This can be a very "rough" game.
According to Alice Gomme, Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland London: Thames and Hudson; 1894; vol I, p. 390, this game is called More Sacks To The Mill.
P.G. Brewster in "Games and Sports in Shakespeare", reprinted in Elliott Avedon & Brian Sutton-Smith, The Study of Games, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1971, pp. 38, reported that:
"This is more of a scramble than a game. A group of boys threw an unfortunate comrade on the ground, piled on top of him, and called out, Bags To The Mill".
Brewster indicates that there is mention of this game in Shakespeare's Love's Labout Lost".
An obscure reference names this area of the Brueghel painting as a game titled Bounce The Baby, but offers no instructions for playing the game.
Last update February 9, 2010