TOPS IN ENGLAND
I suppose it is natural for me as a person born and brought up in England to think about tops in what I now call (as an Australian) the "old country".
Casting peg tops
Much of its history is linked with the trade explosion of the 15th, 16th and 17 centuries when the adventurous Dutch and English established trade links with what we call the Far East. (But the history of tops in England is very much earlier than that). Wonderful things were brought to Europe as the result of this trade. Spices, coffee, tea and exotic treasures from the orient. Amongst these, it is speculated, that such pastimes as kites and spinning tops were introduced in a more expanded manner to Europe.
Other than the finger top, which has always been more of a parlour toy, the easiest to spin world be the whip top. The string or thong is wound around the top, which is then placed upon the ground and steadied with the had, sometimes the foot, then with a sudden jerk the top is set in motion. Another method is to spin the top between your palms and let it drop to the ground spinning. All that is needed after that is judicious whipping to keep the top alive. Of course as with all pastimes the basic skill is developed into an art form.
Whipping top
Tops can be whipped so that they jump, perhaps to crash on to an opponenant's top so that it knocked it down or out of a ring drawn in the dust. Perhaps the competition was to see how long you could keep your top running without whipping it. So you and your competitor whipped your top up to top speed until the umpire called stop. Then the first top to fall lost the competition.
It was during these periods that you could observe the natural process of the life of the spin of a top. Broadly this is the time of precessing, when it runs in circle or spiral (or down hill if the surface is not flat. Then the top goes into its time of natural spinning, when it looks almost motionless, this is called "sleeping". The final phase is when the motion is dying and the top tilts, causing the base of it to move in a circular motion until it falls to the ground.
A few tops, motionless in their sleeping phase, is quite a beautiful sight to see, and I still remember it with some magic.
Another activity with the whip top was to whip it all the way to school. The games that I have mentioned above are those that we played (very occasionally as tops were not a big game in my boyhood).
There are not many games played with the whip top, though I seem to remember games that required you to drive your opponenent's tops out of a ring. Leap frog, jumping your top over another's top. Long jump, where you competed with the length of the jump you could do with your top.
Though peg tops had pretty well died out in my childhood my Dad certainly could cast a peg top and whilst we never played any peg top games, I recall Dad telling me about them. The one that seems to have been the most popular is "Peg in the Ring". Here a meter diameter circle is drawn on the ground, and the person that starts the game casts his top into the center of tee ring (ideally), then his opponents "peg" their tops at it to try and drive it out of the ring or even cast it with such force as to split the target top. The game continues until all the tops in the ring are driven out bat the top of the "winner" Sometimes all the tops can be driven out with one cast. This exploits the peg tops ability to "drive all before it". It should be noted that there are many variations on this game according to the locality in which it was played.
long peg
One variation recorded is that the winner was allowed to "grudge" a top that it was playing against. This was done by driving the steel peg into it a few times!!
Chipstone is another peg top game. Two parallel lines are drawn about two meters apart and a row of smallish stones placed in the middle. The peg top is cast and the owner scoops his top up on a wooden spoon and drops it on the stone in such a manner as the stone is spun out of bounds. The owner can do this as many times as he can whilst his top is till spinning.
English Humming top
Girls whipped tops too, though we boys seldom played with the girls.
The other type of top was the peg top. I am afraid that my skill was poorly developed with these tops and I still find throwing the peg top rather difficult.
In England there was a variety of styles of peg top in the older days (yes even before my time!!) Peg tops are those that are generally pear shaped with a metal spike in the narrow end upon which the top spun. The pegs were long or short and the sizes and shapes of the tops varied from area to area in England. The top is wound around with string from the peg upwards, then thrown (or cast) to the ground, with (in my case) a rather straight arm motion. I have to resist jerking it backwards at the very last second to give it extra momentum... it is a skill that the best casters have, but not me. My Dad taught me how to spin it and most of us boys could do it but it did not attract our attention as a game, just an activity to pass an idle moment, like when you found it in the drawer.
English Humming Top
Iona and Peter Opie record the following about the size and shape of tops in different parts of England. (Children's Games with things. 1997. OUP. Oxford and New York) p313
Big been -Derbyshire (1905) A large whip top
Birken- a top mage from Birch wood.
boxer - a whipping or peg top made from box wood.
Carrot top- a whipping tip made in the shape of a dumpy carrot or bullet shaped.
Castle top, a top with the top shaped like a castle *but this is a somewhat obscure description)
Mushroom top- a squat whipping top.
Colchester top- a more squat form of the mushroom top a local variety of top that preceded the mushroom top.
dummy- similar to a carrot top. Perhaps like a dum dum bullet.
farther-kicker - like a mushroom top.
gig- a hollow top, perhaps made from horn 15th C onwards
granny- the same shape as the carrot
horney top- made from the tip pf a horn
jinny spinner- like the carrot top (Penrith 1957)
Monkey top- like the mushroom (London 1908)
peerie;pirie;or pear- Scottish for peg tops
racing top or racer- same as the mushroom
scopperil- made from a button
scourge tops-(Poole Dorset)
Spanish peg top short rounded wooden point for a peg, not metal.
top- word first used in 1060
top word first used in 1325
totum- a top made from a reel
turnip top - shaped like a turnip with a knob on the top (these are what I remember)
window breaker- mushroom shaped.
If anyone has any illustrations of any of these tops I would so pleased if they could send them to me. There is a great area of research needed to record these for history.
I once had a Spanish peg top. I did not know that it was one, all I knew that Mum let me play with it in the kitchen. I always thought that it was because it had a wooden "peg". and of course I was right. It would spin very well indeed in doors. The books tell me that it was no good for peg top games, which required the metal spike.
Those peg tops with long metal pegs are best for games. The short metal pegs were b the best sleepers. Each could be used to advantage for different games.
The final type of top was the humming top. By my time there was the tin plunger tops that we all had. We would pump them up on the lino and they would glisten and hi=umm to our delight. Historically, England had a beautiful turned "hollow" top that had a hole placed in it strategically so that it would hum when it was spun. This top was a supported top and was set it not motion by pulling the string.\
Up until now I have concentrated on what was the comparatively modern history, and also it has been based loosely on my early childhood (1940s/50s) But now we should look more deeply at the earlier history.
In "old English" the word top is recorded first in c 1060 and again, but this time spelt as "toup" in c1325.
English literature seems to start with Shakespeare's references to the top in in the Merry Wives of Windsor. "... played truant and whipped a top". References appear in other of his plays also. Harrow school had a reference to tops in its "Orders, Statutes and Rules"... "Their play shall be to drive a top....... " Thence afterwards the 17th-19th centuries are peppered with refines to tops, books are illustrated with woodcuts and later engravings of tops as a pastime.
The scientific approach to top spinning is epitomized by detailed mathematical analysis of how and why tops spin. Crabtree in 1909 ( Spinning tops and Gyroscopic Motion. London, Lagans Green.) and Perry in 1929 (Spinning Tops, London. Sheldon Press.) I am fortunate to have both of these volumes, but they were obtained at great expense and sacrifice. Frankly unless you are mathematically minded they are not books for you. Though I have to say that I am not mathematically inclined but I did get something out of them.
