and frosty morning,
after which he is at liberty to hop out and use his handkerchief.
_(b)_ This game is alluded to in _Soliman and Perseda_, 1599; _Florio_,
p. 480; _Herrick_, i. 176. See Halliwell’s _Dictionary_. Professor Mayor
communicated to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ of 1848 (ii.), p. 147, the
following early allusions to the game from old dictionaries:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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