The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.Gomme, Alice Bertha
General
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (Vol 2 of 2): With Tunes, Singing-Rhymes, and Methods of Playing etc.
Gomme, Alice Bertha
Folklore -- Great Britain; Games -- Great Britain
(_d_) This game indicates a contest between two opposing parties, and a
punishment, and although in the game the sequence of events is not at
all clear, the contest taking place after the supposed execution, these
two events stand out very clearly as the chief factors. In the endeavour
to ascertain who the contending parties were, one cannot but be struck
with the significance of the bells having different saint’s names. Now
the only places where it would be probable for bells to be associated
with more than one saint’s name within the circuit of a small area are
the old parish units of cities and boroughs. Bells were rung on
occasions when it was necessary or advisable to call the people
together. At the ringing of the “alarm bell” the market places were
quickly filled by crowds of citizens; and by turning to the customs of
these places in England, it will be found that contest games between
parishes, and between the wards of parishes, were very frequent (see
Gomme’s _Village Community_, pp. 241-243). These contests were generally
conducted by the aid of the football, and in one or two cases, such as
at Ludlow, the contest was with a rope, and, in the case of Derby, it is
specially stated that the victors were announced by the joyful ringing
of their parish bells. Indeed, Halliwell has preserved the “song on the
bells of Derby on football morning” (No. clxix.) as follows:—
Pancake and fritters,
Say All Saints and St. Peter’s;
When will the _ball_ come,
Say the bells of St. Alkmun;
At two they will throw,
Says Saint Werabo;
O! very well,
Says little Michel.
This custom is quite sufficient to have originated the game, and the
parallel which it supplies is evidence of the connection between the
two. Oranges and lemons were, in all probability, originally intended
to mean the _colours_ of the two contesting parties, and not _fruits_ of
those names. In contests between the people of a town and the authority
of baron or earl, the adherents of each side ranged themselves under and
wore the colours of their chiefs, as is now done by political partizans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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