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MARBLES , a See also:children's See also:game of See also:great antiquity, wide See also:distribution, and uncertain origin, played with small See also:spheres of See also:- STONE
- STONE (0. Eng. shin; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Stein, Du. steen, Dan. and Swed. sten; the root is also seen in Gr. aria, pebble)
- STONE, CHARLES POMEROY (1824-1887)
- STONE, EDWARD JAMES (1831-1897)
- STONE, FRANK (1800-1859)
- STONE, GEORGE (1708—1764)
- STONE, LUCY [BLACKWELL] (1818-1893)
- STONE, MARCUS (184o— )
- STONE, NICHOLAS (1586-1647)
stone, See also:glass, baked See also:clay or other material, from one-third of an See also:inch to two inches in See also:diameter. The game was once popular with all classes. Tradition, both at See also:- OXFORD
- OXFORD, EARLS OF
- OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL
- OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513)
- OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF
- OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392)
- OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST
Oxford and See also:Cambridge, attests that the game was formerly prohibited among undergraduates on the steps of the Bodleian or the See also:Senate See also:House. There is a similar tradition at See also:Westminster School that the boys were forbidden to See also:play marbles in Westminster See also:- HALL
- HALL (generally known as SCHWABISCH-HALL, tc distinguish it from the small town of Hall in Tirol and Bad-Hall, a health resort in Upper Austria)
- HALL (O.E. heall, a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Halle)
- HALL, BASIL (1788-1844)
- HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN (1812–1888)
- HALL, CHARLES FRANCIS (1821-1871)
- HALL, CHRISTOPHER NEWMAN (1816—19oz)
- HALL, EDWARD (c. 1498-1547)
- HALL, FITZEDWARD (1825-1901)
- HALL, ISAAC HOLLISTER (1837-1896)
- HALL, JAMES (1793–1868)
- HALL, JAMES (1811–1898)
- HALL, JOSEPH (1574-1656)
- HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857)
- HALL, ROBERT (1764-1831)
- HALL, SAMUEL CARTER (5800-5889)
- HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
- HALL, WILLIAM EDWARD (1835-1894)
Hall on See also:account of the complaints made by members of See also:parliament and lawyers. An See also:anonymous poem of the 17th See also:century speaks of a boy about to leave See also:Eton as
" A See also:dunce at syntax, but a dab at taw."
See also:Rogers, in The Pleasures of Memory, recalls how
" On See also:yon See also:grey stone that fronts the See also:chancel-See also:door, Worn smooth by busy feet, now seen no more, Each See also:eve we shot the See also:marble through the See also:ring."
See also:Defoe (1720) writes of the seer See also:Duncan See also:- CAMPBELL, ALEXANDER (1788–1866)
- CAMPBELL, BEATRICE STELLA (Mrs PATRICK CAMPBELL) (1865– )
- CAMPBELL, GEORGE (1719–1796)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN
- CAMPBELL, JOHN (1708-1775)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN CAMPBELL, BARON (1779-1861)
- CAMPBELL, JOHN FRANCIS
- CAMPBELL, LEWIS (1830-1908)
- CAMPBELL, REGINALD JOHN (1867— )
- CAMPBELL, THOMAS (1777—1844)
Campbell: " Marbles, which he used to See also:call children's playing at See also:bowls, yielded him mighty diversion; and he was so dexterous an artist at See also:shooting that little See also:alabaster globe from between the end of his forefinger and the See also:knuckle of his thumb, that he seldom missed hitting plumb, as the boys call it, the marble he aimed at, though at the distance of two or three yards." The See also:locus classicus on marbles in the rgth century is in the trial in Pickwick, where See also:Serjeant Buzfuz pathetically says of See also:Master Bardell that " his `See also:alley tors ' and his ` commoneys ' are alike neglected; he forgets the See also:long See also:familiar cry of ` knuckle down,' and at tip-See also:cheese, or See also:odd and even, his See also:hand is out." Many similar passages might be adduced to prove the former popularity of marbles with the See also:young of all classes. In some rural parts of See also:Sussex See also:Good See also:Friday was known as " marble-See also:day " till See also:late in the 19th century, since on that day both old and young, including many who would never have thought of playing marbles at other times, took See also:part in the game. There was some traditional See also:reason for regarding marbles as a Lenten See also:sport—perhaps, as the Rev. W. D. See also:Parish suggests, " to keep See also:people from more boisterous and mischievous enjoyments."
The origin of the game is concealed in the mists of antiquity. Marbles used by See also:Egyptian and See also:Roman children before the See also:Christian era are to be seen in the See also:British Museum. Probably some of the small stone spheres found among See also:neolithic remains, which See also:Evans(See also:Ancient Stone Implements, and ed., p. 420) admits to be too small for projectiles, are prehistoric marbles. It is commonly assumed that the game which the youthful See also:Augustus, like other Roman children, played with nuts was a See also:form of marbles, and that the- Latin phrase of relinquere nuces, in the sense of putting away childish things, referred to this game. See also:Strutt believed that nuts of the roundest sort were the See also:original " marbles." The earliest unmistakable reference to marbles in literature seems to be in a See also:French poem of the 12th century, quoted by See also:Littre s.v. Bille.
The marbles with which various See also:games are nowadays played are small spheres of stone, glass or baked clay. In the 18th century they were mostly made from chips of marble (whence the name) or other stone, which were ground into a roughly spherical shape by See also:attrition in a See also:special See also:iron See also:- MILL
- MILL (O. Eng. mylen, later myln, or miln, adapted from the late Lat. molina, cf. Fr. moulin, from Lat. mola, a mill, molere, to grind; from the same root, mol, is derived " meal;" the word appears in other Teutonic languages, cf. Du. molen, Ger. muhle)
- MILL, JAMES (1773-1836)
- MILL, JOHN (c. 1645–1707)
- MILL, JOHN STUART (1806-1873)
mill. See also:Nuremberg was then the centre of the See also:trade in marbles, though some were made in See also:Derbyshire, and indeed wherever there was a stone-See also:- MASON, FRANCIS (1799—1874)
- MASON, GEORGE (1725—1792)
- MASON, GEORGE HEMMING (1818–1872)
- MASON, JAMES MURRAY (1798-1871)
- MASON, JOHN (1586-1635)
- MASON, JOHN YOUNG (1799-1859)
- MASON, LOWELL (1792—1872)
- MASON, SIR JOHN (1503–1566)
- MASON, SIR JOSIAH (1795-1881)
- MASON, WILLIAM (1725—1797)
mason's yard to afford raw material. The " alley taw," as its name indicates, was made of alabaster. In the first decadeof the 2oth century See also:English marbles were all imported from central See also:Germany, and the alleys, or most valuable marbles, used for shooting, were mostly made of coloured glass, sold See also:retail from ten a See also:penny to a penny each. Coloured stone marbles and so-called See also:china marbles—really of baked clay—were sold at prices varying from See also:forty to a See also:hundred a penny, though even the cheapest of these were painted by hand with concentric rings. The well-made and highly valued alleys of earlier times were no longer procurable, owing to the decline in popularity of the sport. In the See also:United States, however, much more expensive and accurately rounded marbles were still manufactured, the latest being of hollow See also:steel.
There has never been any recognized authority on the game of marbles, and it is probable that, in the past as in the See also:present, every parish and school and set of boys made its own rules. There are, however, three or four distinct games which are traditional, and may be found, with trifling See also:variations, wherever the game is played. Strutt, See also:writing at the end of the 18th century, describes these as follows: (t) " Taw, wherein a number of boys put each of them one or two marbles in a ring and shoot at them alternately with other marbles, and he who obtains the most of them by beating them out of the ring is the conqueror." The marbles placed in the ring—whence the game is often known as " ring-taw "—are usually of the cheaper See also:kind known as " commoneys," " °stoneys " or " potteys," and the marble with which the player shoots is a more valuable one, known as an" alley, "or" alley taw," sometimes spelt " tor," as by See also:Dickens. Usually it is necessary that the alley should emerge from the ring as well as drive out another marble; under other rules the ring is smaller, not more than a See also:foot in diameter, and the player must be skilful enough to leave his alley inside it, whilst See also:driving the See also:object marble outside. (2) " Nine holes: which consists in See also:bowling of marbles at a wooden See also:bridge with nine See also:arches." Each See also:arch bears a number, and the owner of the bridge pays that number of marbles to the player who shoots through it, making his profit from the missing marbles, which he confiscates; or the game may simply be played so many up—usually too. (3) " There 1s also another game of marbles where four, five or six holes, and sometimes more, are made in the ground at a distance from each other; and the business of every one of the players is to bowl a marble by a See also:regular See also:succession into all the holes, which he who completes in the fewest bowls obtains the victory." This See also:primitive form of See also:golf is played by Zulu adults with great See also:enthusiasm, and is still popular among the See also:car-drivers of See also:Belfast. (4) " See also:Boss out, or boss and span, also called See also:hit and span, wherein one bowls a marble to any distance that he pleases, which serves as a See also:mark for his antagonist to bowl at, whose business it is to hit the marble first bowled, or See also:lay his own near enough to it for him to span the space between them and See also:touch both marbles; in either See also:case he wins, if not, his marble remains where it lay and becomes a mark for the first player, and so alternately until the game be won." In rural parts of See also:England this was known as a ' going-to-school game," because it helped the players along the road.
Mr F. W. Hackwood states that, in the See also:middle of the 19th century, taverns in the See also:Black See also:Country had regular marble alleys, consisting of a See also:cement See also:bed 20 ft. long by 12 ft. wide and 18 in. from the ground, with a raised wooden rim to prevent the marbles from See also:running off. Players knelt down to shoot, and had to " knuckle down " fairly—i.e. to See also:place the knuckle of the shooting hand on the ground, so that the flip of the thumb was not aided by a jerk of the See also:wrist. The game was usually ring-taw.
But marbles is now obsolete in England as a game for adults (Old English See also:Sports, See also:London, 1907).
A writer in Notes and Queries (IX. ii. 314) thus describes the marbles used by English boys in the middle of the 19th century: " In ring-taw the player put only commoneys in the ring, and shot with the taws, which included stoneys, alleys and See also:blood-alleys. Commoneys were unglazed; potteys glazed in the See also:kiln. Stoneys were made from See also:common pebbles such as were used for road-mending; alleys and blood-alleys out of marble. The blood-alleys were highly prized, and were called by this name because of the spots or streaks of red in them. In Derbyshire, where large See also:numbers were made, they had relative values. The stoney was See also:worth three commoneys or two potteys. An alley was worth six commoneys or four potteys. Blood-alleys were worth more, according to the See also:depth and arrangement of See also:colour=from twelve to fifty commoneys and stoneys in proportion." " A taw with a See also:history was prized above rubies," another correspondent observes (IX. ii. 76). " All the best-made marbles were taws, and no commoneys or potteys were used for shooting with, either in ring-taw or the various hole-games." In Belfast, 1854-1858, the marble See also:season extended from See also:Easter to See also:June, when the ground was usually dry and hard. The marbles were stoneys, of See also:composition painted; crockeries, of slightly glazed stone-See also:ware, dark See also:- BROWN
- BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN (1771-181o)
- BROWN, FORD MADOX (1821-1893)
- BROWN, FRANCIS (1849- )
- BROWN, GEORGE (1818-188o)
- BROWN, HENRY KIRKE (1814-1886)
- BROWN, JACOB (1775–1828)
- BROWN, JOHN (1715–1766)
- BROWN, JOHN (1722-1787)
- BROWN, JOHN (1735–1788)
- BROWN, JOHN (1784–1858)
- BROWN, JOHN (1800-1859)
- BROWN, JOHN (1810—1882)
- BROWN, JOHN GEORGE (1831— )
- BROWN, ROBERT (1773-1858)
- BROWN, SAMUEL MORISON (1817—1856)
- BROWN, SIR GEORGE (1790-1865)
- BROWN, SIR JOHN (1816-1896)
- BROWN, SIR WILLIAM, BART
- BROWN, THOMAS (1663-1704)
- BROWN, THOMAS (1778-1820)
- BROWN, THOMAS EDWARD (1830-1897)
- BROWN, WILLIAM LAURENCE (1755–1830)
brown and yellow; clayeys, of red See also:brick clay baked in the See also:fire; marbles, of See also:- WHITE
- WHITE, ANDREW DICKSON (1832– )
- WHITE, GILBERT (1720–1793)
- WHITE, HENRY KIRKE (1785-1806)
- WHITE, HUGH LAWSON (1773-1840)
- WHITE, JOSEPH BLANCO (1775-1841)
- WHITE, RICHARD GRANT (1822-1885)
- WHITE, ROBERT (1645-1704)
- WHITE, SIR GEORGE STUART (1835– )
- WHITE, SIR THOMAS (1492-1567)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824--1891)
- WHITE, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1845– )
- WHITE, THOMAS (1628-1698)
- WHITE, THOMAS (c. 1550-1624)
white marble; china alleys, with white glaze and painted rings; and glass marbles. The two See also:chief games were ring-taw and hole and taw; in the latter three holes were made in a See also:line, 6 ft. to 12 ft. apart, and the player
had to go three times up and down according to somewhat elaborate rules (Notes and Queries, IX. iii. 65). The stoneys and crockeries were sold at twenty a penny; the clayeys were cheaper and were not used as stakes; the marbles proper and china alleys, used as taws for shooting, cost a See also:halfpenny and a See also:farthing respectively. In other parts of the country the phraseology of marbles affords some 'interesting problems for the philologist. We hear of " alleys, barios, poppos and stoneys "; of " marididdles," See also:home-made marbles of rolled and baked clay; in See also:Scotland of " boots, whinnies, glassies, jauries "; of " Dutch alleys," and so forth. " Dubs, trebs and fobs," stand for twos, threes and fours. To be " mucked " is to lose all one's " mivvies " or marbles. When the taw stayed in the ring it was a " chuck." " Phobbo slips " was a phrase used to forbid the correction of an See also:error.
The fullest account of the various games of marbles played by English children is to be found in Mrs Gomme's Traditional Games of England, Scotland and See also:Ireland (London, 1898), under the headings Boss-out, Bridgeboard, See also:Bun-hole, See also:Cob, Ho-go, See also:Holy See also:Bang, Hundreds, Lag, Long-Tavel, Marbles, Nine-Holes, Ring-taw, Three-Holes. Other games are known as See also:Plum-See also:pudding, or Picking the Plums, in which one shoots at marbles in a See also:row; Pyramids, in which the marbles are arranged in a See also:pyramid; Bounce About, Bounce See also:Eye, Conqueror, See also:Die Shot, Fortifications, Handers, Increase See also:Pound, Knock Out, Rising Taw, Spanners, Tip-See also:shears; Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, ed. J. C. See also:Cox (London, 1902). Much See also:information will also be found in Notes and Queries, passim—especially the 9th See also:series. For marbles in See also:France see Larousse, s.v. Billes. See also See also:SOLITAIRE. (W. E. G.
End of Article: MARBLES
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