The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Volume I Part 13

Beds

Jamieson gives this as the Scottish name for "Hopscotch;" also Brockett, _North Country Words_.

Bell-horses

I. Bell-horses, bell-horses, what time of day?

One o'clock, two o'clock, three, and away!

Bell-horses, bell-horses, what time of day?

Two o'clock, three o'clock, four, and away!

Five o'clock, six o'clock, now time to stay!

-Stanton Lacey (Burne's _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 520).

II. Bellasay, bellasay, what time of day?

One o'clock, two o'clock, three, and away.

-Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_, p. 283.

(_b_) The children form long trains, standing one behind the other. They march and sing the first four lines, then the fifth line, when they stand and begin again as before.

(_c_) Miss Burne suggests a connection with the old pack-horses. Mr.

Addy (_Sheffield Glossary_) gives the first two lines as a game. He says, "The first horse in a team conveying lead to be smelted wore bells, and was called the bell-horse." I remember when a child the two first lines being used to start children a race (A. B. G.). Chambers (_Pop. Rhymes_, p. 148) gives a similar verse, used for starting a race:-

Race horses, race horses, what time of day?

One o'clock, two o'clock, three, and away;

and these lines are also used for the same purpose in Ches.h.i.+re (Holland's _Glossary_) and Somersets.h.i.+re (Elworthy's _Glossary_).

Halliwell, on the strength of the corrupted word "Bellasay," connects the game with a proverbial saying applied to the family of Bellasis; but there is no evidence of such a connection except the word-corruption.

The rhyme occurs in _Gammer Gurton's Garland_, 1783, the last words of the second line being "time to away."

Bellie-mantie

The name for "Blind Man's Buff" in Upper Clydesdale. As anciently in this game he who was the chief actor was not only hoodwinked, but enveloped in the skin of an animal.-Jamieson.

See "Blind Man's Buff."

Belly-blind

The name for "Blind Man's Buff" in Roxburgh, Clydesdale, and other counties of the border. It is probable that the term is the same with "Billy Blynde," said to be the name of a familiar spirit or good genius somewhat similar to the brownie.-Jamieson.

See "Blind Man's Buff."

Bend-leather

A boys' phrase for a slide on a pond when the ice is thin and bends.

There is a game on the ice called playing at "Bend-leather." Whilst the boys are sliding they say "Bend-leather, bend-leather, puff, puff, puff."-Addy's _Sheffield Glossary_.

Betsy Bungay

[Music]

Hi, Betsy Bungay, all day on Sunday; You're the lock and I'm the key, All day on Monday.

-Kent (J. P. Emslie).

Two children cross their hands in the fas.h.i.+on known as a "sedan chair."

A third child sits on their hands. The two sing the first line. One of them sings, "You're the lock," the other sings, "and I'm the key," and as they sang the words they unclasped their hands and dropped their companion on the ground. Mr. J. P. Emslie writes, "My mother learned this from her mother, who was a native of St. Laurence, in the Isle of Thanet. The game possibly belongs to Kent."

Bicky

In Somersets.h.i.+re the game of "Hide and Seek." To _bik'ee_ is for the seekers to go and lean their heads against a wall, so as not to see where the others go to hide.-Elworthy's _Dialect_.

See "Hide and Seek."

Biddy-base

A Lincolns.h.i.+re name for "Prisoner's Base."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_; Peac.o.c.k's _Manley and Corringham Glossary_; Cole's _S. W. Lincolns.h.i.+re Glossary_.

Biggly

Name for "Blind Man's Buff."-d.i.c.kinson's _c.u.mberland Glossary_.

Billet

The Derbys.h.i.+re name for "Tip-cat."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Billy-base

A name for "Prisoner's Base."-Halliwell's _Dictionary_.

Bingo

[Music]

-Leicesters.h.i.+re.