When Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet "eating her curds and whey" she was most probably seated on a small clump of grass or hillock. Nowadays the term "tuffet" is more likely to mean a piece of furniture used as a footstool or low seat.
Other definitions of this unique piece of furniture include pouffe, a nineteenth century French import for "something puffed out", or "hassock" which has a special association with churches, as it is used to describe the thick cushion employed by the congregation to kneel on while in prayer.
Later pictorial representations of Miss Muffet show her sitting on a stool which is completely covered in fabric so that no legs are visible. What we would regard today as a cube footstool or pouffe are essentially large hard cushions that have an internal wooden frame structure to aid rigidity. Wooden or plastic feet may be added to the base to give it stability. If Miss Muffet had chosen a larger piece offering internal storage then it would have been known as an ottoman!
Although the origins of this classic nursery rhyme are unclear, Miss Muffet is believed by some to have been the step daughter of a Sixteenth Century insect specialist, Dr Thomas Muffet. He is thought to have penned the rhyme to include two of the passions of his life. Others have suggested that it was written as a polemic about Mary Queen of Scots and the perceived threat of a return to Catholicism during the early period of the reign of Elizabeth the First of England. Whilst neither source can claim definitive authenticity it is thought the rhyme was passed down through the ages by word of mouth until it first appeared in print in 1805.
The Little Miss Muffet image has proved engrossing for children ever since. In the depression years of the 1930s the WPA in the United States used the image to encourage reading among children. The theme has been parodied by such luminaries as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and even today it remains an essential nursery rhyme song for all small children. Whether sitting on a tuffet or a footstool Miss Muffet and her fear of spiders will engage the minds of the very young for years to come.
