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.

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DUCKS AND DRAKES
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A duck and a drake And a penny white cake,
And a skew ball. —Peacock's Mauley and Corringham Glossary.
Moor (Suffolk Words and Phrases) gives the names for the number of times the stone emerges, as (1) "a duck;" (2) "a duck an' a drake; " if thrice, " a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake; " four times is " a duck an' a drake an' a fi'epenny cake, an' a penny to pah the baker." If more than four, "a duck," "a duck an' a drake," &c, are added. These distinctions are iterated quickly to correspond in time as nearly as may be with the dips of the stone. A flattish stone is evidently the best for this sport.
(b) This game is also given by Mr. Addy in his Sheffield Glossary, and by Holland (Cheshire Glossary), Brogden (Pro­vincial Words, Lincolnshire), Lowsley (Berkshire Glossary), Narcs' Glossaryf and Baker's Northants Glossary. Miss Cour-tenay gives "Scutter" and "Tic Tac Mollard" as Cornish names for the game (West Cornwall Glossary). See also Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes, p. 139, and Strutt's Sports and Past lines, p. 326.
Butler, in his Hudibras (p. ii. canto iii. L 302), makes it one of the important qualifications of his conjurer to tell— What figur'd slates are best to make On wat'ry surface dUi k or drake.
The following description of this sport is given by Minucius Felix, ed. 1712, p. 28, which evinces its high antiquity : " Pueros videmus certatim gestientes, testarum in mare jaculationibus ludere. Is lusus est, testam teretem, jactatione fluctuum laevi-gatam, legere de litore: earn testam piano situ digitis compre-hensam, inclinem ipsum atque humilem, quantum potest, super undas irrorare: ut illud jaculum vel dorsum maris raderet, vel enataret, dum leni impetu labitur; vel summis fluctibus tonsis emicaret, emergeret, dum assiduo saltu sublevatur. Is se in pueris victorem ferebat, cujus testa et procurreret longius, et frequentius exsiliret."
" From this pastime," says Moor, " has probably arisen the application of the term to a spendthrift—of whose approaching
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