The Match Woman : or The Hardness of the Times!! A young woman, wearing a mob cap, takes a bundle of matches from an old match woman and says: "You sell your matches very dear. I us'd to have three such bundles for a halfpenny." The match woman, who is old and wrinkled, and carries a basket over her arm, replies: Ah, that was before the Scarcity - 'tis all owing to the War my dear. - Timber - is scarcely to be got for love or money!! [1800-1809]