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76 COCKLY-JOCK—CODLINGS
unbecoming, is desired to inform the court, in which an action for breach of promise was tried, the meaning of " mounting cockeldy-bread; " and she explains it as " a play among children," in which one lies down on the floor on her back, rolling backwards and forwards, and repeating the following lines:— Cockeldy bread, mistley cake, When you do that for our sake. While one of the party so laid down, the rest sat around; and they laid down and rolled in this manner by turns.
These lines are still retained in the modern nursery-rhyme books, but their connection with the game of " Cockeldy-bread " is by no means generally understood. There was formerly some kind of bread called " cockle-bread," and cocille-mele is mentioned in a very early MS. quoted in Halliwell's Dictionary. In Peele's play of the Old Wives Tale, a voice thus speaks from the bottom of a well:— Gently dip, but not too deep, For fear you make the golden beard to weep. Fair maiden, white and red, Stroke me smooth and comb my head, And thou shalt have some cockell-bread.
Cockly-jock
A game among boys. Stones are loosely placed one upon another, at which other stones are thrown to knock the pile down.—Dickinson's Cumberland Glossary.
See " Castles."
Cock's-headling
A game where boys mount over each other's heads.—Harwell's Dictionary.
See "Cockertie-hooie."
Cock-steddling
A boyish game mentioned but not described by Cope in his Hampshire Glossary. He gives as authority Portsmouth Telegraph, 27th September 1873.
Codlings
A game among youngsters similar to " Cricket," a short piece |
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