Year: 1874

w men ftODlu 1OOu u6t aIy UaU WHO
could beat him he always invited him
to Join his band. He met q stranger
once on a bridge and was thrown by
him into the water, after a pretty good
beating with the quarterstaff. This
stranger proved to be named John
Little. He was a very large man, and
outlaws changed his name to Little
John, as sort of joke.


"And so ever after as long as he lived,


Although he WAS proper and tall.


Yet, neyertheless. the truth to express,


Still Little John they did him call"


Will Scarlet was another very i'm
portant member of the band /; and he
too had beaten Robin. George-a-Green,
the Pinder or Penner the poundkeeperl
of Wakefield Much, q miller's son ;
Maid Marian, whom Robin seems to
have married and Friar Tuck are the
others of whom we hear the most.


Alma Dale and Arthur-a- Bland are
two others. The first of these is intro
duced to us as in love with a young
damsel, who was taken from him to be
an old knights bride. and the ballad
tells US show Robin Hood, plying the
young mans case, took her from the
old knight, when they were going to be
married, and restored her to her own
love again"


One morning, when he was full of
hope, young Allin frisked through the
forest, chanting roundelay. The next
day, when his hopes were blighted by
the old knight, he was seen to "come
dropping along the way"


"The scarlet be wore the day before,


IL was clean cast away:


And at every step be fetcht sigh,
Robin Hood had compassion on poor,
distressed Allin-as who would not p
and stopped the wedding of the old
knight, giving his bride to her lover,
whom she wanted to marry. Allin
joined Robins band out of gratitude
for this.


Arthur-a-Bland was a very different
man. He was tanner of Nottingham.
and he ''tanned" Robins hide, as the
ballad says, after q well-fought contest.
de proved to be a relative of Little
M hn, and said:


"Tell me, o tell me, where is Little John!


OF him fain would hear;


For we allied by the mothers side


And he is my kinsnnan dear"


1 do not know the names of the men,
bers of the band. There were hundred
or hundred and fifty of them, and
their greatest delight appears to have
been to live free life in the woods, to
take money away from the rich and give
it to the poor, q call that robbery, and
to fight or make trials of strength. They
were wonderful archers, and suppose
could split a very narrow wand stuck in
the ground at very great distanc. 1t
was long time before guns and gun
powder were used.


1t does not appear very strange to me
that common English people liked to
sing about Robin Hood. There is some-
thing very charming in the thought of
living in the green wood. with a roof of
leaves and carpet of moss. We are apt
to think little of the rain that drips
through such a roof oftentimes, and of
the bugs that always burrow in such
carpet.


But, besides the charm of an out-of-
door life. the people thought of Robin
Hood as their champion. He fought
foreigners, and the people of almost any
country like strong man who stands
up for them against people of other
hnds. / believe this was really the
great reason why the stories of Robin
Hosd became so very popular. Perhaps
there was once a man who was much
loved who had some of his traits.
Suppose he had lived in the time of
Richard Cnur de Lion, and had been
written about, or talked about, or made
the subject of songs, think that every
new writer, or talker, or singer, would
have tried to make him appear little
more brave, a little more skillful as a
shooter, little more patriotic than he
had been, and you can see his character
would thus have grown to be very diff
ferent from what it first was.


If there had been q Robin Hood, he
would not be the Robin Hood that we
should see after all the writer's, takers,
and singers had labored over him. He
would appear to us sort of ideal man,
composed of incongruous traits of char
acter-a hero.


Much as like to think of Robin Hood
as real man, I am forced to believe
that something like what l have de-
scribed has been done to his history,
and that what we see is the portrait of
a hero of the English imagination.


Ever since-I cannot tell when-cer-
tain games and festivals have been
celebrated in England in honor of Robin
Hood. Generally they occur on May
Day; and the people dance around
May-poles, gayly dressed, calling them
selves the Abbot of Unreason-that is,
Friar Tuck-Robin Hood, Little John,
and Maid Marian. Besides that, they
fight and shoot-not in earnest now
as they used to do in old times.


Perhaps some of you have read OF
King Arthur and his wonderful Knights
of the Round Table. Mr.. Tennyson
has written q great deal about them.
They are said to have fourished six or
eight hundred years before the time of
Robin Hood, and yet I think there is a
wonderful resemblance between them
in many respects. They all we're heroes
of the people and fought foreigners.
They were all brave, gentle, and, in
their way, religious.-You will be in
terested to trace the likeness further,
some time, 1 am sure.


Though we cannot be quite positive
that Robin Hood was ever born, there
is no doubt that he died. He was bled
to death by q nun at Kirklee Hall, so
the ballads say, not far from Hudders-
field, in the western part of Yorkshire.
There his grave is shown to the curious
still. ll.-Tn1eDendent.