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44 A LTTELL GESTE OF ROBYN HODE.
the ballad of Robin Hood and the King; and the remaining stanzas of the eighth the Death of Robin Hood.
Concerning the imagined historical foundation of the Lytell Geste, see the general remarks on Robin Hood prefixed to this volume.
Lithe and lysten, gentylmen,
That be of frebore blode; I shall you tell of a good yeman,
His name was Robyn Hode.
Robyn was a proude outlawe, s
"VVbyles he walked on grounde; So curteyse an outlawe as he was one
Was never none yfounde.
Robyn stode in Bernysdale,
And lened hym to a tre, w
9 Barnsdale is a tract of country, four or five miles broad, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was, we are told, woodÂland until recent inclosures, and is spoken of by Leland as a "woody and famous forest" in the reign of Henry the Eighth. From the depths of this retreat to Doncaster the distance is less than ten miles, and to Nottingham, in a straight line, about fifty. A little to the north of Banisdale is Pontefract, and a little to the northwest is Wakefield, and beyond this the Priory of Kirklees. Mr. Hunter, whom we follow here, has shown by contemporary evidence that Barns-dale was infested by robbers in the days of the Edwards. " In the last year of the reign of King Edward the First, the bishops of St. Andrew's and Glasgow, and the Abbot of Scone were conveyed, at the King's charge, from Scotland to Winchester. In this journey they had a guard, sometimes |
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