Was Little Miss Muffet a local girl?
A retired journalist from Australia, whose hobby is surfing the internet and writing about what he finds, has been investigating whether the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet was written about a local girl who lived in Moffats Lane. Eric Shackle began his research after spotting a story on this site which included a number of images of local spiders taken by Steve Herliczer. Eric’s article entitled Was Brookmans Park Lass Really Miss Muffet begins by referring back to the item that sparked Eric’s imagination. Dr. Thomas Muffet, who lived in Brookmans Park in the 16th century, would have been delighted to see a news item currently featured on this website of his old hometown. Under the headline “Rare hornet found in Brookmans Park”, it says, “A hornet seldom seen in England has been captured in Brookmans Park. A resident living in Woodlands spotted the large insect flying around his kitchen.” The website also shows a page of colour photographs of local insects, most of which he would hav
