T. Durfey’s Collin’s Walk through London, 1690, p. 192, says: “Hurling is an ancient sport us’d to this day in the countys of Cornwall and Devon, when once a year the hardy young fellows of each county meet; and a cork ball thinly plated with silver being thrown up between ’em, they run, bustle, and fight for it, to the witty dislocating of many a shrew’d neck, or for the sport of telling how bravely their arms or legs came to be broke, when they got home.” It is fully described by Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, 1602, p. 73.
It is also a very ancient Irish game, and Mr. Kinahan says: “Many places are called after it: such as, Killahurla, the hurlers’ church; Gortnahurla, the field of the hurlers; Greenanahurla, the sunny place of the hurlers; this, however, is now generally corrupted into hurling-green. The hurling-green where the famous match was played by the people of Wexford against those of Cather (now divided into the counties of Carlow and Wicklow), and where the former got the name of yellow bellies, from the colour of the scarfs they wore round their waist, is a sunny flat on the western side of North Wicklow Gap, on the road from Gorey to Trinnahely. There are also many other different names that record the game.”—Folk-lore Journal, ii. 266.
See “[Bandy],” “[Camp],” “[Football],” “[Hockey],” “[Hood],” “[Shinty].”
Hurly-burly
An undescribed boys’ game. In it the following rhyme is used—
Hurly-burly, trumpy trace,
The cow stands in the market-place;
Some goes far, and some goes near,
Where shall this poor sinner steer?
—Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
For a similar rhyme see “[Hot Cockles].”
Huss
Children play a game which is accompanied by a song beginning—