King o’ the Castle
One boy is chosen as King. He mounts on any convenient height, a knoll, or dyke, or big stone, and shouts—
A’m King o’ the Castle,
An’ fah (who) ’ll ding (knock) me doon?
The players make a rush at the King, and try to pull him down. A tussle goes on for a longer or a shorter time, according to the strength of the King and his skill in driving off his assailants. The boy that displaces the King becomes King, and is in his turn assaulted in the same way. The game may go on for any length of time. Another form of words is—
I’m the King o’ the Castle,
An’ nane can ding me doon.
—Keith (Rev. W. Gregor).
Other words sung by the Scotch children are—
I, Willy Wastle,
Stand on my castle,
And a’ the dogs o’ your toon
Will no drive Willie Wastle doon.
Chambers (Popular Rhymes, p. 114) records the tradition that when Oliver Cromwell lay at Haddington he sent to require the governor of Home Castle, in Berwickshire, to surrender; the governor is said to have replied in the above quatrain of juvenile celebrity.
The London version is for the boys to run up a hillock, when one of them declares as follows—