Main Index Page

Last updated 19/8/2025

x

Part 6 of 'The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent' by Washington Irving, was published by C S Van Winkle in New York in 1820.

The story 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which it contained included the following passage:

The 'popguns' are presumably the 'prohibited weapons', leaving the 'whirligigs', 'fly-cages' and 'rampant little game-cocks' as 'sundry contraband items'.

Why these items should have been considered contraband is not clear (but see below).

'Rampant little game-cocks' sounds like a description of folded paper Cocottes.

'Whirligigs' is a term commonly used for any rotating device. If these were also made of paper then they could have been Cut and Fold Windmills or some sort of rotor that was thrown into the air and spun on the way down. There is, however, no specific evidence for the existence of either of these at this early date.

If the 'Fly-cages' were folded from paper then they were most probably Waterbombs, although again there is no specific evidence for the existence of the design at this early date.

If they were folded from paper then they may have been considered as 'contraband' because the paper should have been used for other, more educational, purposes.

Although the work was published in the USA, it was written in England where the author was living at the time, and is therefore, perhaps, more likely to be a description of something the author has seen in England rather than in the USA.

A full copy of the work can be accessed online here.

**********

**********

**********