Volume I Part 22 (1/2)

(_b_) Played at Monton, Lancas.h.i.+re (Miss Dendy); Clapham Middle-Cla.s.s School (Miss Richardson); and many other places. It is practically the same game as ”Drop Handkerchief,” played without words. It is described by Strutt, p. 381, who considers ”Kiss-in-the-Ring” is derived from this ”Cat and Mouse.”

Catchers

One bicken is required in this game, and at this a lad must stand with a bat and ball in hand. He hits the ball away along the sand. Another boy picks it up and asks the striker ”How many?” who replies-

Two a good scat, Try for the bat.

The ball is then thrown to the bicken, and if it does not come within the distance named-two bats-the striker again sends the ball away, when the question is again asked-

Three a good scat, Try for the bat.

And so on until the boy standing out throws the ball in to the required distance.-Old newspaper cutting without date in my possession (A. B.

Gomme).

Chacke-Blyndman

Scotch name for ”Blindman's Buff.”-Jamieson.

Chance Bone

In Langley's abridgment of _Polydore Vergile_, f. 1., we have a description of this game: ”There is a game also that is played with the posterne bone in the hinder foote of a sheepe, oxe, gote, fallow, or redde dere, whiche in Latin is called _talus_. It hath foure chaunces: the ace point, that is named Canis, or Canicula, was one of the sides; he that cast it leyed doune a peny, or so muche as the gamers were agreed on; the other side was called Venus, that signifieth seven. He that cast the chaunce wan sixe and all that was layd doune for the castyng of Canis. The two other sides were called Chius and Senio. He that did throwe Chius wan three. And he that cast Senio gained four.

This game (as I take it) _is used of children in Northfolke_, and they cal it the Chaunce Bone; they playe with three or foure of those bones together; it is either the same or very lyke to it.”

See ”Dibs,” ”Hucklebones.”

Change Seats, the King's Come

In this game as many seats are placed round a room as will serve all the company save one. The want of a seat falls on an individual by a kind of lot, regulated, as in many other games, by the repet.i.tion of an old rhythm. All the rest being seated, he who has no seat stands in the middle, repeating the words ”Change seats, change seats,” &c., while all the rest are on the alert to observe when he adds, ”the king's come,”

or, as it is sometimes expressed, change their seats. The sport lies in the bustle in consequence of every one's endeavouring to avoid the misfortune of being the unhappy individual who is left without a seat.

The princ.i.p.al actor often slily says, ”The king's _not_ come,” when, of course the company ought to keep their seats; but from their anxious expectation of the usual summons, they generally start up, which affords a great deal of merriment.-Brand's _Pop. Antiq._, ii. 409.

(_b_) Dr. Jamieson says this is a game well-known in Lothian and in the South of Scotland. Sir Walter Scott, in _Rob Roy_, iii. 153, says, ”Here auld ordering and counter-ordering-but patience! patience!-We may ae day play at _Change seats, the king's coming_.”

This game is supposed to ridicule the political scramble for places on occasion of a change of government, or in the succession.

See ”Musical Chairs,” ”Turn the Trencher.”

Checkstone

Easther's _Almondbury Glossary_ thus describes this game. A set of checks consists of five cubes, each about half an inch at the edge, and a ball the size of a moderate bagatelle ball: all made of pot. They are called checkstones, and the game is played thus. You throw down the cubes all at once, then toss the ball, and during its being in the air gather up one stone in your right hand and catch the descending ball in the same. Put down the stone and repeat the operation, gathering two stones, then three, then four, till at last you have ”summed up” all the five at once, and have succeeded in catching the ball. In case of failure you have to begin all over again.

(_b_) In Nashe's _Lenten Stuff_ (1599) occurs the following: ”Yet towards c.o.c.k-crowing she caught a little slumber, and then she dreamed that Leander and she were playing at checkstone with pearls in the bottom of the sea.”