Oct. 27. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



321 



20th of September, 1784, the above gentlemen, with 

 proper assistance, entered the church for that purpose, to 

 be directed to the identical spot by a secret history. 

 After digging some time they found a stone coffin, and 

 on opening the same discovered the entire skeleton of that 

 great and pious prince, together with the most part of 

 his steel armour, the remainder of which had probably 

 been corroded by rust and length of time. After satis- 

 fying their curiosity, the coffin was closed, as well as the 

 grave, that everything might remain as when found.' 

 In the history above alluded to, it appears that King 

 Alfred, being wounded in the battle of Stanford Briggs, 

 returned to Driffield, where he languished of his wound 

 twenty days, and then expired, and was interred in the 

 parish church thereof. During his sickness he chartered 

 four fairs, which are now annually held. On the side of 

 the chancel these lines are written, ' Within this chancel 

 lies interred the body of Alfred, King of Northumber- 

 land, who departed this life the 19th January, 901 [705?], 

 in the twentieth year of his reign, — 



" ' Statutum est omnibus semel mori.' " 



If, then, this account is really correct, there is no occasion 

 for any farther outcry about disturbing his remains at 

 Winchester ; and if you are of the same opinion, perhaps 

 you will affijrd a spare space in your columns for the 

 purpose of affording the above information, and you will 

 oblige. Sir, 



Yours respectfully, 



Jno. Ckajiphorn." 



John Cramphohn. 

 Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. 



[We cannot insert this communication without a few 

 accompanying iremarks. The extract 'given above from 

 Cook's Description of Yorkshire, is one ol' those cuttings 

 from the newspapers of the time containing several in- 

 accuracies and anachronisms. The gentlemen who exa- 

 mined the tomb at Little Driffield were not deputed by 

 the Society of Antiquaries ; but consisted of the rector 

 and curate of the parish, with two or three of the neigh- 

 bouring gentry. Moreover, it was not the tomb of Al- 

 fred the Great that was opened, but of Alfrid (variously 

 spelt in old chronicles, Alkfred, Aldfrid, and Alfrith), 

 who died at Driffield in 705, two centuries before Alfred 

 the Great {Saxon Chroti., anno 705). Again, what is 

 said of Alfred being wounded at Stanford Briggs, and 

 chartering four fairs, relates to Harold, King of Norway, 

 slain at this place, a.d. 1066, about 165 years after the 

 death of the celebrated Alfred. See Saxon Chronicle, anno 

 1066.] 



DR. STOKELErS MANUSCRIPTS, DRAWINGS, AND 

 BOOKS. 



Although Mr. Ritson and other antiquaries 

 have taken an interest in the collecting of llobin 

 Hood ballads, and have scraped together numerous 

 anecdotes of Robin Hood and his companions, I 

 have lately found some lines relating to him which 

 have not, I believe, hitherto appeared in print. 



There is living in the neighbourliood of Worces- 

 ter a gentleman of the name of Fleming St. John, 

 whose grandmother was the second daughter of 

 that well-known antiquary Dr. Stukeley, who 

 marrried Richard Fleming, Esq., an eminent soli- 

 citor. Mr. Fleming St. John's father was a pre- 



No. 313.] 



bend of Worcester, and to whom has descended 

 a valuable collection of manuscripts, drawings, 

 and books formerly belonging to the doctor. 

 Among them is an interleaved copy of Robin 

 Hood's Garland of the date of 1719, adorned, as 

 usual, with rude woodcuts. Bound up with it are 

 the title-pages of several other garlands ; and at 

 the commencement there is, in Dr. Stukeley's 

 handwriting, a very long pedigAe of Robin 

 Hood, in which his descent is traced from Raff 

 Rabj, Earl of Northumberland, to Waltheof, the 

 great earl of that name, who married Judith, 

 Countess of Huntingdon, the Conqueror's niece, 

 from whom, the pedigree states, Robert Fitzooth, 

 commonly called Robin Hood, the pretended 'E^A 

 of Huntingdon, was descended ; and that he died 

 in 1274. This pedigree is far more elaborate in 

 its genealogical tracings than that inserted by Mr. 

 Ritson in his edition of the Robin Hood Ballads, 

 1795, vol. i. p. xxi. But this fictitious pedigree, 

 and numerous other fanciful conjectures concern- 

 ing the origin and family of Robin Hood are no-^ 

 swept away by the Rev, Joseph Hunter's recent 

 discovery of documents in our national archives, 

 by which he proves him to have been a yeoman in 

 the time of Edward II. ; that he fell into the 

 king's power, when he was freeing his forests 

 from the marauders of that day ; that the king, 

 pursuing a more lenient policy towards his re- 

 fractory subjects, took Robin Hood into his ser- 

 vice, made him one of the " vadlets, porteurs de 

 la chambre," in his household ; and Mr. Hunter 

 has discovered the exact amount of wages that 

 was paid him, and other circumstances, establish- 

 ing the veritable existence of this hero of our 

 childhood. 



Introductory to the following lines, Dr. Stuke- 

 ley has written these remarks : 



"It is not to be doubted, but that many of subsequent 

 songs are compiled from old ballads wrote in the time, or 

 soon after Robin Hood, with alterations from time to 

 time into the more modern language. Mr. Le Neve 

 (Norroy) has a large half-sheet of paper which was taken 

 from the inside of some old book, which preserves in an 

 old hand a fragment of this sort. On the back of it is 

 wrote, among other accounts, this, ' It"". R. S. of Richard 

 Whitway, penter for his house sent in full payment, jxs,, 

 the vij day of November, Edw"*; iij. xv. ;' and in a later 

 hand as follows : 



" ' Syr Sheryffe, for thy sake 

 Robyn Hode wuU y take — 

 I wyll the gyffe golde and fee. 

 This beheste y*' holde me — 

 Robyn Hode, ffayre and fre, 

 Undre this lynde shote we — 

 With the shote y wyll 

 Alle thy lustes to fullfyll — 

 Have at the prj'ke. 

 And y cleve the styke — 

 Late us caste the stone, 

 I grante well be Seynte John — 

 Late us caste the exaltre. 

 Have a foote before the — 



