Volume Ii Part 27 The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland

Volume Ii Part 27

XIX. In and out the willows, In and out the willows; In and out the willows, As you have done before.

Stand and face your lover, Stand and face your lover; Stand and face your lover, As you have done before.

Follow me to London, Follow me to London; Follow me to London, As you have done before.

-West Grinstead, Suss.e.x (_Notes and Queries_, 8th Series, i. 249, Miss Busk).

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5]

(_c_) The children join hands and form a ring with one child standing outside. The ring stands perfectly still throughout this game and sings the verses, the action being confined to at first one child, and then to two together. During the singing of the first verse the outside child dances round the ring on the outside. When the ring commences to sing the second verse the children hold up their arms to form arches, and the child who has been running round outside runs into the ring under one pair of joined hands, and out again under the next pair of arms, continuing this "in and out" movement until the third verse is commenced. The child should try and run in and out under all the joined hands. At the third verse the child stops in the ring and stands facing one, whom she chooses for her lover, until the end of the verse; the chosen child then leaves the ring, followed by the first child, and they walk round the ring, or they walk away a little distance, returning at the commencement of next verse. In the first three versions the second child is chased back and caught by the first child. In the Clapham version the two shake hands in the last verse. The Barnes version has kissing for its finale. The Hanbury also has kissing, but it precedes the following to London. In the Brigg, Lincolnshire (Miss Barker), a child stands in the middle and points with her finger to each one she pa.s.ses; finally selects one, who leaves the ring and kneels in front of the girl in the middle. At the end of the second verse the kneeling child gets up and the first child goes in and out under the arms of the players, followed by the other. At the fourth they reverse and go back under the arms in the opposite direction, finally stopping in the middle of the ring, when another child is chosen and the first one in goes out.

In the Winterton and Bottesford versions (Miss Peac.o.c.k), at the words "Stand and face your lover," the child who has been going "in and out"

stands before the one she chooses, beckons to her, and sings the next verse. Then the chosen one chases her until she can catch her. In the Crockham Hill version (Miss Chase) the love is measured out with a handkerchief three times, and after kneeling in the road, the chosen partner follows round the ring and reverses for the return.

(_d_) The a.n.a.lysis of the game-rhymes is on pp. 134-39. This shows that we are dealing with a game which represents a village, and also the houses in it. The village only disappears in six out of the twenty versions. In three of these (Hanbury, Fraserburgh, and West Grinstead) the line has gone altogether. In the fourth (Lincolnshire) it becomes "Round and round and round," no mention being made of the village. In the fifth (Belfast) the line has become "Marching round the ladies." In the sixth (Settle) it has become "Up and down the valley," which also occurs in another imperfect version, of which a note was sent me by Miss Matthews from the Forest of Dean, where the line has become "Round and round the valley." The subst.i.tution of "ladies" for "village" is very significant as evidence that the game, like all its compeers, is in a declining stage, and is, therefore, not the invention of modern times.

The idea of a circle of children representing a village would necessarily be the first to die out if the game was no longer supported by the influence of any custom it might represent. The line of decadence becomes in this way an important argument for the discovery of the original form.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Cornwall, Penzance.

Kent, Crockham Hill.

Herts, Stevenage.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Walking round the

Go round and round the

Round about the

village.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

10.

In and out the

Go in and out the

In and out of the

windows.

11.

12.

As you have done

As we have done

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

Stand before my lover.

lover.

14.

Come in and face your

lover.

15.

16.

As you have done

As we have done

As I have done before.

before.

17.

Now they go off

courting.

18.

I measure my love to

show you.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

As they have done

As we have done

before.

24.

I kneel because I love

you.

25.

As we have done

before.

26.

Chase her back to

Scotland.

27.

Follow me to London.

28.

29.

As you have done

As we have done

As you have done

before.

30.

31.

Back again to

Westerham.

32.

Dance away to

fairyland.

33.

34.

As we have done

before.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Yorks, Earls Heaton.

N. Staffordshire,

Surrey, Clapham.

Tean.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

All round the village.

Round and round the

village.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

10.

In and out of the

In and out the window.

window.

11.

12.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

lover.

14.

15.

16.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

Kiss her if you love

her.

20.

Shake hands with your

lover.

21.

22.

23.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow her to London.

28.

Take her off to

London.

29.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Lincolnshire.

Surrey, Barnes.

Norfolk, Sporle.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Three jolly sailor

Come gather again on

boys.

the old village green.

Round and round the

Round about the

village.

We go round and round

and round.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

And this a girl and a

very pretty girl.

A kiss for kneeling

here.

10.

Go in and out the

In and out the

window.

windows.

11.

12.

As we have done

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

lover.

14.

15.

Go back and face your

lover.

16.

As we have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

Kiss her before you

leave her.

20.

21.

Soon we will get

married.

22.

23.

As we have done

before.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow me to London.

Follow her to London.

28.

Take her off to

London.

29.

As we have done

before.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Staffordshire,

Belfast.

Wakefield.

Hanbury.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Round and round the

village.

Marching round the

ladies.

As you have done

before.

10.

In and out of the

In and out the

In and out of the

windows.

window.

11.

12.

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

lover.

14.

15.

16.

As you have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

Give me a kiss, my

darling.

23.

As you have done

before.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow me to London.

28.

29.

As you have done

before.

30.

31.

32.

33.

Bring me back to

Belfast.

34.

As you have done

before.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Lincolnshire,

Deptford.

Cullen.

Winterton.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Round and round the

village.

Out and in the

villages.

As you have done

before.

10.

In and out of the

In and out the

Out and in the

window.

windows.

11.

12.

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

Stand before your

lover.

14.

15.

16.

As you have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow me to London.

28.

29.

As you have done

before.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Roxton.

Fraserburgh.

Settle.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Round and round the

village.

Up and down the

valley.

As you have done

As I have done before.

before.

10.

In and out the

Out and in the

In and out the window.

windows.

11.

12.

As you have done

As I have done before.

before.

13.

Stand and face your

Stand before your

Stand and face your

lover.

14.

15.

16.

As you have done

As I have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow me to London.

Follow her to London.

Follow me to London.

28.

29.

As I have done before.

30.

Before the break of

day.

31.

32.

33.

34.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+---+----------------------+

No.

West Grinstead.

+---+----------------------+

10.

In and out the

windows.

11.

12.

As you have done

before.

13.

Stand and face your

lover.

14.

15.

16.

As you have done

before.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

Follow me to London.

28.

29.

As you have done

before.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

+---+----------------------+

The next incident, No. 10 of the a.n.a.lysis, goes through all the games except one (West Grinstead), where the very obvious corruption of "willows" for "windows" occurs. This incident takes us to the houses of the village; and thus the two lines show us a procession, first, going round outside the boundary of the village, and, secondly, proceeding in serpentine fashion through the houses. Incident 13 has a few variations which do not point to anything more than verbal alteration, due to the changes which have occurred in the conception of the game. Incidents 17 to 22 are not constant to all the versions, and their variations are of an unimportant character. Incident 27 is an important element in the game. The prevalence of London as the place of a.s.signation is probably due to the influence of that city in the popular mind; but the real significance seems to be that the lover-husband follows his bride to her own village. In only two versions is this incident varied (No. 28) to indicate that the husband took his wife with him, and only three versions have dropped out the incident altogether.

Abnormal incidents occur in only seven versions, and they are not of great significance. The Lincolnshire and Sporle versions have a line of general introduction (No. 1) before the game proper begins. Incidents 8 and 9 occur only in the Lincolnshire version, and do not disturb the general movement beyond indicating that the game has become, or is becoming, an indoor game. Incident 21 is obviously a modern line. Nos.

26 and 31 suggest a chase after a fugitive pair which, as they do not occur in other versions, must be considered as later introductions, belonging, however, to the period when runaway marriages were more frequent than they are now, and thus taking us back to, at least, the beginning of this century; while the significant and pretty variant No.

32 shows that the game has lost touch with the actual life of the people. No. 30 in the Fraserburgh version has a suspicious likeness to a line in the American song "I'm off to Charlestown," but as it occurs only in this one version it cannot count as an important element in the history of the game.

(_e_) Miss Matthews notes a Forest of Dean version. The children form a ring, singing, "Round and round the valley, where we have been before,"

while one child walks round the outside. Then they stand with uplifted hands, joined together, and sing, "In and out of the windows, as we have done before," while the child threads her way in and out of the ring.

Then they sing, "Stand and face your lover, as we have done before;" the child then stands in the centre of the ring and faces some one, whom she afterwards touches, and who succeeds her. A version from North Derbyshire (Mr. S. O. Addy) is practically the same as the Tean, North Staffs. version, except that the third verse is "Run to meet your lover," instead of "Stand and face your lover." The first child, during the singing of the third verse, walks round outside the ring, and touches one she chooses, who then runs away. While the fourth verse is being sung she is chased and caught, and the game begins again with the second child walking round the village. So far as Lancashire is concerned, Miss Dendy says, "I have no good evidence as yet that it is a Lancashire play. I think it has been imported here by board-school mistresses from other counties."

(_f_) The burden of this game-rhyme is undoubtedly the oldest part that has been preserved to modern times. It runs through all the versions without exception, though variations in the other lines is shown by the a.n.a.lysis to occur. The words of the line, "As we have done before,"

convey the idea of a recurring event, and inasmuch as that event is undoubtedly marriage, it seems possible to suggest that we have here a survival of the periodical village festival at which marriages took place. If the incidents in the game compare closely with incidents in village custom, the necessary proof will be supplied, and we will first examine how far the words of the rhyme and the action of the game supply us with incidents; and, secondly, how far these incidents have been kept up in the village custom.

There is nothing in the words to suggest that the incidents which the game depicts belong to a fixed time, but it is an important fact that they are alluded to as having previously taken place. If, then, we have eventually to compare the game with a fixed periodical custom, we can at least say that the rhymes, though not suggesting this, do not oppose it.

This game belongs to the group of "custom games." The first characteristic which suggests this is that the children, who join hands and form a circle, are always stationary, and do not move about as in dance games. To the minds of the children who play the game, each child in the circle represents something other than human beings, and this "something" is indicated in the first and second verses, which speak of the "windows," of houses, and a journey round "a village." In this game, too, the children, who thus represent a village, also act as "chorus,"

for they describe in the words they sing the various actions of those who are performing their parts, as in the game of "Old Roger."

With this evidence from the game itself, without reference to anything outside, it is possible to turn to custom to ascertain if there is anything still extant which might explain the origin of the game.

Children copy the manners and customs of their elders. If they saw a custom periodically and often practised with some degree of ceremonial and importance, they would in their own way act in play what their elders do seriously.

Such a custom is the perambulation of boundaries, often a.s.sociated with festive dances, courtship, and marriage. More particularly indicative of the origin of the game is the Helston Furry Dance-"About the middle of the day the people collect together to dance hand-in-hand round the streets, to the sound of the fiddler playing a particular tune, which they continue to do till it is dark. This is called a 'Faddy.' In the afternoon the gentility go to some farmhouse in the neighbourhood to drink tea, syllabab, &c, and return in a morrice-dance to the town, where they form a Faddy and dance through the streets till it is dark, claiming a right of going through any person's house, in at one door and out at the other."-_Gent. Mag. Lib. Manners and Customs_, p. 217. "In one, if not more, of the villages," says Mr. Gregor (_Folk-lore N.E.

Scotland_, p. 98), "when the marriage takes place in the home of the bride the whole of the marriage party makes the circuit of the village." In South-Eastern Russia, on the eve of marriage the bride goes the round of the village, throwing herself on her knees before the head of each house. In an Indian custom the bride and bridegroom are conveyed in a particular "car" around the village.-Gomme, _Folk-lore Relics_, pp. 214, 215. According to Valle, a sixteenth century traveller, "At night the married couples pa.s.sed by, and, according to their mode, went round about the city with a numerous company."-Valle's _Travels in India_ (Hakluyt Soc.), p. 31.[6]

In these marriage customs there is ample evidence to suggest that the Indo-European marriage-rite contained just such features as are represented in this game, and the changes from rite to popular custom, from popular custom to children's game, do much to suggest consideration of the evidence that folk-lore supplies.

This game is not mentioned by Halliwell or Chambers, nor, so far as I am aware, has it been previously printed or recorded in collections of English games. It appears in America as "Go round and round the Valley"

(Newell, _Games_, p. 128).

See "Thread the Needle."

[6] Among the Ovahereri tribe, at the end of the festive time, the newly-married pair take a walk to visit all the houses of the "Werst." The husband goes first and the wife closely follows him.-_South African Folk-lore Journal_, i. 50.

Round and Round went the Gallant Ship

I. Round and round went the gallant, gallant ship, And round and round went she; Round and round went the gallant, gallant ship, Till she sank to the bottom of the sea, the sea, the sea, Till she sank to the bottom of the sea.

All go down as the ship sinks.

-Cullen (Rev. W. Gregor).

II. Three times round goes our gallant ship, And three times round went she; Three times round went our gallant ship, Then she sank to the bottom of the sea.

As the players all "bob" down they cry out "the sea, the sea, the sea."

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

Round Tag

A large ring is formed, two deep, with wide right and left hand intervals between each couple, and one child stands in the ring and another outside. When the play begins the child in the middle runs and places herself in front of one of the groups of two, thus forming a group of three. Thereupon the third child, that is, the one standing on the outer ring, has to run and try to get a place in front of another two before the one outside the ring can catch her. Then she who is at the back of this newly-formed three must be on the alert not to be caught, and must try in her turn to gain a front place. The one catching has all along to keep outside the ring, but those trying to escape her may run in and out and anywhere; whoever is caught has to take the catcher's place.-Sporle, Norfolk (Miss Matthews).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

This game, called "Short Terrace" at East Kirkby, is played in the same way as that described from Sporle, with the exception that three players stand together instead of one in the centre to start the game. The player who stands immediately outside the circle is called the "clapper;" it is his object to _hit_ the player who stands behind two others.-East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan).

"Twos and Threes" is the name by which this game is known in Hampshire, Monton in Lancashire (Miss Dendy), and other places. It is played in precisely the same manner as at Sporle.

Halliwell's _Dictionary_ says of this game as played in Devon, "A round game, in which they all stand in a ring."

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