The Muffin Man is preserved in the Bodleian Library with lyrics very similar to those used today: <poem> Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man Who lives in Drury Lane?</poem> Victorian households had many of their fresh foods delivered, such as muffins, which were delivered door-to-door by a muffin man. The "muffin" in question was the bread product known in the United States as English muffins, not the much sweeter cupcake-shaped American variety. Drury Lane is a thoroughfare bordering Covent Garden in London. The rhyme and game appear to have spread to
Muffin the Mule appearances." The BBC decided to discontinue the show in 1955 after Annette Mills' death. In the early 1950s a Fleetway weekly magazine, "Woman's Illustrated", featured on its children's page (Gnomes Club) stories about Muffin the Mule and/or his friends. Some were written by Annette Mills and illustrated by Molly Blake, Annette's daughter, such as "Muffin meets the Rear Light" in 1953; others did not state who the illustrator was, such as in 1953 "Muffin's Good Deed" by Annette Mills, and many stories were written and illustrated only by Molly Blake such as "Willie Disappears" (a Muffin story) on 20 August