CHILDREN'S CORNER.

Evening Star, Issue 11660, 19 August 1902, Page 1

CHILDREN'S CORNER.

, GAMES WITH A PURPOSE.. HOSPITAL FOR INCURABLE ~ CHILDREN. Passers-by who peeped over the gaiden i wall of the Hospital and Home for IncurL able Children, Maida Vale, one Saturday [ afternoon recently, says the 'Daily News*' , saw a gathering which they probably t thought pretty, but the many interesting • t feaures of which they were not in a posi- , tion to-understand. Between 100 and 200 v ladies and gentlemen were seated-on the- > lawn watching.sixty girls in caps of white; ; and print frocks of red, bine,- and lilac plav , children's games. The youngsters were play- , . ing in earnest, their übject being to help : the hospital, which had a deficiency of £3OO . last year, and with £5,000 in hand must - find- £15,000 more for a new building. > Brought from Bermondsey by MraKimmins, * the girls are members of the Guild of Play cranected with the Bermondsey Settlement. _ All belong to elementary schools and to' consequently if they did not f go through their games with the- vigor one - i sees m children's parties at home, the reas son* probably, was that they felt a little' r timid under the eyes of so many we'l- . dressed folk. Most of them seemed ten or i twelve years old, but a couple were not I more than six. These toddlers compensated l for their want of age and'size by the sturi cmess with which they filled their parts. I The spectacle, for which the music was ' t played by Ladies' Orchestra, j was charming, as everybodv, but especiallv , the' little cripples whom tie institution . shelters, apparently thought It was "in*"- : *!T!f tang ' too ' from tne point of view of tho " s student of andent customs, and the more, tso that these old-fashioned games'art less familiar to the children of to-day than they were to their parents. 'Looby Loo,' r wnafc the-performance began, and in which i. the players simultaneonslv go through a ) variety of actions in harmpny with" the ■ jords they sing, is supposed to have come ! down from antic dancing in honor of some :, deity. Our old friend, 'London Bridge is s Bioken Down,* is generally admitted to be 1 ."?*. a ? c * nt Tbe first line appears i a i Hennsknngla,' where a battle of London Bridge is described. How manv little Lon- ? °/ P rescnt <ky aave plaved " Uld Rodger : " • Old Roger is dead and laid in his grave, Oh, ah, laid in his grave, j There-grew a good apple tree over his head, J On, ah, over his head. I were ripe and ready to drop, > On, ah, ready >■ to drop, . There came an old woman a-picking them up, ; Oh, ah, picking them up.. ( Old Roger jumped up and : hit her a knock, » Oh, ah, hit her a knock; . • Poor old woman went flipperty flop, Oh, ah, flipperty flop. One of the girls personated old Roger, a se*ond tie tree, and a third the old woman, - while the rest by their singing described the - action. Thus we had a repetition of the j way in which primitive plays were some-. I times staged. Then we were treated to a t view of. the three discourteous dukes, who j came a-riding " with my rancy, rancy, tiddy. |- trl tay," and who, having announced that | " our will it is«to marry," were ?nvited to '• marry one of us, sirs," whereupon they repbed: "You are all too black and too blousy." 1 Very naturally the indignant maidens *rei P. ~: "^ Te are good enough for you, sirs," and the dukes make amends byehoos- ' ing three. Itis said thafe-ihis is the eJdestf game that daaren'know,'"datmg from a ; time when young men of one village went j together to another place to seek' wives in * a business-like way. ' Oats and Beans and ' Barley' is believed to have originated at a . time when wheat was not generally grown,. . for none of the old variants of the rhyme j allude to that grain. The ; next game is: t less known to youngsters than most of the others. The words are supposed to have ' come from a ballad.— , Isabella';;" Isabella, Isabella, farewell. ( Last night''when we parted, ( I left you broken-hearted, | And in the green meadow' 5 You were standing .alone. ' Choose a sweetheart. Farewell. > Take a walk, love. FarewelL In the ring, love—farewell— Put the "ring on. FarewelL Go to church,. love, i axewell. « Kneel down, love. Farewell. [ Take a kiss, love. FarewelL Some people trace in these lines a «ug- • gestion from the extremely simple marriage , ceremonies that used to prevail in parts T f . Scotland, and are valid yet beyond the . Tweed. The old games for children gene- . rally lead to kissing, but, except in the onj just mentioned, that ceremony was om.tted. p As the Bermondsey Guild bring 300 youiu- , sters together at their annual festival, this ! departure from traditional, practice is pr- . haps wise on sanitary grounds. Isabe! T a ; and her fortunes having been dism'ssed, , ' When I was a Young Girl' was played. As t . old. people know, if young ones do" not, ir , is an expression of the tendencv of children , to imitate their elders, as appears from [ such lines as "When I had a husband," . " When I had a baby," " When I did the ( washing." Then came 'Round and Round > the Village,' as to which the learned have . no doubt that it is an imitation of the dance-like procession that formed part of certain sacred festivals in the earnest time* ' Poor Mary sits a-Weeping' is familiar, and t so is 'Draw a Pail of Water,' though the t words of the later song were fuller than the version familiar to most children. ■ Jt" W * Pa - n °'™**xS<x a lady's daughter- , Her fathers a king, her mother's a que-" , Her two hfctle sisters are dressed in <r»- ; Stamping grass- and parsley, marigold and daisies; . Sift my lady's oatmeal; sift it into fh ■ Put it-in a chestnut tree, let it lie an ! Give a silver pin and a gold ring. t One on a bush, two on a bush- . Please, young lady, come under my bush. L My bush is too high, my bush is. too low, [ Please, young lady, come under my bough. , Who but a student would imagine that . in this delightful, inconsequential rhyme [ there was a suggestion of ancient well wor- , ship? Yet wise m<m tell us that such is l the case. It is written in Gomme's 'Ethno- , logy and Folk Lore' that dressing the well L with flowers, endowing it with a cake and L with gifts of gold and silver, were all .ac- ( companiments of the adoration of wel's, and that, moreover, a sacred bush often [ stood near. 'Under the Greenwood' Tre e' . been played, the performance ended y with My lady Greensleeves,' the words of f which were written before 1580. They are s pretty enough to be quoted fully:— ' Alas! my love, you do me wrong To cast me off discourteously; And I have loved you so long, Delighting in your company. I bought thee petticoats of the best, The cloth so fine as might be; | I gave thee jewels for thy chest,' • And all this cost I spent on thee. Thy smock of silk, both fair and white -With gold embroidered gorgeously ' Thy petticoat of sendal right; And these I bought thee gladly. : Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu! ? God I pray to prosper thee For I am still thy lover true, • Come onee again and love me. ; To each verse there is the following re- • frain:— For oh! Greensleeves was all my joy, . \ ■■A™ oh ! Greensleeves was my delight, And, oh! Greensleeves was my heart of gold, j And whobot my Lady Greensleeves?