In the Norfolk version the Mother sits on a form or bank, the other children advancing and retiring as they sing. After the last verse is sung the children try to seat themselves on the form or bank where the Mother has been sitting. If they can thus get home without the Mother catching them they are safe. The Kentish game is played with two lines of children advancing and retiring. This was also the way in which the London version (A. B. Gomme) was played. In the version sent by Mr. H. S.
There is no stock. Each plays for himself, and must keep his own score. A triangular cribbage board is very useful for this purpose. _=Dix.=_ Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, may show the Nine of trumps if he holds it, and exchange it for the trump card. Should two Nines be shown by different players, the one on the dealer’s left takes the turn-up trump. Even if the dealer has a Nine himself, he is not allowed to keep the turn-up trump. If the same player holds both Nines he may score twenty on winning a trick. A player with 990 up is not out if he turns up the Nine. He must win a trick.
The Lady Lea evidently refers to the river of that name, the favourite haunt of Isaac Walton, which, after fertilising the counties of Hertford, Essex, and Middlesex, glides into the Thames. London Bridge is broken down, _Dance over the Lady Lea_; London Bridge is broken down, _With a gay lady_ [_la-dee_]. Then we must build it up again. What shall we build it up withal? Build it up with iron and steel, Iron and steel will bend and break. Build it up with wood and stone, Wood and stone will fall away. Build it up with silver and gold, Silver and gold will be stolen away. Then we must set a man to watch, Suppose the man should fall asleep? Then we must put a pipe in his mouth, Suppose the pipe should fall and break? Then we must set a dog to watch, Suppose the dog should run away? Then we must chain him to a post. The two lines in _italic_ are all regularly repeated after each line.--M. Green.
This restored strategy to its predominance over chance. We then began to humanise that wild and fearful fowl, the gun. We decided that a gun could not be fired if there were not six--afterwards we reduced the number to four--men within six inches of it. And we ruled that a gun could not both fire and move in the same general move: it could either be fired or moved (or left alone). If there were less than six men within six inches of a gun, then we tried letting it fire as many shots as there were men, and we permitted a single man to move a gun, and move with it as far as he could go by the rules--a foot, that is, if he was an infantry-man, and two feet if he was a cavalry-man. We abolished altogether that magical freedom of an unassisted gun to move two feet. And on such rules as these we fought a number of battles. They were interesting, but not entirely satisfactory. We took no prisoners--a feature at once barbaric and unconvincing. The battles lingered on a long time, because we shot with extreme care and deliberation, and they were hard to bring to a decisive finish.
A slight inequality (chances of war) may be arranged between equal players by leaving out 12 men on each side and tossing with a pair of dice to see how many each player shall take of these. The best arrangement and proportion of the forces is in small bodies of about 20 to 25 infantry-men and 12 to 15 cavalry to a gun. Such a force can maneuver comfortably on a front of 4 or 5 feet. Most of our games have been played with about 80 infantry, 50 cavalry, 3 or 4 naval guns, and a field gun on either side, or with smaller proportional forces. We have played excellent games on an eighteen-foot battlefield with over two hundred men and six guns a side. A player may, of course, rearrange his forces to suit his own convenience; brigade all or most of his cavalry into a powerful striking force, or what not. But more guns proportionally lead to their being put out of action too early for want of men; a larger proportion of infantry makes the game sluggish, and more cavalry--because of the difficulty of keeping large bodies of this force under cover--leads simply to early heavy losses by gunfire and violent and disastrous charging. The composition of a force may, of course, be varied considerably. One good Fight to a Finish game we tried as follows: We made the Country, tossed for choice, and then drew curtains across the middle of the field. Each player then selected his force from the available soldiers in this way: he counted infantry as 1 each, cavalry as 1-1/2, and a gun as 10, and, taking whatever he liked in whatever position he liked, he made up a total of 150.
Now there are seven points for these men to move about on, six on the edges of the square and one at the centre. The men belonging to each player are not set together as at draughts, but mingled with each other. The one who has the first move may always have the game, which is won by getting the three men on a line.--Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. See Kit Cat Cannio, Noughts and Crosses. Cots and Twisses A flat stone is obtained called a Hob, upon which those who are playing place equal shares of Cots and Twisses. Cots are brass buttons, and Twisses bits of brass--a Twiss of solid brass being worth many Cots. Each player provides himself with a nice flat [key] stone, and from an agreed pitch tosses it at the Hob. If he knocks off any of the Cots and Twisses nearer to the players than the Hob is, he claims them. The other players try to knock the Hob away with their key-stones from any Cots and Twisses that may not have been claimed; and if any key-stone touches Hob after all have thrown, the owner cannot claim any Cots and Twisses.
Rubiconed, lurched, defeated before getting half way. Ruffing, trumping a suit. Run, a succession of counting shots at Billiards. Schnitt, G., a finesse. Schneiden, G., to finesse. Schinden is sometimes used. Scratch, a fluke, a score which was not played for. Screw Shot, a force shot at Billiards.
_=Betting Jacks.=_ When a jack pot has been properly opened, and all have declared whether or not they will stay, and have drawn cards, the players proceed to bet on their hands. As there is no age in jack pots, the rule is for the opener to make the first bet; or, if he has been raised out before the draw, the player next on his left who still holds cards. The opener may decline to bet if he pleases; but if he does so, he must show his openers, and then abandon his hand. If no bet is made, the last player holding cards takes the pool without showing his hand. If a bet is made, each player in turn on the left must abdicate, better, or call, just as in the ordinary pool. At the conclusion of the betting, if there is a call, the best poker hand wins, of course. If there is no call, the player making the last bet or raise takes the pool without showing his hand, unless he is the opener, when the whole hand need not be shown, as it is no one’s business what the opener got in the draw, no one having paid to see it. All he need show is openers. But should the opener be one of those in the final call, he must show his whole hand.
B. Gomme). (_b_) Mr. Emslie, to whom I am indebted for the tune to this game, gives me the words as-- Jump a little nag-tail, One, two, three. He says, I once heard this sung three times, followed by Ha! ha! he! to the tune of the last bar. Mr. W. R. Emslie says the game is known at Beddgelert as Horses, Wild Horses, he believes, but is not quite certain. Northall (_Rhymes_, p.
The player with the strong hand must always be kind to the under dog, and partnerships are always formed against the man with the high score. Suppose _=A=_, _=B=_, and _=C=_ are playing, and that _=A=_ has 3 points to his adversaries’ nothing on _=B’s=_ deal. It is to the interest of _=A=_ to euchre _=B=_; but it is to the interest of _=C=_ to let _=B=_ make his point because if _=B=_ is euchred, _=A=_ wins the game. _=B=_ having made his point, _=C=_ deals, and it is then to the interest of _=B=_ to let _=C=_ make his point. Suppose _=C=_ makes a march, 3 points, which puts him on a level with _=A=_. On _=A’s=_ deal it is _=C’s=_ game to euchre him, but _=B=_ must let _=A=_ make his point; so that instead of being opposed by both _=B=_ and _=C=_, as he was a moment ago, _=A=_ finds a friend in _=B=_, and the two who were helping each other to beat _=A=_, are now cutting each other’s throats. On _=B’s=_ deal, _=A=_ does not want to euchre him, for although that would win the game for both _=A=_ and _=C=_, _=A=_, who now has 4 points up, does not wish to divide the pool with _=C=_ while he has such a good chance to win it all himself. Suppose _=B=_ makes his point. _=A=_ will do all he can to euchre _=C=_, but _=B=_ will oppose the scheme, because his only chance for the game is that _=A=_ will not be able to take up the trump on his own deal, and that _=B=_ will make a march. SET-BACK EUCHRE.
The birds will sing, the bells will ring, And we ll all clap hands together. --Congleton Workhouse School (Miss A. E. Tremlow). (_c_) The popular version of this game is played by the greater number of the children forming a line on one side with joined hands, and one child (sometimes two or more) facing them, advancing and retiring while singing the verses. When he asks the question, Will you come? one girl on the opposite side answers No! and afterwards Yes! When this is said, she goes to the opposite side, and the two dance round together while singing the next verse. The game begins again by the two singing the verses, and thus getting a third child to join them, when the game proceeds for a fourth, and so on. The Congleton and London versions are played by two lines of children of about equal numbers. In the Lincolnshire version the above description answers, except that when the last line is sung every one claps hands. In the Sussex version the child at the end of the line is taken over by the child who sings the verses, and they lock their little fingers together while singing the remainder.
If the blindfolded girl can identify her captive they exchange places, and the game goes on as before. The Forest of Dean and the Earls Heaton versions are played the same as the Lancashire. In the West Cornwall version, as seen played in 1884, a ring is formed, into the middle of which goes a child holding a stick; the others with joined hands run round in a circle, singing the verses. When they have finished singing they cease running, whilst the one in the centre, pointing with his stick, asks them in turn to spell Bingo. If they all spell it correctly they again move round singing; but should either of them make a mistake, he or she has to take the place of the middle man (_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 58). In the Hexham version they sing a second verse, which is the same as the first with the name spelt _backwards_. The Berks version is practically the same as the Tean version. The Eckington (Derbyshire) version is played as follows:--A number of young women form a ring. A man stands within the ring, and they sing the words.
This ante may be any amount he pleases within the betting limit. No player can straddle or raise this ante until the cards are dealt. Beginning on his left the dealer distributes the cards face down, and one at a time, until each player has received three. Beginning with the age, [eldest hand,] each player in turn must put up an amount equal to the dealer’s ante, or abandon his hand. He may, if he chooses, raise the ante any further amount within the betting limit. All those following him must meet the total sum put up by any individual player, increase it, or pass out. In this respect Brag is precisely similar to the betting after the draw at Poker. If no one will see the dealer’s ante, he must be paid one white counter by each of the other players, and the deal passes to the left. Should any player bet an amount which no other player will meet, he takes the pool without showing his hand. Should a call be made, all the hands must be shown, and the best brag hand wins.
Each pin bowled down counts 1, including the king pin. If all the pins except the king pin are bowled down, it counts 12. The pins are set up as soon as the nine pins are knocked down, or the king pin is the only one left standing. The alleys are changed alternately. The dead wood is removed after each ball is rolled. In case of uneven teams the Dummy or Blind is filled by any substitute the captain may pick out to bowl. He can select any one of his men he chooses, without regard to rotation, or he himself can bowl, but no man can take the place of the blind twice until every member of the team has acted as the substitute. Poodles count as balls rolled. Any pin or pins knocked down by such balls are set up again in their former positions. A rebounding ball does not count, and any pin or pins knocked down by it are set up, as in the case of a poodle ball.
B. Gomme). [Music] --Dorsetshire (Miss M. Kimber). [Music] --Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews). I. Here we dance lubin, lubin, lubin, Here we dance lubin light, Here we dance lubin, lubin, lubin, On a Saturday night. Put all the right hands in, Take all the right hands out, Shake all the right hands together, And turn yourselves about. Here we dance lubin, lubin, lubin, Here we dance lubin light, Here we dance lubin, lubin, lubin, On a Saturday night. Put all your left hands in, Take all your left hands out, Shake all your left hands together, And turn yourselves about.
VII. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning. Who will you have for your nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will you have for your nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning? We will have a girl for nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, We will have a girl for nuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning. --Earls Heaton, Yorks. (Herbert Hardy). VIII. Here we come gathering nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, Here we come gathering nuts in May, This cold frosty morning. Who will you have for your nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May? Who will you have for your nuts in May, This cold frosty morning? We will have ---- for our nuts in May, Nuts in May, nuts in May, We will have ---- for our nuts in May, This cold frosty morning. Who will you have to pull her away, Pull her away, pull her away? Who will you have to pull her away, This cold frosty morning? We will have ---- to pull her away, Pull her away, pull her away, We will have ---- to pull her away, This cold frosty morning. --Settle, Yorks.
SINGLE TABLE, OR MNEMONIC DUPLICATE. The laws of Duplicate Whist govern where applicable, except as follows: Each player plays each deal twice, the second time playing a hand previously played by an adversary. Instead of turning the trump, a single suit may be declared trumps for the game. On the overplay, the cards may be gathered into tricks instead of playing them as required by law (Law VIII, Sec. 1). In case of the discovery of an irregularity in the hands, there must always be a new deal. MNEMONIC DUPLICATE FOR MORE THAN ONE TABLE. Except a contest played in comparison with a progressive match, the replaying of the cards by the same players--“up and back,” as it is sometimes called--is the only possible method of approximating to Duplicate Whist for one table; but where eight or more players participate, this form of the game is extremely undesirable, from the element of memory entering into the replay and destroying the integrity of the game and its value as a test of Whist skill. It has been well described as “a mongrel game--partly Whist and partly Dummy, but lacking in the best features of each.” In the early days of Duplicate Whist, Mnemonic Duplicate was, to some extent, played even when several tables of players were participating.
♟ _=The Pawns=_ move straight forward, one square at a time, except on the first move, when they have the privilege of moving either one or two squares, at the option of the player. In capturing, the Pawn does not take the piece directly in its path, but the one diagonally in front of it on either side. Such a capture of course takes the Pawn from the file it originally occupied, and it must then continue to advance in a straight line on its new file. In Diagram No. 2, the white Pawns could not capture either of the black Bishops or Rooks, but the Pawn on the left could take either of the black Knights:-- [Illustration: _No. 2._ | ♞ | | ♞ | | | | ♙ | ♜ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ♙ | | | ♝ | | ♜ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | ♙ | ♝ | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ WHITE. ] After a Pawn has crossed the middle line of the board into the adversary’s territory, it is called a _=passed Pawn=_. If an adverse Pawn attempts to pass this Pawn by availing itself of the privilege of moving two squares the first time, that would not prevent the passed Pawn from capturing it _=en passant=_. In the position shown in Diagram No.
_=PLAYERS.=_ Two, three or four persons can play Chinese Whist. When three play, the spade deuce is thrown out of the pack. Partners and deal are cut for from an outspread pack, as at Whist. _=POSITION OF THE PLAYERS.=_ When four play, the partners sit opposite each other. When three play, the one cutting the lowest card chooses his seat, and dictates the positions of the two other players. _=DEALING.=_ When four play, the pack is shuffled and cut as at Whist. The dealer then gives six cards to each player, one at a time, beginning on his left.
The first player to win two games not only adds the 125 for the second game, but 250 more for winning the rubber. Honours are scored by each player separately, every honour being worth as much as a trick in that suit. Four or five in one hand count double. At no trump, the aces count for 10 each to the holders, four in one hand 100. The declarer scores his dummy’s honours. At the end of the rubber, each wins from or loses to each of the others. The score is usually made up in this way, the final amounts to the credit of each being shown in the top line: A, 240 B, 980 C, 456 ---------------------------- -740 +740 +215 -215 +524 -524 ---- ---- ---- -955 +1264 -309 _=DUPLICATE AUCTION.=_ This game may be played in any of the ways described for the movement of trays and players under the head of duplicate whist. Tricks and honours are scored as usual, but there are no games or rubbers. Should the declarer make 30 or more points on a single hand he gets 125 points bonus in the honour column.
, are the same as in Bézique, but the declarations and their values are quite different. _=Brisques.=_ There are twelve brisque cards, the Seven of each suit being added to the usual Aces and Tens. The brisques are not scored as taken in, except in the last six tricks. At the end of the hand all the brisques are counted, whether already scored in the last six tricks or not, and the player having more than six counts ten points for each above six. If each has six, neither scores. By this method, a player may make and score several brisques in the last six tricks, all of which he will reckon over again in the total count at the end. _=Declarations.=_ The winner of any trick, previous to the exhaustion of the stock, may announce and lay upon the table any one of ten different combinations, which are divided into three classes. These are as follows, with the number of points he is entitled to score for each: CLASS A.
If he discards too many cards, as the dealer frequently will by laying out five instead of three, he may take them back if he has not touched those in the stock, but if he touches any card in the stock, he must play with the short hand if there are not enough cards left in the stock to make his hand up to twelve. _=Irregular Drawing.=_ If the pone draws one of the three cards which properly belong to the dealer, he loses the game; and if the dealer draws any of the first five, before the pone has announced that he leaves them, the dealer loses the game. The dealer has no right to touch any part of the stock until the pone has discarded and drawn; but if the pone draws without making any announcement about leaving cards, the dealer has a right to assume that five cards have been taken, and that only three remain in the stock. For instance: The pone discards five cards, but draws four only, without saying anything. The dealer proceeds to discard and draw. He has of course taken one of the pone’s cards, but it is too late to remedy the error or claim a penalty, and the pone must play with eleven cards. It is evident that the dealer will have too many cards, but as he has been led into the error by his adversary, he must be allowed to discard to reduce his hand to twelve. If a player takes a card too many from the stock, he may replace it if he has not put it with the other cards in his hand. If he has seen it, he must show it to his adversary.
One of the wakers takes a stool in his hand, another mounts that one s back, then Father Doud begins rearing and plunging, and if he unhorses his rider with a dash he does well. There is another play (at these wakes) called Kicking the Brogue, which is even ruder than Riding Father Doud, and a third one called Scuddieloof. --Mactaggart s _Gallovidian Encyclopædia_. Patterson (_Antrim and Down Glossary_) mentions a game called Leap the Bullock, which he says is the same as Leap-frog. Dickinson s _Cumberland Glossary Supplement_, under Lowp, says it means a leap or jump either running or standing. The various kinds include Catskip --one hitch, or hop, and one jump; Hitch steppin --hop, step, and lowp; a hitch, a step, and a leap; Otho --two hitches, two steps, and a leap; Lang spang --two hitches, two steps, a hitch, a step, and a leap. See Accroshay, Knights, Leap-frog. Lubin [Music] --Hexham (Miss J. Barker). [Music] --Doncaster (Mr.
| | . | | +-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+-.-+---+ | . | | . | | . | | . | | +-.
|turn round your head. |turn my head. | |24.| -- | -- | -- | |25.| -- | -- | -- | |26.| -- | -- |Mother, is it true? | | | | |What shall I do? | |27.| -- | -- | -- | |28.| -- | -- | -- | |29.| -- | -- | -- | |30.| -- | -- | -- | |31.
=_ When the last card has been played, each side turns over all the tricks won, and counts the points they contain; High, Low, Jack, Game, Right and Left Pedro. Everything, including Low, counts to the side winning it. The number of points won or lost is determined by deducting the lower score from the higher, the difference being the number of points won on that deal. If it is a tie, neither side scores. If either side has incurred a penalty which prevents them from scoring any points they may have won, the adversaries have nothing to deduct, and score all they make. If the side that named the trump fails to make as many points as it bid, it scores nothing, and the number of points bid are scored by the adversaries, in addition to any points that the adversaries may have made in play. For instance: A-B are partners against Y-Z. B has bid to make 8, and named hearts for trumps. A-B make 10, which is 2 more than they bid, Y-Z getting the other 4; which leaves A-B 6. These are scored by placing one red and one white counter in the pool.
The tribbit-stick is elsewhere called primstick, gelstick, buckstick, trippit, and trevit. Atkinson says that spell is O.N., spill meaning a play or game, and the probability is that the game is a lineal descendant from the Ball-play of the Old Danes, or Northmen, and Icelanders. Spell and knor is a corruption of spell a knor, the play at ball. Nurspel is simply ball-play, therefore which name, taken in connection with the fact that the game is elsewhere called Spell and Knor, and not Knor and Spell, is significant. There is one day in the year, Shrove Tuesday, when the play is customarily practised, though not quite exclusively.--Atkinson s _Cleveland Glossary_. Easther (_Almondbury Glossary_) describes it as played with a wooden ball, a spel, and a pommel. Two may play, or two sides.
Guess ye wha s the young goodman, The young goodman, the young goodman, Guess ye wha s the young goodman, About the merry-ma-tansie. Honey is sweet, and so is he, So is he, so is he, Honey is sweet, and so is he, About the merry-ma-tansie. [Or-- Apples are sour, and so is he, So is he, so is he, Apples are sour, and so is he, About the merry-ma-tansie.] He s married wi a gay gold ring, A gay gold ring, a gay gold ring, He s married wi a gay gold ring, About the merry-ma-tansie. A gay gold ring s a cankerous thing, A cankerous thing, a cankerous thing, A gay gold ring s a cankerous thing, About the merry-ma-tansie. Now they re married, I wish them joy, I wish them joy, I wish them joy, Now they re married, I wish them joy, About the merry-ma-tansie. Father and mother they must obey, Must obey, must obey, Father and mother they must obey, About the merry-ma-tansie. Loving each other like sister and brother, Sister and brother, sister and brother, Loving each other like sister and brother, About the merry-ma-tansie. We pray this couple may kiss together, Kiss together, kiss together, We pray this couple may kiss together, About the merry-ma-tansie. --Chambers _Popular Rhymes_, pp.