CHILDREN'S GAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19762, 8 October 1927, Page 4 (Supplement)

CHILDREN'S GAMES.

Like nursery rhymes, the games of childhood are handed down from generation to generation, only changing slightly as they are explained by one child to another. Through all the changes of time the games and amusements of children have remained curiously unaltered, for child nature is the same all the world over and in all centuries The little boys and girls of New Zealand to-day play much as they did when Norman William landed in England; in fact, we know that the Conqueror himself as a little boy delighted in playing at soldiers with his " toy bow and arrow, his tiny wooden sword, and his trumpet of cow's horn." " Blind Man's Buff " has been played for centuries in every country, and in an old fourteenth century manuscript we see a print of children playing it, the " blind man " being blinded by a hood drawn over his eyes " Turn the Trencher " was played in mediaeval days after dinner in the big hall with large wooden trenchers or plates; and "Gener al Post " recalls the time when letters were carried from town to town with fresh relays at every stage. The game of " Old Family Coach " dates from the days when travellers in rickety coaches lumbered slowly over illkept roads in constant terror of accidents —a wheel might come off, the coachdoor or window might be broken, rain or mud might hinder the journey, or a highwayman with pistols might stop the horses and hold up the driver Hide and Seek " was played by the youthful children of Israel in Old days, and has remained the most popular of all games right through the centuries We know it was played by Queen Elizabeth in her romping days, and the children of Charles I . when in captivity, contrived to escape from their gaolers by that historic game of " Hide and Seek " in the errounds of St. James' Palace, " Puss in the Corner " and " Hunt the Slipper " are both mentioned by fifteenth century writers, and the game of " Forfeits," with its quaint catch " Bite an inch off the end of the poker " and its time-honoured " Kneel to the prettiest, bow to the wittiest, and kiss the maid you love best," was old in Tudor days. Football was popular in the early days of the Roman Empire, but it languished during the years of effeminate Juxury that followed. It was soon revived, however, in Northern Europe, and in the thirteenth century a law was passed prohibiting so much " foote-balle," as it diverted attention from war-like exercises. In those days, by the way, it was played as much by girls as by boys. Cricket, the national game of England, is still the most popular sport among us, as it is certainly oldest. It was origin- » ally evolved from that most ancient, of all games, stool bally and was known in England before the conquest. In the DomesdAy Book it is mentioned under the name of " Bittlo Battle," and a law was passed forbid-, din£ children to play it near the churches during morning service At that time the game was no doubt very primitive, but very shortly afterward the system of runs and fielding was introduced, and the stool was replaced by an oblong piece of wood ■ called a cricket. A century later the game "cricketts " was the favourite amusement of the lower classes, while the more aristocratic game of tennis was played by the rich nobility " Tennis " or " Pasirae," as the Normans called it, was introduced into England by the Plantagenet kings, it was very popular with youthful princes and nobles all through mediaeval days, and in an old church near Lichfield, in England, is an effigy, dated 1360, of a child, with one hand pressed to his head and the other holding a tennis ball, in memory of the little heir of Sir John Stanley, who was killed by a blow on the temple with a tennis ball.