A copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes was safely returned to Teddington Library last week after first being loaned out on the 28th June 1993.

The mystery owner returned the copy through the library's letter box and remains unidentified.

Richmond upon Thames Libraries took to twitter to thank the anonymous individual.

They said: "This was posted through our Teddington Library's letterbox recently. It seems it has been out on loan since 1993!

"Thank you to whoever returned it, we're now going to find a nice safe place for it in our store."

The classic dictionary was first published in 1951 and brings together 500 nursery rhymes, songs, nonsense jingles, lullabies and rhyming alphabets traditionally handed on to young children.

After a 29-year absence, the nursery rhyme dictionary is now safely back on the shelves at Teddington Library.

All the items have been arranged alphabetically, from `A was an apple-pie' to `Yankee Doodle came to town' and include such favourites as `A frog he would a-wooing go', `Baa, baa, black sheep', `Dance to your daddy', `Jack and Jill', and `Old Mother Hubbard'. 

With each item comes a unique set of historical and bibliographical notes that record the earliest known publication of each piece, describe the circumstances of its origin, illustrate changes in wording over time, and indicate variations and parallels in other languages.

Complementing the rhymes are nearly a hundred illustrations, including reproductions of early appearances in ballad sheets and music books, which show the development of nursery rhyme illustrations over the last two centuries.