Little Miss Muffet
Little Miss Muffet, sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
Nursery rhyme origin
There is a theory that Miss Muffet was Patience, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Muffet, a 16th century entomologist. He had written a work in verse entitled ‘The Silkworms and Their Flies’ and was known as a man whose ‘admiration for spiders has never been surpassed.’
The tuffet she sat upon was probably a small mound of earth but it was also the name of a three legged stool.
Curds and whey is a kind of junket formed from milk, the thick part being the curds, and the runnier, watery part being the whey.
