The Traditional Children's Games of England Scotland
& Ireland In Dictionary Form - Volume 2

With Tunes(sheet music), Singing-rhymes(lyrics), Methods Of Playing with diagrams and illustrations.

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	OATS AND BEANS AND BARLEY	ii
	categories: (i) the questioning form of the words, (2) the affirming form, and (3) the indiscriminate form, as in Nos. xvi. to xviii., and of these I am disposed to consider the first to represent the earliest idea of the game. If the crops mentioned in the verses be considered, it will be found that the following table represents the different localities:—
	The first three are the more constant words, but it is curious that Norfolk, not a hop county, should have adopted that grain into the game. Hops are grown there on rare occasions, and it is probable that the game may have been introduced from a hop county. In Nort/iants Notes and Queries) i. 163-164, Mr. R. S. Baker gives a most interesting account of the game (No. iii.) as follows:—u Having been recently invited to join the Annual Christmas Entertainment of the Raunds Church Choir, I noticed that a very favourite pastime of the evening was one which I shall call ' Choosing Partners.' The game is played thus : The young men and maidens join hands indiscriminately, and form a ring; within the ring stand a lad and a lass; then they all step round the way the sun goes, to a plain tune. During the singing of the two last lines [of the first part] they all disjoin hands, stop and stamp their feet and clap their hands and turn right round . . . then join hands [while sing­ing the second verse]. The two in the middle at [' Open the ring'] choose each of them a partner of the opposite sex, which they do by pointing to the one chosen; then they con­tinue round, to the words [sang in next verse], the two pairs of partners crossing hands, first right and then left, and re-