The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 16

Pretty Miss Pink, she has come out, &c.

-Winterton, Lincs and Nottinghamshire (Miss M. Peac.o.c.k.)

(_b_) The children place themselves in a row. They each choose a colour to represent them. One player must be _pink_. Another player stands facing them, and dances to and fro, singing the first four lines. The dancer then sings the next two lines, and Miss Pink having answered rushes forward, catches hold of the dancer's hand, and sings the next verse. Each colour is then taken in turn, but Miss Pink must always be first.

(_c_) This is clearly a variant of "Pray, Pretty Miss," colours being used perhaps from a local custom at fairs and May meetings, where girls were called by the colours of the ribbons they wore.

p.r.i.c.k at the Loop

A cheating game, played with a strap and skewer at fairs, &c, by persons of the thimble-rig cla.s.s, probably the same as the game called "Fast and Loose."

p.r.i.c.key Sockey

Christmas morning is ushered in by the little maidens playing at the game of "p.r.i.c.key Sockey," as they call it. They are dressed up in their best, with their wrists adorned with rows of pins, and run about from house to house inquiring who will play at the game. The door is opened and one cries out-

p.r.i.c.key sockey for a pin, I car not whether I loss or win.

The game is played by the one holding between her two forefingers and thumbs a pin, which she clasps tightly to prevent her antagonist seeing either part of it, while her opponent guesses. The head of the pin is "sockey," and the point is "p.r.i.c.key," and when the other guesses she touches the end she guesses at, saying, "this for p.r.i.c.key," or "this for sockey," At night the other delivers her two pins. Thus the game is played, and when the clock strikes twelve it is declared up; that is, no one can play after that time.-_Mirror_, 1828, vol. x. p. 443.

See "Head.i.c.ks and Pinticks."

p.r.i.c.kie and Jockie

A childish game, played with pins, and similar to "Odds or Evens,"-Teviotdale (Jamieson), but it is more probable that this is the game of "p.r.i.c.key Sockey," which Jamieson did not see played.

Priest-Cat (1)

See "Jack's Alive."

Priest-Cat (2)

A peat clod is put into the sh.e.l.l of the crook by one person, who then shuts his eyes. Some one steals it. The other then goes round the circle trying to discover the thief, and addressing particular individuals in a rhyme-

Ye're fair and leal, Ye canna steal; Ye're black and fat, Ye're the thief of my priest-cat!

If he guesses wrong he is in a wadd, if right he has found the thief.-Chambers' _Popular Rhymes_, p. 128.

This is an entirely different game to the "Priest-Cat" given by Mactaggart (see "Jack's Alive"), and seems to have originated in the discovery of stolen articles by divination.

Priest of the Parish

William Carleton describes this game as follows:-"One of the boys gets a wig upon himself, goes out on the floor, places the boys in a row, calls on his man Jack, and says to each, 'What will you be?' One answers, 'I'll be Black Cap,' another, 'Red Cap,' and so on. He then says, 'The priest of the parish has lost his considering-cap. Some says this, and some says that, but I say my man Jack.' Man Jack then, to put it off himself, says, 'Is it me, sir?' 'Yes you, sir.' 'You lie, sir.' 'Who then, sir?' 'Black Cap.' If Black Cap then doesn't say, 'Is it me, sir?'

before the priest has time to call him he must put his hand on his ham and get a pelt of the brogue. A boy must be supple with the tongue in it."-_Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, p. 106 (Tegg's reprint).

This game is no doubt the original form of the game imperfectly played under the name of "King Plaster Palacey" (see _ante_, i. 301).

Prisoner's Base or Bars

The game of "The Country Base" is mentioned by Shakespeare in "Cymbeline"-

"He, with two striplings (lads more like to run The country base, than to commit such slaughter), Made good the pa.s.sage."-Act v., sc. 3.

Also in the tragedy of Hoffman, 1632-

"I'll run a little course At _base_, or barley-brake."

Again, in the Antipodes, 1638-

"My men can runne at _base_."

Also, in the thirtieth song of Drayton's "Polyolbion"-

"At hood-wink, barley-brake, at tick, or _prison-base_."

Again, in Spenser's "Faerie Queen," v. 8-

"So ran they all as they had been at _bace_."

Strutt (_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 78), says, "This game was much practised in former times. The first mention of this sport that I have met with occurs in the Proclamations at the head of the Parliamentary proceedings, early in the reign of Edward III., where it is spoken of as a childish amus.e.m.e.nt; and prohibited to be played in the avenues of the palace at Westminster during the Sessions of Parliament, because of the interruption it occasioned to the members and others in pa.s.sing to and fro... . The performance of this pastime requires two parties of equal number, each of them having a base or home, as it is usually called to themselves, at the distance of about twenty or thirty yards. The players then on either side taking hold of hands extend themselves in length and opposite to each other, as far as they conveniently can, always remembering that one of them must touch the base; when any one of them quits the hand of his fellow and runs into the field, which is called giving the chase, he is immediately followed by a second from the former side, and he by a second opponent; and so on alternately, until as many are out as choose to run, every one pursuing the man he first followed and no other; and if he overtake him near enough to touch him, his party claims one toward their game, and both return home. Then they run forth again and again in like manner, until the number is completed that decides the victory; this number is optional. It is to be observed that every person on either side who touches another during the chase, claims one for his party."

Strutt describes the game in Ess.e.x as follows:-"They play this game with the addition of two prisons, which are stakes driven into the ground, parallel with the home boundaries, and about thirty yards from them; and every person who is touched on either side in the chase is sent to one or other of these prisons, where he must remain till the conclusion of the game, if not delivered previously by one of his a.s.sociates, and this can only be accomplished by touching him, which is a difficult task, requiring the performance of the most skilful players, because the prison belonging to either party is always much nearer to the base of their opponents than to their own; and if the person sent to relieve his confederate be touched by an antagonist before he reaches him, he also becomes a prisoner, and stands in equal need of deliverance."-_Sports and Pastimes_, p. 80.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

But this is not quite the same as it is played in London. There the school ground is divided in the following manner:- The boys being divided into equal sides, with a captain for each, one party takes up its quarters in A, the other in B. Lots are chosen as to which side commences. Then one member of the side so chosen (say B) starts off for the middle of the playground and cries out "Chevy, Chevy Chase, one, two, three;" thereupon it becomes the object of the side B to touch him before reaching home again. If unsuccessful one from side B goes to the middle, and so on until a prisoner is secured from one of the sides.

Then the struggle commences in earnest, after the fashion described by Strutt as above. If a boy succeeds in getting to the prison of his side without being touched by an opponent, he releases a prisoner, and brings him back home again to help in the struggle. The object of the respective sides is to place all their opponents in prison, and when that is accomplished they rush over to the empty home and take possession of it. The game then begins again from opposite sides, the winning side counting one towards the victory.-London (G. L. Gomme).

This was once a favourite game among young men in North Shropshire (and Cheshire). It was played yearly at Norton-in-Hales Wakes, and the winning party were decorated with ribbons. Men-servants, in the last century, were wont to ask a day's holiday to join or witness a game of "Prison-bars," arranged beforehand as a cricket-match might be (see _Byegones_, 2nd May 1883). A form of the game still survives there among the school-children, under the name of "Prison Birds." The Birds arrange themselves in pairs behind each other, facing a large stone or stump placed at some little distance. Before them, also facing the stone, stands one player, called the Keeper. When he calls, "Last pair out!"

the couple next behind him run to the stone and touch hands over it. If they can do so without being touched by the Keeper, they are free, and return to a position behind the other birds; but any one whom he touches must remain behind the stone "in prison."-Ellesmere (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 524).

The Ellesmere inhabitants were formerly accustomed to devote their holiday occasions to the game, and in the year 1764 the poet laureate of the town (Mr. David Studley) composed some lines on the game as it was played by the Married _v._ Single at Ellesmere. They are as follows:-

"Ye lovers of pleasure, give ear and attend, Unto these few lines which here I have penned, I sing not of sea fights, of battles nor wars, But of a fine game, which is called 'Prison Bars.'

This game was admired by men of renown, And played by the natives of fair Ellesmere town; On the eighth day of August in the year sixty-four, These nimble heel'd fellows approached on the moor.

Twenty-two were the number appear'd on the green, For swiftness and courage none like them were seen; Eleven were married to females so fair, The other young gallants bachelors were.

Jacob Hitchen the weaver commands the whole round, Looks this way, and that way, all over the ground, Gives proper directions, and sets out his men, So far go, my lads, and return back again.

Proper stations being fixed, each party advance, And lead one another a many fine dance.

There's Gleaves after Ellis, and Platt after he, Such running before I never did see.