Here Comes an Old Soldier from Botany Bay

Mentions of children's games in the late 19th century describe it as a call and response game where others take turns to respond to the singer, with a prohibition of predetermined taboo words, typically yes, no, black, white, grey and sometimes other colours. == Origin and variations ==

G. K. Chesterton wrote of the poem as a "beggars' rhyme" during his childhood in late nineteenth-century London, and quoted the words as thus: Various other games incorporating the rhyme emerged in the twentieth century, most local adaptations that replaced the "old soldier from Botany Bay" with an "old woman from Botany Bay." In another version of the game, the player responding must also remember and correctly name all previous items given to the old soldier, before adding a new one to the list in their response. This is similar to the game of "I packed my bag". == References ==