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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	JOLLY MILLER                                291 VII. There was a jolly miller, and he lived by himself (or by the Dee), The sails went round, he made his ground; One hand in his pocket, the other in his bag. —North Staffs. Potteries (Miss A. A. Keary). (b) This game requires an uneven number of players. All the children except one stand in couples arm in arm, each couple closely following the other. This forms a double ring or wheel (fig. 1). The odd child stands in the centre. The children forming the wheel walk round in a circle and sing the verse. When they come to the word " grab," those children standing on the inside of the wheel leave hold of their partners' arms, and try to catch hold of the one standing immediately in front of their previous partners. The child in the centre (or Miller)
	tries (while they are changing places) to secure a partner and place (fig. 2). If he succeeds in doing this, the one then left out becomes the Miller. At Leicester the " odd " child, or " miller," stands outside the wheel or ring, instead of being in the centre, and it is the outside children who change places. Mr. Addy, in the Sheffield version, says, " The young men stand in the outer ring, and the young women in the inner. A man stands within the inner circle, quite near to it. The men try and grasp the arm of the girl in front of them, and the man in the centre also tries to grasp one; the man he displaces taking his place as Miller. Then the three last lines are sung," (c) Versions of this game, almost identical with the Leicester version given here (with the exception that the word "wealth '; ends the second line instead of "pelf"), have been sent me from East Kirkby, Lincolnshire (Miss K. Maughan); Epworth,