A game played by boys, much the same as “Hockey,” and taking its name, no doubt, from the mode of playing, which consists in striking a wooden ball or knorr from the ground in any given direction with a sufficiently heavy stick, duly curved at the striking end.—Atkinson’s _Cleveland Glossary_. It is also given in _Yorkshire Glossary_ (Whitby). See “Bandy,” “Doddart,” “Hockey.” Jud A game played with a hazel nut bored and run upon a string.—Dickinson’s _Cumberland Glossary_. Probably the same game as “Conkers.” See “Conkers.” Keeling the Pot Brockett mentions that a friend informed him that he had seen a game played amongst children in Northumberland the subject of which was “Keeling the Pot.” A girl comes in exclaiming, “Mother, mother, the pot’s boiling ower.” The answer is, “Then get the ladle and keel it.” The difficulty is to get the ladle, which is “up a height,” and the “steul” wants a leg, and the joiner is either sick or dead (_Glossary North Country Words_). A sentence from _Love’s Labours Lost_, “While greasy Joan doth keel the pot,” illustrates the use of the term “keel.” See “Mother, Mother, the Pot Boils over.” Keppy Ball In former times it was customary every year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, for the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle, attended by the burgesses, to go in state to a place called the Forth, a sort of mall, to countenance, if not to join in the play of “Keppy ba” and other sports. This diversion is still in part kept up by the young people of the town (Brockett’s _North Country Words_). It is also mentioned in Peacock’s _Manley and Corringham Glossary_, and in Ross and Stead’s _Holderness Glossary_. Mr. Tate (_History of Alnwick_) says that a favourite pastime of girls, “Keppy ball,” deserves a passing notice, because accompanied by a peculiar local song. The name indicates the character of the game; “kep” is from _cepan_, Anglo-Saxon, “kappan,” Teut., “to catch or capture;” for when the game was played at by several, the ball was thrown into the air and “kepped,” or intercepted, in its descent by one or other of the girls, and it was then thrown up again to be caught by some other. But when the song was sung it was played out by one girl, who sent the ball against a tree and drove it back again as often as she could, saying the following rhymes, in order to divine her matrimonial future:— Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin’ and tell to me, The form and the features, the speech and degree Of the man that is my true love to be. Keppy ball, keppy ball, Coban tree, Come down the long loanin’ and tell to me How many years old I am to be. One a maiden, two a wife, Three a maiden, four a wife, &c. The numbers being continued as long as the ball could be kept rebounding against the tree. The following from Halliwell’s _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 298, is also used for ball divination. To “cook” is to toss or throw.