Summary

Game name (and type): 'Three Jolly Gentlemen' (chasing game)
Alternative types: language play, guessing game

Handwritten description of the chasing game 'Three Jolly Gentlemen' compiled for Dr Dorothy Howard by Margaret Chapman, an eight year old student at Cherry Gardens School, circa 1955. Chapman describes how the game is played and its associated terminology. 'Three Jolly Gentlemen' involves two teams divided according to gender. One team selects a trade secretly before they slowly begin to approach the opposing team, who must try to guess their profession. If the trade is successfully discovered, they must chase the approaching team back to their original starting place.

One of a collection of letters describing a children's games written to children's Folklorist Dorothy Howard between 1954 and 1955. Dr Howard came to Australia in 1954-55 as an American Fulbright scholar to study Australian children's folklore. She travelled across Australia for 10 months collecting children's playground rhymes, games, play artefacts, etc. This letter, together with the other original fieldwork collected by Dr Howard during this period, is preserved in the Dorothy Howard Collection manuscript files, part of the Australian Children's Folklore Collection (ACFC), Archive Series 3. The ACFC is an extensive collection documenting children's folklore and related research.

Physical Description

Handwritten game description in blue ink on lined paper. Text printed on both sides of page.

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