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HOP-SCOTCH |
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Mrs. Lincoln sends a diagram of the game from Dublin (fig. 6). Addy (Sheffield Glossary) under the name of " Hop-score " says it is a game in which certain squares are drawn or scored on the ground. The piece of stone which is pushed with the foot is called the " scotch." Elworthy ( West Somerset Words) says a piece of tile is kicked over lines and into squares marked on the ground. It is called "Hickety-Hackety," also "Huckety." Cope (Hampshire Glossary) says it is played in Hants. Moor (Suffolk Words and Phrases) describes this game under the name of " Scotch-hob/' by hopping and kicking a bit of tile from bed to bed of a diagram which he gives (fig. 5, here printed). Brockett (North Country Words) calls it " Beds." Barnes (Dorset Glossary) only says " hopping over a parallelogram of scotches or chalk-lines on the ground." F. H. Low, in Strand Magazine, ii. 516, says the divisions are respectively named onesie, twosie, threesie, foursie, and puddings. It is called " Hop-bed " at Stixwold in Lincolnshire (Miss Peacock), " Hop-score " in Yorkshire (Halliwell, I.e.), and " Hitchibed " in Cleveland, Yorks. (Glossary of Cleveland Words). Strutt describes it (Sports, p. 383); and Wood's Modern Playmate, p. 32, gives a diagram similar to one seen on a London pavement by A. B. Gomme (see fig. 7). Mr. Emslie has sent me figs. 9 and 10, also from London streets. Newell (Games, p. 188) speaks of it as a well-known game in America.
Mr. Elworthy (West Somerset Words) says, " Several of these (diagrams marked on the ground) are still to be seen, scratched on the ancient pavement of the Roman Forum." Mr. J. W. Crombie says, " The game of ' Hop-scotch' was one of considerable antiquity, having been known in England for more than two centuries, and it was played all over Europe under different names. Signor Pitre's solar explanation of its origin appeared improbable to him, for not only was the evidence in its favour extremely weak, but it would require the original number of divisions in the figure to have been twelve instead of seven, which was the number indicated by a considerable body of evidence. It would seem more probable that the game at one time represented the progress of the soul from earth to heaven through various intermediate states, the name given to |
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