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.

Share page

Visit Us On FB

	l82	GREEN GRAVEL
	of turning backwards during the singing of the dirge is also represented in the curious funeral ceremony called "Dish-a­loof," which is described in Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, p. 53. Henderson's words are: "All the attendants, going out of the room, return into it backwards, repeating this rhyme of l saining.'" The additional ceremony of marriage in four of the games is clearly an interpolation, which may have arisen from the custom of playing love and marriage games at funerals and during the watching with the corpse, or may be a mere transition to the more pleasant task of love-making as the basis of a game. The Derbyshire incident (No. 24) may indicate indeed that the funeral is that of a young bride, and in that case the tendency to make the game wholly a marriage game is accounted for. The decay which has set in is appa­rent by the evident attempt to alter from u green gravel" to "green grover" and "yellow gravel" (Nos. .4 and 5), and to introduce pen and black ink (No. 17). The addition of the incongruous elements from other games (Nos. 27-31) is a fre­quent occurrence in modern games, and is the natural result of decadence in the original form of the game. Altogether this game-rhyme affords a very good example of the condition of traditional games among the present generation of children. (e) Other versions, actually or practically identical with the Redhill (Surrey) version, have been sent by Miss Blair (South Shields); Mr. H. S. May, Ogbourne and Manton (Wilts); Mrs. Haddon (Cambridge); Mrs. Harley (Lancashire); and Miss Burne, Piatt, near Wrotham (Kent). There are also similar printed versions in Folk-lore Journal, vi. 214 (Dorset­shire); Folk-lore Record, v. 84 (Hersham, Surrey). Northall prints a version in his Folk Rhymes, 362-3, identical with No. 17. The tune of the Piatt version sent by Miss Burne, and the Ogbourne and Manton (H. S. May), are almost identical, except the termination. This seems to be the most general tune for the game. The Lancashire tune is the same as the London version. Miss Burne says of the Madeley version: " I never knew 1 Green Gravel' and ' Wallflowers' played together as in this way elsewhere (I had not got this variant when I wrote Shrop-