Folk song
"The Old Woman and Her Pig" is a cumulative English nursery rhyme which originally developed in oral lore form until it was collected and first appeared as an illustrated print on 27 May 1806 as "The True History of a Little Old Woman Who Found a Silver Penny" published by Tabart &amp; Co. at No. 157 New Bond Street, London, for their Juvenile Library. Since this time it has been republished and rewritten in print form many times.
Etymology.
As the nursery rhyme has been retold and republished many times, variations in the name have appeared mostly under two broad categories:
Category one refers to the "pig", examples:
Category two refers to the "coin", examples: 
There is one publication which transcends both categories and does not mention the woman.
Classification.
Under the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU) of types of folktales, this nursery rhyme is classified as follows:
Under Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, this nursery rhyme is classified as follows:
Under the Roud Folk Song Index, this nursery rhyme is classified as follows:
Plot.
An old woman finds a silver penny while cleaning her chambers and goes to buy a pig, but can't get home when it refuses to go over a stile, she asks:
The cat accepts her request causing her demands to be met in a cascade until the pig jumps the stile, allowing the woman to go home.
The storyline has varied through adaptations made over the centuries by retellers, as listed below.
The rhyme scheme.
The rhyme scheme used for "The Old Woman and Her Pig" is simple couplets interspersed with the odd triplet as exemplified by the verses below:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;
Background and adaptations.
Near the beginning of the 19th century, there were significant improvements in the technology of printed illustrations. Publishers then recognized a market for children's illustrated books with the success of books such as "The Picture Gallery for all Good Boys and Girls: 'Exhibition the First'", which was published on 28 April 1801. Two of the earliest children's publishers were John Harris and Benjamin Tabart, who both chose to publish the common nursery rhyme: "The Old Woman and the Pig" in illustrated form. After these early forerunners, the nursery rhyme was republished numerous times, either as part of a compendium or as a stand-alone illustrated book. In the 19th century, the retellers were not given credit by publishers but by the 20th century, the retellers were given credit as they varied the rhyme and the story. A selection of popular single story retellings in the 19th and 20th centuries are listed below:
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;