Lucy Locket is an old nursery rhyme from 19th century England. In the rhyme, Lucy loses her pocket – but how can you lose your pocket???
Well in the olden days, a pocket would have been a pouch that ladies would wear hung around her wrist. The pouch might have been embroidered or made of fine material and she would have used it as her purse or wallet to hold her money.
Lucy Locket’s origins are unclear, although the first printed version of the song was first seen in the book English Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales by James Orchard Halliwell, written around 1842.
The rhyme keeps the listener wondering – did Kitty innocently find the pocket or did she take the money herself?
Lyrics for Lucy Locket
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it,
There was not a penny in it,
Just a ribbon round it.
Alternative Version
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it;
Nothing in it, nothing in it,
But a binder round it.