he northern boundary of Barnsdale. That this part of the North
Road was considered unsafe for travellers as early as Edward I.'s reign
is shown by the fact that a party going from Scotland to Winchester, and
for most of the journey guarded by a dozen archers, saw fit to increase
their number of guards to twenty between Pontefract and Tickhill,
the latter being on the border of Yorkshire and Nottingham, south of
Doncaster.

The remaining places, except those explained in the footnotes, may be
dealt with here.

'Blyth' (_Gest_, 27.4, 259.4), twice mentioned as a place at which to
dine, is a dozen miles south of Doncaster, and in Nottingham; it is
almost exactly half-way between Barnsdale and Sherwood.

'Verysdale' (_Gest_, 126.4) may be Wyersdale, a wild tract of the old
Forest of Lancashire, near Lancaster.

'Holderness' (_Gest_, 149.1) is the nose of Yorkshire; between the
south-easterly turn of the Humber below Hull and the North Sea.

'Kyrkesly' (_Gest_, 451.3, 454.3), or 'Churchlees' (_Robin Hood's
Death_, 1.3). Kirklees Priory is on the left or north bank of the river
Calder, a few miles north of Huddersfield.

'St. Mary Abbey' is 'here besyde' (_Gest_, 54.4) and in York (84.4).

SHERWOOD

The name of Sherwood is not mentioned in the _Gest_, though that of
Nottingham is frequent. The old forest was a district about twenty-five
miles square, lying to the north of Nottingham, between that town and
Worksop, including Mansfield and, to the north, the district now known
as 'the Dukeries,' _i.e._ the parks of Welbeck, Clumber and Rufford.
There is a village of Sherwood, a northern suburb of Nottingham, and a
Sherwood Hall near Mansfield; between the two may be found Friar Tuck's
Well, Robin Hood's Well, Robin Hood's Stable, and a Robin Hood Hill.
But, as has been pointed out above, these names have little significance
in view of the fact that similarly-named objects can be found in other
counties.

It is more interesting to note that a pasture called 'Robynhode Closse'
(_i.e._ close) is mentioned in the Nottingham Chamberlain's accounts as
early as 1485, and a 'Robynhode Well' in 1500.

SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ROBIN HOOD

RITSON, Joseph. Robin Hood: A Collection of all the ancient Poems,
Songs, and Ballads, now extant, relative to that celebrated English
Outlaw. 2 vols. London, 1795.

GUTCH, John Matthew. A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode, with other Ancient
and Modern Ballads and Songs relating to this