This would definitely liven up a wake

From the Forgotten English page-a-day calendar (a fine present for verbivores on your holiday list - don't say this blog is not useful once in a while.)

"Tup-running: A rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in Derbyshire. A ram, whose tail is well soaped and greased, is turned out to the multitude; anyone that can take him by the tail and hold him fast is to have him for his own." - Francis Grose's 'A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,' 1796.

Comments

Aidan said…
That's how Myfanwe got me...

'cept it weren't my tail...
Lanea said…
I demand, DEMAND, that is played at my funeral.
Anonymous said…
This just made my day, and I had to forward it to the few friends of mine that would actually appreciate it.

You guys are playing this in the office now that I'm gone, aren't you, Meg? Damn.

I miss you. :(
Tami said…
Is that anything like the "greased pig" catch at the local fair? They grease a piglet up real good n then let it go for the participants (namely 4-h kids) and they raise it for one year and enter it into the fair the coming year. They have catchit calves too. hmmmm I wonder.......

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