But this is not quite the same as it is played in London. There the school ground is divided in the following manner:-- The boys being divided into equal sides, with a captain for each, one party takes up its quarters in A, the other in B. Lots are chosen as to which side commences. Then one member of the side so chosen (say B) starts off for the middle of the playground and cries out "Chevy, Chevy Chase, one, two, three;" thereupon it becomes the object of the side B to touch him before reaching home again. If unsuccessful one from side B goes to the middle, and so on until a prisoner is secured from one of the sides. Then the struggle commences in earnest, after the fashion described by Strutt as above. If a boy succeeds in getting to the prison of his side without being touched by an opponent, he releases a prisoner, and brings him back home again to help in the struggle. The object of the respective sides is to place all their opponents in prison, and when that is accomplished they rush over to the empty home and take possession of it. The game then begins again from opposite sides, the winning side counting one towards the victory.--London (G. L. Gomme).
This was once a favourite game among young men in North Shropshire (and Cheshire). It was played yearly at Norton-in-Hales Wakes, and the winning party were decorated with ribbons. Men-servants, in the last century, were wont to ask a day's holiday to join or witness a game of "Prison-bars," arranged beforehand as a cricket-match might be (see _Byegones_, 2nd May 1883). A form of the game still survives there among the school-children, under the name of "Prison Birds." The Birds arrange themselves in pairs behind each other, facing a large stone or stump placed at some little distance. Before them, also facing the stone, stands one player, called the Keeper. When he calls, "Last pair out!" the couple next behind him run to the stone and touch hands over it. If they can do so without being touched by the Keeper, they are free, and return to a position behind the other birds; but any one whom he touches must remain behind the stone "in prison."--Ellesmere (Burne's _Shropshire Folk-lore_, p. 524).
The Ellesmere inhabitants were formerly accustomed to devote their holiday occasions to the game, and in the year 1764 the poet laureate of the town (Mr. David Studley) composed some lines on the game as it was played by the Married _v._ Single at Ellesmere. They are as follows:--