The Traditional Children's Games of England Scotland
& Ireland In Dictionary Form - Volume 1

With Tunes(sheet music), Singing-rhymes(lyrics), Methods Of Playing with diagrams and illustrations.

Home Main Menu Singing & Playing Order & Order Info Support Search Voucher Codes



Share page  Visit Us On FB

Previous Contents Next
28                        BEND-LEATHER—BILLET
Bend-leather
A boys' phrase for a slide on a pond when the ice is thin and bends. There is a game on the ice called playing at "Bend-leather." Whilst the boys are sliding they say " Bend-leather, bend-leather, puff, puff, puff."—Addy's Sheffield Glossary.
Hi, Betsy Bungay, all day on Sunday; You're the lock and I'm the key, All day on Monday.                 _Kent (J p Emslie)
Two children cross their hands in the fashion known as a "sedan chair." A third child sits on their hands. The two sing the first line. One of them sings, "You're the lock," the other sings, " and I'm the key," and as they sang the words they unclasped their hands and dropped their companion on the ground. Mr. J. P. Emslie writes, "My mother learned this from her mother, who was a native of St. Laurence, in the Isle of Thanet. The game possibly belongs to Kent."
Bicky
In Somersetshire the game of " Hide and Seek." To bik'ee is for the seekers to go and lean their heads against a wall, so as not to see where the others go to hide.—Elworthy's Dialect.
See " Hide and Seek."
Biddy-base
A Lincolnshire name for "Prisoner's Base."—Halliwell's Dictionary; Peacock's Manley and Corringham Glossary; Cole's 5. W. Lincolnshire Glossary.
Biggly
Name for "Blind Man's Buff."—Dickinson's Cumberland Glossary.
Billet The Derbyshire name for "Tip-cat."—Halliwell's Dictionary.