Bob-apple is a game in which an apple is hung by a string from the ceiling or other high piece, or put into a a bowl of water, and people have to eat it or pick it out of the bowl, allw ithout using their hands. It used to be popular in England around Christmas and New Year.
But, happily, we have traces that the Norman-English delighted sometimes in sports more innocent; we can fancy them sitting absorbed in the intellectual game of chess (Figs. 798, 800), or enjoying the fresh air, the green grass, the summer sun on the bowling-green (Fig. 794), or bursting with obstreperous laughter by the rustic fireside in the game of bob-apple (Fig. 787). (p. 215)