A pre-World War I treasury of children's games

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A pre-World War I treasury of children's games

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1Parpar1836
Mar 13, 2012, 4:58 pm

I'm looking for a hefty book with a red Art Nouveau cover (especially the decorative detail on the spine) that's a treasury of children's games. It lists and describes all sorts of games and their rules. One that I recall included the following rhyme of defiance to be recited by the "troublemaker" (since the player has been instructed by her "mother" not to stray or touch the mustard pot):

"She shall ramble, she shall trot.
She shall carry the mustard pot."

The treasury is a charming, quaint reminder of the times when children, their lives uncomplicated by television and texting, devised their own games, using the simplest, cheapest equipment. (My mother and her cousin played "Skelly," a hopscotch-like game, using bottlecaps. There was no money for fancy toys, but bottlecaps were plentiful, and the children made use of them.)

I would imagine that this treasury was published around or slightly after the turn of the century, before the 1920s. I used to own a copy. (But, as I tell anyone who wants to know why I no longer have it, I lost most of my cherished books in the aftermath of a fire in 1986, and have been striving to reconstruct my library, one book at a time.)

2Parpar1836
Mar 14, 2012, 2:44 pm

Greetings, all. The book is Jessie Hubbell Bancroft's "Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium," published by Macmillan in 1909 and 1922. I thought of deleting my query, but have decided to leave it up there in case anyone else has an interest in books describing old children's games.

3MyriadBooks
Mar 14, 2012, 2:54 pm

Thanks much for letting us know you found the book!

Touchstone fairy: Games for the Playground, Home, School, and Gymnasium

4Parpar1836
Mar 14, 2012, 4:20 pm

The cover is a beauty! Thanks for posting the link.

5MyriadBooks
Mar 18, 2012, 7:54 pm

My pleasure!