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
(_b_) In the Enborne, Newbury, version (Miss Kimber) a ring is formed by
the children (boys and girls) joining hands. Another child stands in the
centre. The ring of children walk round while singing the verses. The
singing is confined to the ring. When the centre child is told to
“choose,” she selects a boy from the ring, who goes into the centre and
they stand together. At the next verse these two children walk out of
the ring arm-in-arm. When the next verse is sung they return, and again
stand in the centre. At the next verse the boy pretends to put a ring on
the girl’s finger. They walk out of the ring when told to go to church
(two children in the ring unclasping hands to let them walk out, and
again clasping hands after they return), and kiss each other and shake
hands when the two next verses are sung. The child who was first in the
centre then joins the ring, and the game proceeds in the same way with
the second child, who chooses in his turn. All the other versions follow
the same rules, suiting their actions to the words, except Ogbourne,
Wilts, in which the two children in the centre sing the verse, “roast
beef and plum pudding.” They stand face to face, take hold of each
other’s hands, and sway their arms from side to side. The ring then sing
the concluding verse. In those versions where “say your prayers” and
“kneel down” occur, the two centre children kneel, and hold their open
hands together in front of them to imitate a book. In the London version
(A. B. Gomme) a handkerchief was laid on the ground, and the two
children stood on each side of it and clasped hands across it. In the
Fernham and Longcot version the one child leads the other out of the
ring at “go to church,” with a graceful half-dancing motion, and back
again in the same way. The first child joins the ring while the refrain
is sung. In the Hanbury version the centre child pretends to be weeping;
another child stands outside the ring and goes into it; when the two
meet they kiss. In the North Derbyshire version (Mr. S. O. Addy) a ring
is formed of young men and women, a young man being in the centre. He
chooses a young woman at the singing of the fifth line, and then joins
the ring, the girl remaining in the centre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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