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 1955. Bussell and Hogarth, and later their daughter Sally McNally (1936–2004), continued to use Muffin in their own shows. Surviving original episodes are available on DVD. Archive footage of the original series was shown on a television set in the 2006 "Doctor Who" story "The Idiot's Lantern". A book containing some of the stories was published in the Soviet Union in 1958. At least three cartoons based upon it were made in 1974 and 1975. These cartoons and the book make Muffin a donkey rather than a mule. The rights to Muffin The Mule were bought by Maverick Entertainment Plc