with the game. "Crooked Mustard" was played at the end of the day, so as to lead up to the grand finale.
(d) "Thread the Needle."[1] When dusk came on, the Park gates adjoining the churchyard were thrown open, and everybody trooped out into the streets, joining hands. One person tells me very confidently that it began round a tump in the Park; but I think this must refer to "Crooked Mustard," for all my other informants agree in naming the Park gates as the starting point of "Thread the Needle." (I cannot ascertain whether the three trees stood on a tump.) One old woman, a well-known 'character,' (whose granddaughter told me most of this), was always sought out to start the game. The two in front held up their hands like an arch, and all the rest ran "drough the niddle," with shouting and singing. Then another pair formed the arch, and so on, all through the streets. (One lady tells me that the players had the right to enter any house they liked, usually in at one door and out at another; but all the old working-class natives that I have talked with firmly deny it.) The words of the game, and the air, are as follows:—
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Slowly.
Thread the nee-dle to be-gin, Sometimes out and sometimes in. Tai-lor's blind and cannot see, So thread the tai-lor's nee - dle.
Persons from the neighbouring hamlet of Box, which lies just under the west end of the Alinchinhampton earthworks, joined in these games, which were kept entirely to the Park and the streets. I cannot find any hint that "Thread the Needle" ever ended here in a "Church Clipping," and I have not heard of any other place in Gloucestershire where the game was played. But dancing in the streets was, I am told, formerly the custom at festival times, both at Avening and Cherrington. The old country dance "Haste to the Wedding" was performed out of doors at such seasons.
The prominent part taken by women and girls[2] in these Easter
- ↑ See (Lady) A. B. Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 228-32.
- ↑ Dr. Paul Hamelius, of the University of Liege, tells me that, when "Thread the Needle" is played in the villages round Liege, a young girl is always chosen as the leader.
