162 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 172. 



The " Bruce " of our author is a concoction from 

 Barbour and a certain Book of Virgin Parchment, 

 upon the same subject, by Peter Feiiton, known 

 only to Gordon, and, like Penardo, sets propriety 

 at defiance, " Christ and Jupiter being with match- 

 less indecorum grouped together:"* it, too, came 

 originally from the press of Dort, 1615; again from 

 that of James Watson, Edinburgh, 1718; and a 

 third time, Glasgow, by Hall, 1753. J. O. 



ROBIN HOOD. 



(Vol. vi., p. 597.) 



Ireland, too, is associated with the fame of this 

 renowned wood-ranger. This "joen-ultima Thule," 

 which received and protected the refugees of Ro- 

 man oppression and the victims of Saxon exter- 

 mination, was looked to in later times as a sanctuary 

 where crime might evade punishment ; and in the 

 Annals of Robin Hood this national commiseration 

 was evinced. 



"In the year 1189," writes Holinshed, "there 

 ranged three robbers and outlaws in England, among 

 which ' Robert ' Hood and Little John were chieftains, 

 of all thieves doubtless the most courteous. Robert, 

 being betrayed at a nunnery in Scotland, called 

 Bricklies, the remnant of the ' crue' was scattered, and 

 every man forced to shift for himself; whereupon 

 Little John was fain to flee the realm by sailing into 

 Ireland, where he sojourned for a few days at Dublin. 

 The citizens being 'doone' to understand the wander- 

 ing outcast to be an excellent archer, requested him 

 heartily to try how far he could shoot at random, who, 

 yielding to their behest, stood on the bridge of Dublin 

 and shot to a hillock in Oxmantown (thereafter called 

 Little John's shot), leaving behind him a monument, 

 rather by posterity to be wondered than possibly by 

 any man living to be counterscored." — Description of 

 Ireland, fob, p. 24. 



The danger, however, of being taken drove 

 Little John thence to Scotland, where, adds the 

 annalist, " he died at a town or village called Mo- 

 ravie." John D' Alton. 



I may perhaps be allowed to subscribe to the 

 opinion expressed by H. K., that " though men of 

 the name of Robin Hood may have existed in 

 England, that of itself could afford no ground for 

 inferring that some one of them was the Robin 

 Hood of romantic tradition;" and at the same 

 time to express my dissent from the conclusion, 

 that " any pretence for such a supposition is taken 

 away by the strong evidence, both Scotch and 

 French," which H. K. has " adduced in support of 

 the opposite view." 



The inferences which I draw from the facts ad- 

 duced by H. K. are, that the fame of the hero of 

 English ballads probably extended to France and 



Scotland, and that the people of Scotland pro- 

 bably sympathised with this disturber of the peace 

 of the kingdom of their " aulde ennemies." 



I must, however, confess that I have not met 

 with any portion of "the discussion about the 

 nature of Robin Hood," excepting that contained 

 in Ritson's Notes and Hunter's Tract, and that 

 the evidence adduced in the latter publication, in 

 support of the tradition handed down to us in the 

 ballad entitled A Lyttel Geste of Rohyn Hode, 

 seems to me to satisfactorily show that " the 

 Robin Hood of romantic tradition really existed 

 in England in the time of Edward II." 



J. Lewelyn Curtis. 



Irving's Scottish Poets. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Originator of Collodion Process (Vol. vii., 

 pp. 47. 92. 116.). — The fairest way of deciding 

 M. Le Gray's claims would be, to quote what he 

 really says. 



Willat's pamphlet, published in 1850, entitled 

 A Practical Treatise, Sj-c, by Gustave Le Gray, 

 translated by Thomas Cousins, ends with an ap- 

 pendix, which runs thus : 



" I have just discovered a process upon glass by 

 hydrofluoric ether, the fluoride of potassium, and soda 

 dissolved in alcohol 40"^, mixed with sulphuric ether, 

 and afterwards saturated with collodion ; I afterwards 

 re-act with aceto-nitrate of silver, and thus obtain 

 proofs in the camera in five seconds in the shade. I 

 develope the image by a very weak solution of sulphate 

 of iron, and fix with hyposulphite of soda. I hope by 

 this process to arrive at great rapidity. Ammonia 

 and bromide of potassium give great variations of 

 promptitude. As soon as my experiments are com- 

 plete I will publish the result in an appendix. This 

 application upon glass is very easy : the same agents 

 employed with albumen and dextrine, give also ex- 

 cellent results and very quick. I have also expe- 

 rimented with a mucilage produced by a fucus, a kind 

 of sea-weed, which promises future success. I hope 

 by some of these means to succeed in taking portraits 

 in three or four seconds." 



I know not at what time of the year the 

 pamphlet came out, nor whether the appendix 

 was subsequently added ; but my copy containing 

 it was bought about the middle of August, 1850. 



Thos. D. Eaton. 



[We have much pleasure in inserting this commu- 

 nication, as it may be the means of drawing fresh 

 attention to the other substances mentioned by Le 

 Gray ; for we are strongly of opinion that, notwith- 

 standing the advantages of collodion, there are other 

 media which may prove preferable. — Ed.] 



The Soiling of the Fingers may be entirely 

 avoided by a simple expedient. Use a slightly 

 concave horizontal dish for sensitizing, and a depth 

 of solution not sufficient to wet the back of the 

 coUodionized plate, and after the impressed plate 



