International Day of Play: “Children’s Plays” from Francis Willughby’s Book of Games

The 11th June is International Day of Play. This awareness day was established by the United Nations. It recognises, and attempts to promote and protect, children’s right to play and the essential ability of play to develop cognitive skills, physical skills, social skills and well-being.

Francis Willughby’s Book of Games contains numerous games identified as children’s games, some even written in his manuscript by the hand of a child. In this post, the focus will be on part of a section in his book titled “Children’s Plays”. This section begins with what we would call toys today, which he titled as “The First Games That Children Learn”. These were dedicated toys for infants. It was commented that Willughby clearly appears to have viewed the provision of playing with toys as a precursor for playing games as well as having other beneficial uses.

Willughby commented that children loved anything that looked “gay” and that made a noise and the first toy that he described was a whistle. The image provided in his manuscript appears to be somewhat tube-shaped with a small hole on one upper side and he described that it was made of silver. In one end, a piece of coral was inserted and the whistle part that was to be blown into was at the other end. He wrote that the coral was good for infants’ gums when they were teething and that children were “apt to put everything into their mouths”. Little silver bells hung off the middle of the whistle.

The second toy Willughby described was rattles. He wrote that these were round pieces of wood that were hollow and painted and filled with dried peas or anything else that would make a rattling sound.

The third and final toy that he listed for infants were dolls. He described these as “babies” that were made of clouts (pieces of cloth) and sown to resemble the shape of men, dogs, horses, etc. Alternatively, he commented they could have been made of wood and painted.

Two other toys were included in Willughby’s Book of Games and these were for older children.

One of these he called “tops” or “gigs” and today we would call these spinning tops. He described the top as being of a cone figure and provided three images of different versions that the cone shape could take. He explained that the point of the cone was set inverted perpendicularly upon a smooth flat surface and the child would then twirl it to make it spin and run along the ground. He added that the child would carry a stick with a piece of white leather tied to the end of it and with that they would follow the top and whip it to keep it going as long as possible. Furthermore, he noted that a brass nail was driven into the point to prevent the top from wearing. Gigs were the same but made from the tips of horns.

Finally, he also included a description and image of “hummers”. These were made from wooden trenchers (a flat board used as a plate) in a circular shape and then cut full of nicks. One end of a string was then tied through the board and the other end was tied to the end of a long pole. The child would then hold the other end of the long pole and whirl it around. As the wooden board moved through the air, it would make a humming noise.

Old Toys Table in the "History Room" at Middleton Hall, 2009.

Further Reading: David Cram, Jeffrey L. Forgeng & Dorothy Johnston, Francis Willughby’s Book of Games, 2003. pp.187, 190-1. 

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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