A boys’ game. Two persons are trussed somewhat like fowls; they then hop about on their “hunkers,” each trying to upset the other.—Patterson’s Antrim and Down Glossary.
See “[Curcuddie].”
Shoeing the Auld Mare
A dangerous kind of sport. A beam of wood is slung between two ropes, a person gets on to this and contrives to steady himself until he goes through a number of antics; if he can do this he shoes the auld mare, if he cannot do it he generally tumbles to the ground and gets hurt with the fall.—Mactaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopædia.
Shue-Gled-Wylie
A game in which the strongest acts as the Gled or Kite, and the next in strength as the mother of a brood of birds; for those under her protection, perhaps to the number of a dozen, keep all in a string behind her, each holding by the tail of one another. The Gled still tries to catch the last of them, while the mother cries “Shue! Shue!” spreading out her arms to keep him off. If he catch all the birds he wins the game.—Fife, Teviotdale (Jamieson).
See “[Fox and Geese],” “[Gled-Wylie],” “[Hen and Chickens].”
Shuttlefeather
This game is generally known as “[Battledore and Shuttlecock].” The battledore is a small hand bat, formerly made of wood, then of a skin stretched over a frame, and since of catgut strings stretched over a frame. The shuttlecock consists of a small cork into which feathers of equal size are fixed at even distances. The game may be played by one, two, or more persons. If by one person, it merely consists of batting up the shuttlecock into the air for as long a time as possible; if by two persons, it consists of batting the shuttlecock from one to the other; if by more than two, sides are chosen, and a game has been invented, and known as “Badminton.” This latter game is not a traditional game, and does not therefore concern us now.
Strutt (Sports and Pastimes, p. 303) says this is a sport of long standing, and he gives an illustration, said to be of the fourteenth century, from a MS. in the possession of Mr. F. Douce. This would probably be the earliest mention of the game. It appears to have been a fashionable pastime among grown persons in the reign of James I. In the Two Maids of Moreclacke, 1609, it is said, “To play at Shuttlecock methinkes is the game now,” and among the anecdotes related of Prince Henry, son to James I., is the following: “His Highness playing at shittle-cocke with one farr taller than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the shittle-cock upon the forehead” (Harl. MS., 6391). Among the accounts of money paid for the Earl of Northumberland while he was prisoner in the Tower for supposed complicity in the Gunpowder Plot, is an item for the purchase of shuttlecocks (Hist. MSS. Com., v. p. 354).