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SCOTS AND ENGLISH |
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men put their hands into peoples' pockets open, and extract it clutch'd, of that beware. But counsel without a cure, is a body without a soul." And again, in 1740—"The fifth house tells ye whether whores be sound or not; when it is good to eat tripes, bloat herrings, fry'd frogs, rotten eggs, and monkey's tails butter'd, or an ox liver well stuck with fish hooks; when it is the most convenient time for an old man to play at Scotch-hoppers amongst the boys. In it also is found plainly, that the best armour of proof against the fleas, is to go drunk to bed."
See " Hopscotch," "Tray-Trip."
Scots and English
Boys first choose sides. The two chosen leaders join both hands, and raising them high enough to let the others pass through below, cry—
Brother Jack, if ye'll be mine, I'll gie ye claret wine; Claret wine is good and fine,
Through the needle ee, boys. Letting their arms fall they enclose a boy and ask him to which side he will belong, and he is disposed of according to his own decision. The parties being at length formed, are separated by a real or imaginary line, and place at some distance behind them, in a heap, their hats, coats, &c. They stand opposite to each other, the object being to make a successful incursion over the line into the enemy's country, and bring off part of the heap of clothes. It requires both address and swiftness of foot to do so without being taken by the foe. The winning of the game is decided by which party first loses all its men or its property. At Hawick, where the legendary mimicry of old Border warfare peculiarly flourishes, the boys are accustomed to use the following rhymes of defiance :— King Covenanter, come out if ye daur venture! Set your foot on Scots' ground, English, if ye daur!
—Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 127.
The following version was written down in 1821 under the name of Scotch and English :—Two parties of bo3's, divided |
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