—(A. B. Gomme).
Pansies or other flowers are pressed beneath a piece of glass, which is laid upon a piece of paper, a hole or opening, which can be shut at pleasure, being cut in the paper. The charge for looking at the show is a pin. The children say, “A pin to look at a pippy-show.” They also say—
A pinnet a piece to look at a show,
All the fine ladies sat in a row.
Blackbirds with blue feet
Walking up a new street;
One behind and one before,
And one beknocking at t’barber’s door.
—Addy’s Sheffield Glossary.
In Perth (Rev. W. Gregor) the rhyme is—
A pin to see a poppy show,
A pin to see a die,
A pin to see an old man
Sitting in the sky.
Described also in Holland’s Cheshire Glossary, and Lowsley’s Berkshire Glossary. Atkinson’s Cleveland Glossary describes it as having coloured pictures pasted inside, and an eye-hole at one of the ends. The Leed’s Glossary gives the rhyme as—
A pin to look in,
A very fine thing.
Northall (English Folk-rhymes, p. 357), also gives a rhyme.