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
One for Sorrow (nursery rhyme) all have titles derived from the nursery rime, the first one (published in 1999) being named "One for Sorrow". The belief that the number of magpies one sees give an indication of one's future is attributed to a knight of King Arthur's Round Table visiting Constantinople in the first volume - which might be an anachronism. British folk group the Unthanks include the song "Magpie" on their 2015 album "Mount the Air", with lyrics containing portions of this rhyme. The song is featured in the final scene of the first episode of the third season of "Detectorists", backing a time-warp