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.

Share page

Visit Us On FB

	380           WHO GOES ROUND MY STONE WALL game is played in the usual way at the beginning. When Jacko Lingo says, " Follow me" (he had previously, when saying one by one and two by two, &c, touched three children on their back in turn), the third one touched leaves the ring, and stands behind him holding his clothes or waist. This is done until all the children forming the circle are holding on behind him. The child in the centre then asks the next question. When she says, u Here's my black sheep," she tries to dodge behind Jacky Lingo, and catch the child behind him. When she has done this she begins again at " Have you seen anything of my black sheep," until she has caught all the children behind Jacky Lingo. In two versions, Deptford and Bocking, there is no mention of a player being in the centre, but this is an obvious necessity unless the second player stands also outside the circle. In the Raunds version the ring moves slowly round. In the Hants version (Miss Mendham) the children sit in a line. The thief takes one at a time and hides them, and the shepherd pulls them out of their hiding-places. In the Shrop­shire game, the chickens crouch down behind their mother, holding her gown, and the fox walks round them. (c) This game appears to represent a village (by the players standing still in circle form), and from the dialogue the chil­dren not only represent the village, but sheep or chickens belonging to it. The other two players are—one a watchman or shepherd, and the other a wolf, fox, or other depredatory animal. The sheep may possibly be supposed to be in the pound or fold; the thief comes over the boundaries from a neighbouring village or forest to steal the sheep at night; the watchman or shepherd, although at first apparently deceived by the wolf, discovers the loss, and a fight ensues, in which the thief gets the worse, and some of the animals, if not all, are supposed to be recovered. The names used in the game,—pen pound, pinfold, fold, stone wall, sunny wall, sandy path, gravel path, sheep fold, garden, house, are all indications that a village and its surroundings is intended to be represented, and this game differs in that respect from the ordinary Fox and Geese and Hen and Chickens games, in which no mention is made of these.