John Bullock mentions several games in his 1937 letter reminiscing about his school days in the 1870s and early 1880s: egg cap, leap frog, fly the garter, fox and hounds, marbles (span hole and ring), saddle-my-nag and peg top.
The egg cap game
How the Game Works
- Set Up: Players place their caps in a row on the ground.
- The Throw: One player (often chosen by a rhyme or draw) takes an egg and tries to throw it directly into one of the caps.
- The Chase: If the egg lands in a player’s cap, that player must scramble to grab the egg, while all the other players quickly run away to avoid being hit.
- The Target: The owner of the cap holding the egg must chase the fleeing players and try to strike (or “tag”) one of them with the egg
Painting auctioned by Christies in 2003
Leap frog
The Boys Book of Sports and Games by “Uncle John”, published before 1889, describes the game of leapfrog as follows
This game will be best understood by supposing that eight boys are playing at it: seven of them stand in a row, about eighteen feet apart, with their sides to the leapers, hands on their knees, body doubled, and head bent down. The eighth player then takes a short run, and, placing his hands on the back of the first player, leaps over him, then over the second, and, in like manner, over all the other players, one after the other; he then places himself down in the line, in the proper position, and at the right distance from the last player; the first over whom he jumped, rises immediately he has passed, and follows him over the second, third, &c., who all rise in succession, and leap in their turn; and after they have successively jumped over the last players, they place themselves down in the line, as before described; and the game continues. Some players stand with their backs to the leapers, instead of their sides; the mode is optional, although in some places it is usual to compel those who can jump over the head, to do so.
Fly the garter
From Indoor and Outdoor Gymnastic Games (1913) by Albert Meader Chesley
The person to be jumped over moves by degrees farther and farther from the point where the jump begins. A line is drawn (sometimes called the "Garter") to mark where the jump begins, and whoever steps on it must take the place of the player leaped over. After the players in turn have leaped, the last cries "Foot and a Half!" and the player who is making the back thereupon places his right heel in the hollow of his left foot, advances the latter so that its hollow covers his right toe and then brings up his right foot to its original position. The players then leap again, always beginning at the "Garter," after which the back advances again in like manner, and the game goes on until some one treads on the "Garter" or fails in leaping. The unsuccessful one then makes a back and another game begins.
Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW), Wednesday 4 December 1912, page 2
Fly the Garter.
A lad belonging to The King's School, John Black (son of Mr. J Black, of "The Argus" staff), had the bad fortune last week to fracture one of the bones in his right fore-arm whilst playing "fly." "Fly," It may be explained for the benefit of the ladies and the rest of the uninitiated, is a short name for "Fly the garter," a game in which fellows jump, from a regulated distance, over the backs of others, whilst the latter are bending in a stooping position. It is to leap-frog what chess perhaps is to dominoes. Young Black was progressing as well as possible when interviewed as to his "honorable scars."
60 Indoor Games For Scouts (1932) gives the following instructions:
Draw a chalk line. One boy makes a back. All go over. Last boy over registers his landing place, and the boy who goes down moves on to that mark. All take off now from chalk line and go clean over. Last boy registers his mark, the boy who is down moves out to it, and the next time round the order is – one step and over.
Fox and hounds
The Scouts in the UK have the following game:
Select 1 hound and the rest are foxes. Their scarves are tucked into the pack of their shorts/trousers and is their 'tail'. It is the hound's job is to chase the foxes and remove their tails, at which point they become hounds. This is until there is one fox left who wins, and becomes the hound in the next round of the game
Marbles (span hole and ring)
A classic marbles game is described at The Vintage Toy Box blog: Marbles (4 Jan 2025).
... you need to knock your smaller marbles (ducks) out of the ring with your larger shooter marble by flicking it with your thumb (the knuckledown slingshot) without fudging or fouling the shot. If you manage to knock any marbles out of the ring, keep the marbles and add them to your pile. The winner at the end of the game is the one that has the most marbles.
Span hole might be what we called ‘follows’. There’s no ring. You follow–pursue–your opponent’s marble across any bit–span?–of ground. Hit him three times and the marble is yours.
Saddle-my-nag
Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium ny Jessie H. Bancroft (1922), pages 171-2, describes the game as follows
This is a game of leapfrog. The players are divided into equal parties, with a chief for each. One of the chiefs stands with his back to a wall or fence, and all of his party bend their backs as for leapfrog, the first with his head against the chief, and the others, one behind the other, in a line stretching out in front of him. Each player in the line braces his shoulder against the stooping player next in front, or each may grasp the forward player around the waist. The heads should all be turned to the same side. One of the opposite side then leaps on the back of the player farthest from the wall, and tries to make his way over the backs of the entire line to the chief to "crown" him; that is, to place his hand on his head. The players who are making "backs" try in every way, without rising to a standing position, to throw this player off and so prevent his crowning their chief. Each player of the "out" side tries in turn to crown the chief. Should they be unsuccessful the sides change. If one or more players succeed in crowning the chief, each successful player has a second chance before the sides change. The side that succeeds in oftenest crowning its opponent's chief wins the game. The limit of the game is usually placed at six trials for each side.
Peg top
The game is described by Stephanie Ann Farra in her blog World Turn’d Upside Down: Colonial games: How to play Peg-Farthing (February 2011).
Peg-farthing, peg-top, or "ring" is played on a flat surface on which a circle is drawn about a yard in diameter. Another circle is drawn around this one for the players to stand on. A farthing (coin) or other flat marker is placed in the center of the circle. A string is wound around a wooden top and pulled quickly to propel the top to spin on its own. Players start their top at the coin and try to get their top out of the circle by spinning it. If a top spins out of the circle, the owner can pick it up.
While the first person's top is within the circle (spinning or stopped,) the other players take turns to throw the pegs of their own tops at the top in the circle in an attempt to hit the top out of the circle or to "split" the top--separate the top and its peg. The player who successfully does this gets to keep the peg of the other player's top. The point of the game is to get as many pegs as you can.
After one round of throwing, if no one successfully "splits" the top, another player releases his top into the circle to be pegged at also. If all of the tops are "dead" in the circle, the first person removes his top and starts the game again.
It was written that the tops infequently "split" but it never stopped boys from trying. Most boys tried to hit their own top out of the circle to prevent it from being broken by another player.
Wikitree:
Letter writer: Richard “John” James Bullock (1869-1946)
