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DISCOVKHV 



always happens when Rubin nicots a stranger they fight 

 and wound each other. Of course all ends happily. 



In solid content together they liv'd. 



With all their yeomen gay ; 

 They liv'd by their hands, without any lands, 



And so they did many a day. 



Now there is a point about all the Robin Hood cycle 

 of ballads which strikes us and leads us to a fresh aspect 

 of the whole matter. Whenever the time of the year 

 is mentioned it is always summer, and generally early 

 too. The earliest ballad of all opens with : 



In somer when the shawes be shcyne 



And leves be large and longe, 

 Hit is full mery in feyre foreste 



To hear the foulys song. 



If we study the characters who took part in the May 

 games, we find that Robin Hood and Maid Marian 

 appear and are representatives of the Hobby Horse 

 and May Queen respectively. Probably the popularity 

 of these two brought them in, but we find in parts of 

 England a curious Christmas custom known as the 

 " Hoodening Horse." A roughly-carved horse's head 

 was carried round and a collection of money made. 

 What is the meaning behind these facts ? Is there any 

 connection between the part played by Robin Hood 

 and the Hoodening Horse, and can we see in the latter 

 a survival of a very old reverence for the horse as 

 typifying the spirit of the corn, which had to be pacified 

 in order that the year's crops might be good ? We are 

 getting out of the realms of history— if we have ever 

 been in them — beyond romance, and are trespassing in 

 the treacherous morasses of folk-lore. But the more 

 we seek to find the origin of Robin Hood, the more are 

 we attracted down seductive bypaths, and as we return 

 more puzzled than before, we realise that though we 

 are no nearer a satisfactory solution, yet we feel we are 

 studying a subject which may at any moment reveal to 

 us a vast unconqucred world. 



Probably the ballad-monger thought it only fitting 

 that his hero should die, and so a story was invented of 

 his visit to his cousin at " Kirkley-hall " and her 

 treachery in bleeding him. Wlicn he realises that he is 

 dying, Robin blows his horn and calls Little John to his 

 side, and his directions to him are well worth quoting : 



But give mc my bent bow in my hand. 



And a broad arrow I'll let flee ; 

 And where this arrow is taken up. 



There shall my grave digg'd be. 



Lay me a green sod under my head. 



And another at my feet ; 

 And lay my bent bow by my side. 



Which was my music sweet. 

 And make my grave of gravel and green. 



Which is most right and meet. 



Lft mc have length and breadth enough. 



With under my head a green sod ; 

 That they may say, when I am dead. 



Here lies bold Robin Hood. 



So it was that in the seventeenth century it was 

 thought fitting that a tomb at Kirklees Nunnery should 

 be ascribed to our hero and that his epitaph should be 

 placed on record. A later writer, early in the eighteenth 

 century, supplies us with a fresh inscription and the 

 actual date of his death — November i8, 1247. 



What, then, can we gather from all this medley of 

 fact and fiction about Robin Hood ? If he had an 

 actual living prototype, we must go back very far, so 

 far that no historical record remains. Once he had 

 become the hero of the ballad-singer Robin made rapid 

 advances, and yet most of the additions which we can 

 definitely state to be of later origin are of a stereotyped 

 form. Robin's deeds are not peculiar to him. and the 

 characters who gather round him are part of the stock 

 in trade of the professional ballad-singer. If we could 

 get the ballads in their earliest form we might learn 

 more, but that, unfortunately, is impossible and we must 

 leave Robin with the fitting words of his own chronicler : 



Thes partv'd Robyn, the screffe, and the potter. 



Ondemethe the grenewood tre ; 

 God haffe mersey on Robyn Hodys soUe. 



And saSe all god yemanrey ! 



The Radiography of 

 Pictures 



How the Forger of Spurious 



"Masterpieces" can be defeated 



by the X Rays 



By George Frederic Lees 



" Do our readers know that there exists in Paris a 

 manufactory in which artists, receiving large salaries, 

 copy the canvases of the Great Masters ? These 

 pictures are sent to the United States, a high duty is 

 paid upon them, and, being thus stamped as authentic, 

 they are then sold for their weight in gold to .American 

 millionaires. In the gallery of one of these collectors 

 can be seen quite a number of pictures the originals of 

 which are either in Paris or in the provinces." 



Writing, many years ago, in the North Amrrican 

 Review on the subject of the traffic in spurious pictures, 

 I had occasion to quote the above paragraph from a 



' Illustrated with Photographs and Radiographs by Dr. 

 Andr6 Ch6ron, of Paris. 



