The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume Ii Part 75

Have you any bread and wine, bread and wine, bread and wine?

Have you any bread and wine, bread and wine, bread and wine, My fair ladies?

How do you sell your bread and wine, &c.

I sell it by a gallon, sir, &c.

A gallon is too much, fair ladies, &c.

Sell it by a gallon, my fair ladies, &c.

Then we'll have none at all, &c.

Are you ready for a fight, &c.

Yes, we are ready for a fight, &c.

My dear sirs.

-Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

(_c_) The players divide into two sides of about equal numbers, and form lines. The lines walk forwards and backwards in turn, each side singing their respective verses alternately. When the last verse is sung both lines prepare for a fight.

This is the usual way of playing, and there is but little variation in the methods of the different versions. In some versions (Enbourne, Berks.; Maxey, Northants., and Bath) sleeves are tucked up previous to the pretended fight, and in one or two places sticks and stones are used; again in the Northamptonshire and Bath games, at "Present! Shoot!

Bang! Fire!!" imitations are given of firing of guns before the actual fight takes place. In the Hants (H. S. May) and Lancashire (Mrs. Harley) versions, when the last verse is reached the players all join hands, form a ring, and dance round while they sing the last verse. In several versions too, when they sing "We don't care for the magistrates," or other persons of authority, the players all stamp their feet on the ground. In the Hurstmonceux version the children double their fists before preparing to fight. Some pretend to have swords to fight with, but the greater number use their fists. In most of the versions the players on both sides join in the refrain or chorus.

(_d_) This game represents an attacking or invading party and the defenders. It probably owes its origin to the border warfare which prevailed for so long a period between Highlanders and Lowlanders of Scotland, the Scotch and English of the northern border counties, and in the country called the marches between Wales and England. Contests between different nationalities living in one town or place, as at Southampton and Nottingham, would also tend to produce this game. That the game represents this kind of conflict rather than an ordinary battle between independent countries is shown by several significant points.

These are, the dialogue between the opposing parties before the fight begins, the mention of bread, ale, or other food, and more particularly the threat to appeal to the civil authorities, called in the different versions, magistrates, blue coat men, red coat men, highest men, policemen, and Cripple d.i.c.k. Such an appeal is only applicable where the opposing parties were, theoretically at all events, subordinate to a superior authority. The derision, too, with which the threat is received by the a.s.sailants is in strict accord with the facts of Border society.

Scott in _Waverley_ and the _Black Dwarf_ describes such a raid, and the suggestion to appeal to the civil authority in lieu of a raid is met with the cry of such an act being useless. The pa.s.sage from the _Black Dwarf_ is: "'We maun tak the law wi' us in thae days, Simon,' answered the more prudent elder. 'And besides,' said another old man, 'I dinna believe there's ane now living that kens the lawful mode of following a fray across the Border. Tam o' Whittram kend a' about it; but he died in the hard winter.' 'Hout,' exclaimed another of these discording counsellors, 'there's nae great skill needed; just put a lighted peat on the end of a spear, a hayfork, or siclike, and blaw a horn and cry the gathering word, and then it's lawful to follow gear into England and recover it by the strong hand, or to take gear frae some other Englishmen, providing ye lift nae mair than's been lifted frae you.

That's the auld Border law made at Dundrennan in the days of the Black Douglas.'" In _Waverley_ the hero suggests "to send to the nearest garrison for a party of soldiers and a magistrate's warrant," but is told that "he did not understand the state of the country and of the political parties which divided it" (chap. xv.). The position of this part of the country is best understood from the evidence of legal records, showing how slowly the king's record ran in these parts. Thus Mr. Clifford (_Hist. of Private Legislation_) quotes from Hodgson's _Hist. of Northumberland_ (vol. iii. pt. 2, p. 171), a paper, in the Cotton MS., on "The bounds and means of the 'batable land belonging to England and Scotland." It was written in 1550 by Sir Robert Bowes, a Northumbrian, at the request of the Marquis of Dorset, then Warden General of the Marches, and gives a graphic picture of Border life at that time. The writer describes Ca.s.sope bridge as "a common pa.s.sage for the thieves of Tyndalle, in England, and for the thieves of Liddesdalle, in Scotland, with the stolen goods from one realm to the other." The head of Tyndalle is a place "where few true men have list to lodge."

North Tyndall "is more plenished with wild and misdemeaned people" than even South Tyndall. The people there "stand most by four surnames," the Charltons, Robsons, Dodds, and Milbornes. "Of every surname there be sundry families, or graves, as they call them, of every of which there be certain headsmen that leadeth and answereth for all the rest. There be some among them that have never stolen themselves, which they call true men. And yet such will have rascals to steal either on horseback or foot, whom they do reset, and will receive part of the stolen goods.

There be very few able men in all that country of North Tyndalle, but either they have used to steal in England or Scotland. And if any true man of England get knowledge of the theft or thieves that steal his goods in Tyndalle or Ryddesdale, he had much rather take a part of his goods again in composition than pursue the extremity by law against the thief. For if the thief be of any great surname or kindred, and be lawfully executed by order of justice, the rest of his kin or surname bear as much malice, which they call deadly feade (feud), against such as follow the law against their cousin the thief, as though he had unlawfully killed him with a sword; and will by all means they can seek revenge thereupon." At sundry times the dalesmen "have broken out of all order, and have then, like rebels or outlaws, committed very great and heinous attempts, as burning and spoiling of whole townships and murdering of gentlemen and others whom they have had grief or malice unto, so that for defence of them there have been great garrisons laid, and raids and incourses both against them and by them, even as it were between England and Scotland in time of war. And even at such times they have done more harm than they have received." A number of the Tyndaller's houses are set together, so that they may give each other succour in frays, and they join together in any quarrel against a true man, so that for dread of them "almost no man dare follow his goods stolen or spoiled into that country."

The sides in the game are under the different names or leadership of Romans and English, King William's men, rovers and guardian soldiers, Prince Charlie's men, King George's men, &c. These names have probably been given in memory of some local rising, or from some well-known event which stamped itself upon the recollection of the people. It is very curious that in four or five versions a refrain, which may well be a survival of some of the slogans or family "cries" (see "Three Dukes"), should occur instead of the "Roman" and "English" soldiers, &c. These refrains are, "My theerie and my thorie," "Metherie and metharie,"

"Methory I methory," "Come a theeiry, come a thory," "Come a theory, oary mathorie," "Cam a teerie, arrie ma torry," and the three which apparently are still further degradations of these, "Ye o' the boatmen,"

"Drunk and sober," "He I over." That "slogans" or "war cries" were used in this species of tribal war there is little doubt. In the Northumberland and Laurieston versions the name is "Cripple d.i.c.k," these words, now considered as the name of a powerful and feared leader, may also indicate the same origin. The versions with these refrains come from Perthshire (three versions), Authencairn, and Northumberland; Yorkshire has He I over; while the Romans and English, King George's men, King William's men, guardian soldiers, rovers, &c., are found in Shropshire, Staffordshire, Gloucester, Kent, Hants, Bath, Berks, Northamptonshire, Suss.e.x, some of which are Border counties to Wales, and others have sea-coasts where at different times invasions have been expected. In Suss.e.x, Miss Chase says the game is said to date from the alarm of Napoleon's threatened landing on the coast; this is also said in Kent and Hampshire. Miss Burne considers the game in Shropshire to have certainly originated from the old Border warfare. She also considers that the bread and wine, barrels of ale, &c., are indications of attempts made to bribe the beleaguered garrison and their willingness to accept it; but I think it more probably refers to the fact that some food, cattle, and goods were oftentime given to the raiders by the owners of the lands as blackmail, to prevent the carrying off of all their property, and to avoid fighting if possible. It will be noticed that fighting ensues as the result of a sufficient quant.i.ty of food and drink being refused. Scott alludes to the practice of blackmail, having to be paid to a Highland leader in _Waverley_, in the raid upon the cattle of the baron of Bradwardine (see chap. xv.). The farms were scattered, and before the defenders could combine to offer resistance, cattle and goods would be carried off, and the ground laid waste, if resistance were offered.

The tune of the Northants game (Rev. W. Sweeting) and Hants (H. S. May) are so nearly like the Bath tune that it seemed unnecessary to print them. The tune of the Surrey game is that of "Nuts in May." The words of the Bath version collected by me are nearly identical with the Shropshire, except that "We are the Romans" is said instead of "We are the Rovers." They are not therefore printed here, but I have used this version in my _Children's Singing Games_, series I., _ill.u.s.trated_. The tune of the Hants version (H. S. May) is similar to that of Wrotham, Kent (Miss D. Kimball).

Weary

Weary, weary, I'm waiting on you, I can wait no longer on you; Three times I've whistled on you- Lovey, are you coming out?

I'll tell mamma when I go home, The boys won't let my curls alone; They tore my hair, and broke my comb- And that's the way all boys get on.

-Aberdeen Training College (Rev. W. Gregor).

The girls stand in a row, and one goes backwards and forwards singing the first four lines. She then takes one out of the row, and they swing round and round while they all sing the other four lines.

Weave the Diaper

Weave the diaper tick-a-tick tick, Weave the diaper tick; Come this way, come that, As close as a mat, Athwart and across, up and down, round about, And forwards and backwards and inside and out; Weave the diaper thick-a-thick thick, Weave the diaper thick.

-Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 65.

(_b_) This game should be accompanied by a kind of pantomimic dance, in which the motions of the body and arms express the process of weaving, the motion of the shuttle, &c.

(_c_) Mr. Newell (_Games and Songs of American Children_, p. 80) mentions a dance called "Virginia Reel," which he says is an imitation of weaving. The first movement represents the shooting of the shuttle from side to side and the pa.s.sage of the woof over and under the threads of the warp; the last movements indicate the tightening of the threads and bringing together of the cloth. He also says that an acquaintance told him that in New York the men and girls stand in rows by sevens, an arrangement which may imitate the different colours of strands. Mr.

Newell does not say whether any words are sung during the dancing of the reel. Halliwell gives another rhyme (p. 121), which may have belonged to this weaving game. It is extremely probable that in these fragments described by him we have remains of one of the old trade dances and songs.

Weigh the b.u.t.ter

Two children stand back to back, with their arms locked. One stoops as low as he can, supporting the other on his back, and says, "Weigh the b.u.t.ter;" he rises, and the second stoops in his turn with "Weigh the cheese." The first repeats with "Weigh the old woman;" and it ends by the second with "Down to her knees."-_Folk-lore Journal_, v. 58.

The players turn their backs to each other, and link their arms together behind. One player then bends forward, and lifts the other off his [her]

feet. He rises up, and the other bends forward and lifts him up. Thus the two go on bending and rising, and lifting each other alternately, and keep repeating-

Weigh b.u.t.ter, weigh cheese, Weigh a pun (pound) o' can'le grease.

-Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).

Mr. Northall (_English Folk Rhymes_) gives this game with the words as-

A bag o' malt, a bag o' salt, Ten tens a hundred.

This game is described as played in the same way in Antrim and Down (Patterson's _Glossary_), and also by Jamieson in Roxburgh.

See "Way-Zaltin."

When I was a Young Girl

[Music]

-Platt School, nr. Wrotham, Kent (Miss Burne).

[Music]

-Hanbury, Staffs. (Miss Edith Hollis).

[Music]

-Market Drayton, Salop (_Shropshire Folk-lore_).

[Music]

-Ogbourne, Wilts. (H. S. May).