Volume I Part 53 (2/2)

In Ross and Stead's _Holderness Glossary_ this is described as a girls'

game, in which two carry a third as a pot of honey to market. It is mentioned by Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) and by Holland (_Ches.h.i.+re Glossary_). Mr. Holland adds, ”If the hands give way before twenty is reached it is counted a bad honey pot; if not, it is a good one.”

In Dublin the seller sings out-

Honey pots, honey pots, all in a row, Twenty-five s.h.i.+llings wherever you go- Who'll buy my honey pots?

-Mrs. Lincoln.

The game is mentioned by a writer in _Blackwood's Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, as being played in Edinburgh when he was a boy.

Hood

A game played at Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, on the 6th of January.

The Hood is a piece of sacking, rolled tightly up and well corded, and which weighs about six pounds. This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths a.s.sembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again. The object of the person who seizes the Hood is to carry off the prize to some public-house in the town, where he is rewarded with such liquor as he chooses to call for. This pastime is said to have been inst.i.tuted by the Mowbrays, and that the person who furnished the Hood did so as a tenure by which he held some land under the lord. How far this tradition may be founded on fact I do not know, but no person now acknowledges to hold any land by that tenure.-Stonehouse's _Isle of Axholme_, p. 291.

W. J. Woolhouse (_Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, v. 95) says when the Hood is thrown up by the Chief of the Boggons or by the officials, it becomes the object of the villagers to get the Hood to their own village, the other eleven men, called Boggons, being stationed at the corners and sides of the field, to prevent, if possible, its being thrown out of the field; and should it chance to fall into any of their hands, it is ”boggoned,” and forthwith returned to the chief, who again throws it up, as at the commencement of the game. The next day is occupied by the Boggons going round the villages singing as waits, and they are regaled with hot furmenty; from some they get coppers given them, and from others a small measure of wheat. The day after that they a.s.sume the character of Plough-bullocks, and at a certain part of Westwood-side they ”smoke the Fool”-that is, straw is brought by those who like, and piled in a heap, a rope being tied or slung over the branches of the tree next to the pile of straw; the other end of the rope is fastened round the waist of the Fool, and he is drawn up and fire is put to the straw, the Fool being swung to and fro through the smoke until he is well-nigh choked, after which he goes round and collects whatever the spectators choose to give him. The sport is then at an end till the next year. The land left by Lady Mowbray was forty acres, which are known by the name of ”Hoodlands,” and the Boggons'

dresses and the Hood are made from its proceeds.

In the contiguous parish of Epworth a similar game is played under the same name, but with some variations. The Hood is not here carried away from the field, but to certain goals, against which it is struck three times and then declared free. This is called ”wyking” the Hood, which is afterwards thrown up again for a fresh game.-_Notes and Queries_, 6th series, vii. 148.

See ”Football,” ”Hockey.”

Hoodle-c.u.m-blind

Name for ”Blind Man's Buff.”-Baker's _Northamptons.h.i.+re Glossary_.

Hoodman Blind

Name for ”Blind Man's Buff.” Mentioned in _Hamlet_, iii. 4; _Merry Devil of Edmonton_; and _Wise Women of Hogsden_.

Hooper's Hide

Name for ”Blind Man's Buff.”-Nares' _Glossary_.

Hop-crease

The game of ”Hop-scotch.”-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Hop-frog

The players bend as though about to sit on a _very low_ stool, then spring about with their hands resting on their knees.-Dorsets.h.i.+re (_Folk-lore Journal_, vii. 234).

Miss Peac.o.c.k says that a game called ”Hop-frog over the Dog” is played at Stixwould, Lincolns.h.i.+re, in the same way as ”Leap-frog.”

See ”Curcuddie,” ”Cutch-a-cutchoo,” ”Harie Hutcheon,” ”Hirtschin Hairy.”

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