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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	186                                          GULLY
	more like a country dance than anything else, being a sort of dancing " Follow My Leader." Gully A sink, or, failing that, a particular stone in the pavement was the " Gully." Some boy chosen by lot, or one who volun­teered in order to start the game, laid his top on the ground at some distance from the " Gully." The first' player then spun his top, pegging at the recumbent top, so as to draw it towards the " Gully." If he missed the top, he stooped down and took up his own top by pushing his hand against it in such a manner that the space between his first and second finger caught against the peg and forced the top into the palm of his hand. He then had " a go " at the recumbent top (I forget what this was called), and sent his own top against it so as to push it towards the "Gully." If he missed, he tried again and again, until his own top could spin no longer. If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other's place. This was called " kiss­ing," and was not allowed by some players. When one player succeeded in sending the top into the " Gully," he took it up and fixed it by its peg into a post, mortar of a wall, or the best place where it could be tolerably steady. Holding it by one hand, he drove the peg of his own top as far as he could into the crown of the victim top. This was called " taking a grudge." He then held either his own or the victim top and knocked the other against the wall, the object being to split the victim. He was allowed three "grudges." If the top did not give way, the other players tried in turn. If the top did not split, it was returned to its owner, but any boy who succeeded in splitting it through the middle, so that the peg fell out, took possession of the peg. I have seen a top split at the side in such a way as to be quite useless as a top, though no peg was gained. I