RUNNING THE FIGURE OF EIGHT.

THIS sport is still followed by boys, and is alluded to by Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night's Dream, in the line

"And the quaint mazes in the wanton green."

SCOTCH AND ENGLISH.

HUTTON, in his History of the Roman Wall, 1804, p. 104, after an account of the incessant irruptions upon each other's lands between the inhabitants of the English and Scottish borders, in ancient times, and before the union of the two kingdoms, observes: "The lively impression, however, of former scenes did not wear out with the practice; for the children of this day, upon the English border, keep up the remembrance by a common play, called Scotch and English, or the Raid, i. e. inroad. The boys of the village choose two captains out of their body; each nominates, alternately, one out of the little tribe. They then divide into two parties, strip, and deposit their clothes, called wad (from weed), in two heaps, each upon their own ground, which is divided by a stone, as a boundary between the two kingdoms. Each then invades the other's territories; the English crying, 'Here's a leap into thy land, dry-bellied Scot.' He who can, plunders the other side. If one is caught in the enemie's jurisdiction, he becomes a prisoner, and cannot be released except by his own party. Thus one side will sometimes take all the men and property of the other." 1

This seems to be the same game with that described by Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymological Dictionary, under the name

Our author appears to be mistaken in his etymology when he derives wad from weed, a garment. Had he consulted Lye (Junii Etymologicon), he would have found "wad Scoti dicunt pro wedd pactum; and "wedd" rendered "pactum, sponsio; A.S. ped est pignus vel pactum, ac peculiari acceptione pactum sponsalitium, vel dos." Hence our word wedding for a marriage.

of Wadds. In the Glossary to Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, Wadds is defined, "A youthful amusement, wherein much use is made of pledges." Wad, a pledge, says Dr. Jamieson, is the same with the vadium of medieval Latin.

SCOTCH-HOPPERS.

IN Poor Robin's Almanack for 1677, in his verses to the reader, on the back of the title-page, concerning the chief matters in his annual volume, among many other articles of intelligence, our star-gazer professes to show

"The time when school-boys should play at Scotch-hoppers."

[Another allusion occurs in the same periodical for 1707 : "Lawyers and Physitians have little to do this month, and therefore they may (if they will) play at Scotch-hoppers. Some men put their bands into peoples pockets open, and extract it clutch'd, of that beware. But counsel without a cure, is a body without a soul." And again, in 1740: "The fifth house tells ye whether whores be sound or not; when it is good to eat tripes, bloat herrings, fry'd frogs, rotten eggs, and monkey's tails butter'd, or an ox liver well stuck with fish hooks; when it is the most convenient time for an old man to play at Scotch-hoppers amongst the boys. In it also is found plainly, that the best armour of proof against the fleas, is to go drunk to bed."]

SEE-SAW.

GAY thus describes this well-known sport:

"Across the fallen oak the plank I laid,

And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid;
High leap'd the plank, adown Buxoma fell," &c.

SHOOTING THE BLACK LAD.

THEY have a custom at Ashton-under-Line, on the 16th of April, of shooting the black lad on horseback. It is said to have arisen from there having been formerly a black knight who resided in these parts, holding the people in vassalage, and using them with great severity.

SHOVE-GROAT.

Slide-thrift, or shove-groat, is one of the games prohibited by statute, 33 Henry VIII. It has been already noticed from Rowland's Satyres, under "Drawing Dun out of the Mire."

A shove-groat shilling is mentioned in Shakespeare's Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, and is supposed by Steevens to have been a piece of polished metal made use of in the play of shovel-board. Douce, however, has shown that shove-groat and shovel-board were different games. The former was invented in the reign of Henry the Eighth, for in the statute above alluded to it is called a new game. It was also known by the several appellations of slide-groat, slideboard, slide-thrift, and slip-thrift. See the Illustr. of Shakesp. i. 454.

In 1527, when the warrant arrived at the Tower for the execution of the Earl of Kildare, he was playing with the lieutenant at shovel-groat. When the lieutenant read it and sighed, "By St. Bryde, lieutenant (quoth he), there is some mad game in that scrole: but fall out how it will, this throw is for a huddle." Stow's Annals, edit. 1592, p. 894.

SHUFFLE-BOARD

Or SHOVEL-BOARD, is still or was very lately played. Douce, a few years ago, heard a man ask another to go into an alehouse in the Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, to play at it. In

honest Izaak Walton's time, a shovel-board was probably to be found in every public-house.

That shovel-board, in the time of Charles I., was even a royal game, may be ascertained from the inventory of goods taken at Ludlow Castle belonging to that monarch, Oct. 31, 1650. We have not only "the shovell-board roome;" but "one large shovell-board table, seven little joyned formes, one side table, and a court cup-board," were sold to Mr. Bass for the sum of £2 10s.1

SPINNY-WYE

Is the name of a game among children at Newcastle-uponTyne. I suspect this is nearly the same with "hide and seek." "I spye," is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie.'

STOOL-BALL.

[AN ancient game at ball, according to Dr. Johnson, where balls are driven from stool to stool. It is thus alluded to in Poor Robin's Almanack for 1740:

"Now milk-maids pails are deckt with flowers,
And men begin to drink in bowers,

The mackarels come up in shoals,
To fill the mouths of hungry souls;
Sweet sillabubs, and lip-lov'd tansey,
For William is prepared by Nancy.
Much time is wasted now away,
At pigeon-holes, and nine-pin play,
Whilst hob-nail Dick, and simp'ring Frances
Trip it away in country dances;

At stool-ball and at barley-break,

Wherewith they harmless pastime make."]

See the Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. 4898, p. 599. Among the royal goods at Theobald's, in the same volume, p. 440, one billiard-board brought £1 108.

TAG.

A WRITER in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1738, tells us that "in Queen Mary's reign, tag was all the play; where the lad saves himself by touching of cold iron-by this it was intended to show the severity of the Church of Rome. In later times, this play has been altered amongst children of quality, by touching of gold instead of iron." He adds, "Queen Elizabeth herself is believed to have invented the play I am a Spanish merchant; and Burleigh's children were the first who played at it. In this play, if any one offers to sale what he hath not his hand upon or touches, he forfeits,meant as an instruction to traders not to give credit to the Spaniards. The play of Commerce succeeded, and was in fashion during all her reign."

TAPPIE-TOUSIE,

Or this sport among children Dr. Jamieson gives the following account: "One, taking hold of another by the forelock of his hair, says to him, 'Tappie, tappie, tousie, will ye be my man?' If the other answers in the affirmative, the first says, 'Come to me, then, come to me, then,' giving him a smart pull towards him by the lock which he holds in his hand. If the one who is asked answers in the negative, the other gives him a push backwards, saying, 'Gae fra me, then, gae fra me, then.'

The literal meaning of the terms is obvious. The person asked is called tappie tousie, q. dishevelled head, from tap, and tousie, q. v. It may be observed, however, that the SuioGothic tap signifies a lock or tuft of hair. Haertapp, floccus capillorum; Ihre, p. 857.

"But the thing that principally deserves our attention is the meaning of this play. Like some other childish sports, it evidently retains a singular vestige of very ancient manners. It indeed represents the mode in which one received another as his bondman.