The record-union., 1891-02-08
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINGS.
A Wild Night Ride From Arnold
to Nottingham.
songs of the Awfu1-voiced but Kindly
Butchers in Robin Hoods Land
The Royal Hunting Resort at Sher-
wood Forest-Traditions and Gus
toms.
Irregular Correspondence OF the SUNDAY
UNION. Copyright, 1911
NOTTINGHAM Eng.), Jan. %, 1891.

NOTTINGHAM {Eng.), Jan. %, 1891.
had tramped from Newstead Abbey,
from the drear region of Robin Hoods
Hills, to Arnold, on my return way to
Nottingham. 1t was late at night and no
conveyance or train could be had TO the
ancient city. The long, lane-like manu-
featuring hamlet possessed but two inns.
These We're .public-houses," roadside
dramshops rather than hostelries. At one
had been refused entertainment for the
night and warned away, because the old
lady who kept it took good English
oath l was play-actor or other mounte-
bank, and would, somehow, depart too
early in the morning with more than my
reckoning. AT the other, "The Lone
Tree Inn,' the modesty of the two
maiden ladies in charge forbade the
housing Of an unvouched Man. 1 could
sit in the tap-room parlor on the high
leather-covered SetteeS until the closing
at midnight. Then must go.
Utterly tatigued from long days wan
dering in Robin Hoods Land, and des-
perate at the prospect of an all-night's
tramp into Nottingham, how longed for
the welcome of some hedge-side Gipsy
camp! Expressing this in humble pro-
Lone Tree Inn at Arnold. Then, as
was being invited to take the road, like a
Gypsy indeed, a portly, kindly-faced man
came in. He owned the largest mill in
Arnold; was a more powerful man than
the lord of the manor; and my fate was in
allegiance while he drank his nightly glass
of gin and soda, and blinked at me, as
mingled emotions of suspicion, ,perplexity
and hospitality played over his good
English face. The spinster barmaids, the
rough factory hands, and all the tap-room
hangers-on of a midtown, awaited the
great mans dictum regarding the intruder
with respectful silence. This was that it
never, never should be said that
H'arnold-by-N nottingham, was in'ospita-
bic or.discourteous to a stranger. ''Ear !!
-'ear.' came from the tap-room con-
tingent. E might be a play-h' actor. 'e
might be a mountebank, 'e might even
consort with those h'outcasts OF society,
the 'orrid Gipsies, but h'again it should
never be said that H'arnold- by n Notting-
'am refused the h'aiding land. ''Ear! !!
-'ear !-earw roared the audience all
So, as some of the great mans friends,
some honest Nottingham butchers, would
be directly returning home from Oxton
way, by grace and shift / was to
be got into one of there carts,
and thence to old Nottingham and
an inn. Charging the crowd thus, and
tuc SCOTe W III y SCH, WHICH was gratefully
expunged from the records of Lone Tree
Inn," the great man of Arnold went his
way, while went to sleep.
How long l had been doing / know
not, but when | awakened it was with a
sense of being shot through the earth's
circumambient blue. Four huge fellows
encased in woolen sacks to their feet had
tossed me into one Of their carts like
quarter of a beef. l struck upon pile of
freshly slaughtered pork in comfort
able position at the edge of the cart-box,
while low ar ye now, oP cockey?''
Nigh onto sixteen stone weight!' 1.-The
guy 'nor's cold stiff with cheer!" and like
suggestive chaffings were mingled with
partingS from the crowd at the Lone
Tree Inn" There we-e half-score of
carts: a score of butchers. Huge, awful
voiced, kindly men they were, with won
dertul hallooings and song as they pushed
their stout horses at terrific speed down
that broad stone road through the glisten-
ing, crispy night. Cottage and castle
dimly appeared and as instantly van
lshed. Copse and hedge seemed set in
mad pace the other way. On we sped to
old Nottingham, frightening belated cot
tagers with the rushing, clamor and song
There were some superb voices among
these rollicking Nottingham butchers as
you will everywhere find among the
lowly of all the midland and northern
A1hSAioh SLlltS. Dut IlOTe Impressive 10
me, with my own head full of Robin
Hood, than my perilous seat on the edge
OF a bounding cart-boX, was the character
OF the songs they sung. Every one identi-
fed the butchers, or "fesher's,p yoca-
ton with incidents in the life of Robin
Hood.
One ofthese songs told how Robin him
self was butchers prentice, and be-
came an outlaw on account of a miserly
fppling ich4c o,,I
liver, and wore the flesh from his bones
with the unmercifid address with which
he was forced to Scrape the fat from the
bones of animals. Another related the
marvellous escape from death of a Not
ungham butcher in the year 1923, when
King Edward II. made his progress,
into the north countrie." Enraged at
the dearth of meat in Nottingham, the
king called the chief fiesher of the city
before him, and ordered him, ON pain of
death, to provide four-score goodly kline.
dressed for the turnspit, to be made
ready before the dawn of the following
day. This was an impossible task. Pass
butcher encountered beggar, who as
"a boon" asked only to know the nature
of his misfortune, and Immediately dis
appeared. The butcher passed that day
and night preparing for eternity, and,
like loyal subject set forth for the castle
at dawn to get his head chopped off.
when he found ''four-score and more''
beautifully dressed carcasses of King
Edwards own fallow deer hanging in
the market-place. Each had an arrow
wound in the side; and so it was
known that Robin Hood and his men had
saved the butchers life, and by the same
token cleverly challenged bout with
the officers of King Edward himself
Another, the most rollicking of all, went
SO far as to assert that the righteousness,
the red faces, the huge paunches, the gem
eral good cheer, as well as some other
marked characteristics of the Noting
ham butchers, are hereditarily due to the
progenitor of them all. Him the ballad
asserts to: have been lordly abbot, noted
IN the fourteenth century for both piety
and wealth. Robin Hood and his men
had captured the abbot and his money!
bags. In return the outlaw so royally en-
tertained him, that the abbot fell from
grace. The love for flesh and ale grew so
strong upon him that he renounced his
in Nottingham. The outlaws, now his
friends, supplied his stalls with meat
from the Kings forest of Sherwood. and
his butts with wine of which the neigh
boring monasteries and priories had been
despoiled. Hence the clerical mold of
form, face and character, as the butchers
say in raillery, and certainly as tradition
transmitted, of the jolly butchers of Not
tingham.
Soon the spires and chimneys of the
ancient city pushed through the line of
saffrony night-light above it. Then the
strange cavalcade thundered along the
cobbled streets, and, after travelling sew
eral narrow closes, drew up with a crash
in front of a curious old structure near
the market-place. After much shouting,
and ringing, an old servitor appeared.
The butchers hoisted me from the cart
much the same as they shot me into it.
Despite my protests that / was domiciled
at an inn in Peck Lane, was under their
charge. To an inn of their choosing 1