Summary

Game names (and types): 'Over the Garden Wall', 'Chase the Fox' (rope skipping games)
Alternative type: rope skipping rhymes, language play, play with props/equipment

Handwritten descriptions of rope skipping games composed for Dr Dorothy Howard by Juliette Brown, a student at Clayfield College, in October 1954. Brown describes 'Over the Garden Wall' as a game played by girls at anytime. To play, one child swings a skipping rope while reciting an accompanying rhyme transcribed by Brown. Another player jumps from side to side over the rope until they fail to clear it. 'Chase the Fox' is also a girls' game played all year round. Brown states that a skipping rope is swung between two players while the remaining children run underneath performing increasingly difficult physical actions. If a player is touched by the rope, they replace one of the children holding its ends. Brown notes that she has played these games between 1951 and 1954. On the reverse is a section titled 'Hand clapping, knee clapping played by two children'; however, it does not contain any examples.

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 black ink on lined paper. Text printed on both sides of page.

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