[[Play]]
—Lancashire (Mrs. Harley).
All the players but one sit on the floor in a circle with their legs crossed (Turkish fashion), one acting as Chief, all pretending to work at making or mending shoes. The other player brings a slipper to the Chief Cobbler, and desires it to be mended, saying—
Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe,
Get it done by half-past two.
The child walks away, and returns in a few moments and asks whether the shoe is ready. The Cobbler says, “Not quite; call again in an hour’s time,” or makes any other excuse which occurs to him. When the child calls again, she is told it has been sent home. After several pretences the child declares an intention to search for it. The Cobblers in the ring then all place their hands under their knees, and pass the slipper secretly from one to another in such a way as to prevent the owner of the shoe getting it for some time. The Cobbler from whom the slipper is taken becomes the owner next time (Barnes, A. B. Gomme). In the Nottinghamshire version (Miss Peacock) the rhyme is—
Cobbler, cobbler, mend my shoe,
Give it a stitch and that will do.
Versions from Wakefield, Liphook, Ellesmere, and other places are practically the same as the Barnes game, but Mr. Udal gives an elaboration of the Dorsetshire game in the Folk-lore Journal, vii. 238. One Lancashire version (Miss Dendy) reverses the characters by making the Cobbler run round the ring, and the children requiring the shoe to be mended, call out, “Blackie, come mend my slipper.” Mrs. Harley, in another Lancashire version, gives the words sung to the tune printed as—
Pass on, pass on, passy on the slipper;
The best fun we ever had was passing on the slipper.
Holloway (Dict. of Provincialisms) says this game was well known in Somerset, Hants, Sussex, but now is almost out of fashion. He describes it as being played without words. The child who has to find the shoe stands in the centre of the circle. The chief amusement arises from the one in the circle who has the slipper striking the one who stands up (the searcher) while he or she is steadily looking for it in an opposite direction. Strutt (Sports, p. 387) also describes this game.[Addendum]