_c._ 1450) introduces us, in its first five lovely
stanzas, to Sherwood; in _Robin Hood and the Potter_ (MS. of _c._ 1500),
the scene is Nottingham, in the Sherwood district. Little John refers to
Wentbridge, which lies in the heart of Barnsdale, yet knows every path
in merry Sherwood.

In the _Gest_, compiled as it is from ballads of both cycles, no attempt
was made to reconcile their various topographies; but it can be seen
that the general geography of the first division of the _Gest_ (Fyttes
I. II. and IV.) is that of Barnsdale, while the second division (Fyttes
III. V. and VI.), dealing with the Sheriff of Nottingham, mainly centres
round Sherwood. In the seventh Fytte, the King goes, presumably from
London (322.3), to Nottingham _via_ Lancashire; and the eighth jumps
from Nottingham to Kirksley.[11]

In _Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne_ (certainly an early ballad, although
the Percy Folio, which supplies the only text, is _c._ 1650), the scene
is specified as Barnsdale; yet at the end the Sheriff of Nottingham
flees to his house as if it were hard by, whereas he had a fifty-mile
run before him. The later ballads forget Barnsdale altogether.

[Footnote 10: It should be remembered that Wyntoun says that Robin
Hood plied his trade in Inglewood and Barnsdale (see ante,
p. xiv.).]

[Footnote 11: Child, in saying that 'Robin Hood has made a vow to
go from London to Barnsdale' (v. 51) seems to assume that the
'king's court' (_Gest_, 433) implies London, which, however,
is not specified.]

BARNSDALE

[Illustration:
_ROBIN HOOD'S HAUNTS_ in the West Riding of _YORKSHIRE_]

The majority of the places mentioned in the northern or Barnsdale cycle
will be found in the south of the West Riding of Yorkshire, a district
bounded by the East Riding and Lincolnshire to the east, Derby and
Nottingham shires to the south, and the river Calder to the north. To
the west, the natural boundary is the high ground of the Peak, which
divides Manchester from Sheffield.

The town of Barnsley lies slightly to the east of a line joining Leeds
and Sheffield; Barnsdale itself is east and north of Barnsley, where the
high backbone of the Pennines drops towards the flats surrounding the
river Humber. The great North Road ('Watling Street,' _Gest_, 18.2)
between Doncaster and Pontefract, crosses the small slow river Went at
Wentbridge (probably referred to in st. 135 of the _Gest_), which may be
taken as t