A rhyme rooted in the lion and unicorn's old rivalry on the royal coat of arms, here turned into a scuffle over the crown that ends, rather English, with bread and cake handed round and everyone sent home. The chase-then-feast shape suits a bit of arm-waving.
Chanted to a marching beat.
From Mother Goose / Nursery Rhymes (traditional). See the whole collection.
The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown,
The Lion beat the Unicorn all around the town.
Some gave them white bread, and some gave them brown,
Some gave them plum-cake, and sent them out of town.
About this rhyme
Roud 20170 · Lion for England, unicorn for Scotland
Look at a British passport or a royal crest and you will find these two: the lion for England, the unicorn for Scotland, holding up the coat of arms. They were pushed together in 1603, when James VI of Scotland also became James I of England, and this rhyme turns that uneasy joining into a scrap over the crown. It is at least as old as the early 1700s; a close version was written down in 1708, just after England and Scotland were formally united.
Two children can be the two beasts, one chasing the other round the room, all around the town. Hand out imaginary white bread, brown bread and plum-cake as you go, then shoo them both out.
Public domain. Text from The Real Mother Goose (Blanche Fisher Wright, 1916), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition