Buttons, a Farthing a Pair Lyrics
Picture a seller on a busy street with a tray of shiny buttons, calling out to everyone who walks past. This rhyme is one of the old street cries of England.
Buttons, a Farthing a Pair
Buttons, a farthing a pair!
Come, who will buy them of me?
They're round and sound and pretty,
And fit for girls of the city.
Come, who will buy them of me?
Buttons, a farthing a pair!
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/buttons-a-farthing-a-pair/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Chanted street cry
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does Buttons, a Farthing a Pair Mean?
A street seller is calling out the price of buttons: a farthing for two. The buttons are "round and sound", meaning perfectly round and not cracked or chipped, and smart enough for city girls. The cry starts and ends with the same line so passers-by catch the price.
History and Origin
Before shops lined every street, sellers walked the roads shouting about what they had, and these shouts were called street cries. Little picture books of London cries were printed for children from the 1700s onward. The farthing, worth a quarter of a penny, was the smallest British coin until it stopped being used after 1960. This version is from The Real Mother Goose (1916).
Learning Activities
- Button shop: set up a pretend stall with a jar of buttons and take turns calling out the cry.
- Sort and count: sort buttons by color or size, then count them out in pairs.
- Your own cry: invent a street cry for something your child would like to sell, such as cookies or drawings.