a man of lower grade were the subject of a ballad, Adam Bell by name, who is in danger of being reduced to an abstraction or a myth, if I have not had the good fortune to save him by laying before the public proof of his actual existence. The ballad on the death of Lewis West, in the reign of Philip and Mary, has been proved to be a simple relation of a very tragical event, by reference to contemporary documents. No one doubts the substantial truth of the Hartgill Tragedy. But it is needless to multiply instances in proof of that which few persons, even in this sceptical age, will be found to deny; and these are now referred to as proof that real events were formerly celebrated in England in popular song, that it was a usage to do so.

There is one piece of supposed evidence which, if genuine, would place the era of the outlaw's exploits at a much earlier period than that at which it seems to me that they occurred; and this must therefore be disposed of. I mean the epitaph alleged to have been inscribed on his gravestone at Kirklees. But this epitaph is clearly a fabrication, and of no very great,

listened with complacency to the praises of the great enemy of his royal house and his imperial diadem, and yet he certainly did listen to the chanting of songs of which Simon de Montfort was the subject. There is the following entry in the Journal of his Chamber, when he was staying at the Castle of Wherlton, in the seventeenth year of his reign: "Alianore le Rede et Alicie de Wherlton chauntantz devant le Roy de Mons. Simoun de Montefort, et autres chancons -de don iiii sol." The paths of antiquity are thus in some parts of their course strewn with flowers, for it is certainly a pleasing image which this simple entry calls up before us-the king sojourning in the castle of one of his barons, and listening to two damsels singing a song on the story of such a hero as De Montfort.

antiquity. The very circumstance of his being styled Earl of Huntingdon, is of itself sufficient to prove this. Of Stukeley's attempt to support this weak invention, one can only say, that the character of Dr. Stukeley, as an antiquary, is full of contradiction, sagacious and credulous, learned and ignorant, wise and weak; and that nothing is less worthy his reputation than the table in which he proposes to exhibit the descent and alliance of this hero of popular song, as a herald would exhibit them.

Some, who must see in everything more than is written, have cavilled with the surname of Hood. According to them it is nothing but "of the Wood" -Robin of the Wood; as if the surname Hood had not made itself sufficiently famous in England; as if it were not as ancient and as frequently occurring as most in the vocabulary; and as if it did not admit of being referred to one of the great classes of English surnames. It belongs, indeed, to a very interesting class: those which had been single names of the Saxon population, such as Thorold and Aldred, a little distorted indeed, but enough remaining to show us its origin in Odo or Eudo. But to put this part of the subject out of the possibility of doubt, whoever will consult the Indexes to the Record publications, will find the surname of Hood at the very period when the outlaw lived. And if other proof were wanting, I could refer them to the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield in Yorkshire, of the reign of Edward the Second. This is of the more importance, inasmuch as the Tale of Robin Hood is so peculiarly a West

Riding of Yorkshire story, and the scene of his exploits so often laid in the parts of Yorkshire, not far distant from Wakefield.a

After this preliminary matter I proceed to give an analysis of the Little Geste, intermixing, as we go along, topographical and historical illustrations.

The Little Geste is divided in Eight parts, Fyttes, as they are called, but it does not consist of that number of ballads. The rule is not one ballad, one fytte; but there is no difficulty in discovering where each original ballad begins and where it ends. The first ballad, with some little introductory matter, apparently the work of the person who strung the ballads together, is comprised in the first two fyttes, and may be entitled

Robin Hood and the Knight.

The reason for introducing the few stanzas in the beginning seems to be, that the reader should be made acquainted with the character and habits of the outlaw, and the principles on which his operations were conducted, just as an unskilful dramatist places, in the first act of his piece, information of bygone affairs with which it is desirable that the spectator should be made acquainted.

He places us at once in Barnsdale, and brings us acquainted with the name of the hero, a yeoman in

*It is unnecessary to multiply proof of Hood being a well established English hereditary name in the reigns of the Edwards: but I may mention one instance, because it was attended with the Christian name of Robert. In 28 Edward I. a Robert Hood, citizen of London, supplied the king's household with beer to the value of £114 IOS.

rank, but then an outlaw, and with his three principal associates, all indeed who in this ballad are to appear

before us.

Lithe and lysten, gentylmen,

That be of free bore blode;
I shall you tell of a good yeoman,
His name was Robyn Hode.

Robyn was a proude outlaw
Whyles he walked on ground;
So curtyse an outlawe as he was one
Was never none y founde.

Robyn stode in Bernysdale,
And lened hym to a tree,
And by hym stode Little Johan,
A good yeoman was he:

And also dyde good Scathelock
And Much, the miller's sone.

Barnsdale is the name of a pretty extensive tract of country, which till recent inclosures was woodland: a "woody and famous forest," according to Leland, in the days of Henry the Eighth.a The great North

a Leland's notice of it, though brief and open to plausible objection, is nevertheless highly interesting and important in one respect, as showing that there were traditions among the people in the neighbourhood of Barnsdale, only two centuries after the time when the outlaw lived, independent, as it would seem, of the ballads. His words are these: "Along on the lift hond a iii miles of betwixt Milburne and Feribrigge, I saw the wooddi and famose forest of Barnsdale, where they say that Robyn Hudde lyvid like an outlaw." -Itin., Ed. 1769, v. 101. It seems as if our good old antiquary was writing here from recollection, for by Milbourn he must mean Milford, and as he passed from Milford to Ferrybridge, Barnsdale would be immediately before him, not on his left hand. As at Ferrybridge, instead of pursuing his journey over Barnsdale, he turned off to Pontefract, and from thence proceeded to Nostel and Kinsley, he

Road, as heretofore it was called, crosses it between Doncaster and Ferrybridge. The traveller enters upon it a little beyond a well-known place called Robin Hood's Well, and he leaves it when he has descended to Wentbridge. The river Went is its northern boundary. It is four or five miles across. Bearing still itself evident marks of recent cultivation, it is surrounded by ancient villages. A little distance to the north are the town and castle of Pontefract, the centre of the old feudal superiority throughout this part of the West Riding. A little farther to the west is Wakefield, and beyond it the Priory of Kirklees. To the east are extensive level lands, now, as then, thinly peopled.

Here stood the outlaw and his three companions, near a lodge which he had constructed in the depths of the wood. They were meditating on what should be the business of the day. The outlaw has determined not to dine till some deed is done which shall enable him to pay for his dinner. An attack must be made on some baron, knight, or squire dwelling in those west parts, or on some "unketh gest" travelling that way. And here it is that the author steps a little aside to present us with certain principles on which Robin conducted his predatory operations, and to open to us one particular feature in his character. Living thus this unruly life he was the devotional man, hearing three masses every morning before he entered on his business; the last of which, and that which he loved

Nor does it appear that

would then pass Barnsdale on the left. Barnsdale was ever, strictly speaking, a forest.