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3°4 |
TOUCH—TOWN LOVERS |
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P, to put into the pool the same amount as the stakes were at first.
When this was done the next player spun the totum in his turn. When one player got T a fresh pool had to be collected. —London (A. B. Gomme).
Jamieson's Dictionary says children lay up stores of pins to play at this game at Christmas time.
William Dunbar, the Scottish poet (James IV.), seems to refer to this game in the poem, Schir, %it remembir as of befoir, in the words—
" He playis with totum, and I with nicliell" (1. 74).
Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, page 385) says the four sides were marked with letters, and describes the game as we now play it in London.
All tee-totums or whirligigs seem to have some reference to tops, except that the tee-totum is used principally for gambling.
Some have numbers on their sides like dice instead of letters, and some are of octagonal shape.
See "Lang Larence," " Scop-peril," "Tops."
Touch
One player is chosen " he." He then runs amidst the other players and tries to touch one, who then becomes " Tig " or "Touch " in turn.
See " Ticky Touchwood, " Tig."
Tower of London
The Tower is formed by a circle of children, two of whom constitute the gate. These two join hands, and raise or lower their arm to open or shut the gate. The Tower is summoned to open its gates to admit " King George and all his merry men," how represented I can't remember; but I know that at one point there is a chase, and the prisoner is caught and brought before the king, when there ensues a scrap of dialogue in song (Mrs. Harley).
See " How many miles to Babylon," " King of the Barbaric"
Town Lovers
There is a girl of our town,
She often wears a flowered gown; |
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