oblin or a myth.' He was, in all
probability, exactly such a person as the popular songs described
him--an English yeoman, an outlaw living in the woods, and noted for
his skill in archery. Previous researches had proved, that many of our
old ballads are merely rhyming records of historical events. Mr Hunter
had already rescued one ballad-hero, Adam Bell, from the 'danger of
being reduced to an abstraction or a myth;' and it now remained for
him to undertake the same good office for a more renowned freebooter.

The first thing to be done was, of course, to examine carefully the
ballads themselves, and to ascertain the amount and value of the
evidence they afforded, as to the epoch and the real story of their
hero. It appeared, then, that 'three single ballads are found in
manuscript, which cannot be later than the fourteenth century.' There
is also a poem of considerable length, entitled _The Lytel Geste of
Robyn Hood_, which was printed by Winkyn de Worde, in or about the
year 1495. It is 'a kind of life' of the outlaw, and is composed of
several ballads, strung together by means of a few intermediate
stanzas, which give continuity to the story. The language of these
ballads is that of the preceding century--being, in fact, the same as
that of the ballads in manuscript. Thus the date of the songs
themselves is carried back as far as the fourteenth century. It is,
moreover, in the middle of this century that the first allusion to
Robin Hood occurs in any work of undoubted authority. In Longland's
poem, entitled _The Vision of Pierce Ploughman_, the date of which is
between 1355 and 1365, mention is made of 'rymes of Robyn Hood and
Randolph Earl of Chester,' the outlaw and the earl being apparently
both regarded as historical personages, about whom songs had been
written. It may be observed, that if the Robin Hood ballads were much
older than this date, it must be considered surprising that no earlier
allusion to them should be found, since in the subsequent century they
were referred to by many writers.

According to the story contained in the Lytel Geste, Robin Hood was at
the head of a band of outlaws, who made their head-quarters in
Bernysdale, or Barnesdale--once 'a woody and famous forest,' on the
southern confines of Yorkshire, in the neighbourhood of Doncaster,
Wakefield, and Pontefract; and who infested the woodlands and the
highways from thence as far as Sherwood and Nottingham, near which
ancient town some o