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 |
|
HOT COCKLES |
||
|
hardness of the slaps, which were generally given on the throne of honour. He quotes from a MS. play as follows—
It is edicted that every Grobian shall play at Bamberye hott
cockles at the four festivals. Indeed a verye usefull sport, but lately much neglected to
the mollefieinge of the flesh. —Halliwell's Dictionary.
N ares' Glossaiy also contains quotations from works of 1639, 1653, and l&97 which illustrate the game. Mr. Addy says u that this game as played in Sheffield is quite different from that described under the same title in Halliwell's Dictionary. Aubrey (p. 30) speaks of ' Hot Cockles' as a game played at funerals in Yorkshire, and the lines here given show that this was the game. The lines—
Where is this poor man to go ? Over yond cuckoo's hill I O,
embodies the popular belief that the soul winged its way like a bird, and they remind one of the passing of the soul over Whinny Moor (see funeral dirge in Aubrey's Remains of Gen- |
||
 |
||
|
tilisme, p. 31). Grimm mentions the cuckoo hill (Gauchsberg). He says, ' Originally in Gauchsberg the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense which has fallen dark to us now' (Teut. Myth., ii. 681). We know, too, the old belief that the cuckoo tells children how many years they have to live. These lines are also sometimes said, in addition to those given above— |
||