On cakes and hot cross buns

from The Baby’s Bouquet by Walter Crane

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters,
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

Nursery rhymes in general are a precious store of cultural history and popular wisdom, and the above rhyme is no exception. For many centuries, buns were marked with a holy cross throughout the year, as a religious symbol to…