Dec. 21, 1912 
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Robin Hood, Bold Bowman of Sherwood Forest 
An Old Story Retold 
By JOSEPH JESSOP, Coronado Beach, California 
R OBIN, whose real name is said to have been 
Robert Fitzooth, was born at Loxley Chase 
near Sheffield, Yorkshire, and was purpose¬ 
ly bled to death by his cousin, a nun at Kirklees 
Hall, about two miles from Huddersfield, in 
Yorkshire, and only a few miles from where I 
was born. In the grounds at Kirklees, and only 
a short distance from the old hall, the residence 
of Sir George Armytage, Bart., can be seen the 
grave of this famous outlaw. The stone slab 
surrounded by heavy iron railings bears the fol¬ 
lowing inscription in very old English, but 
modernized is as follow's: 
“Here underneath this little stone 
Lies Robert, Earl of Huntingdon. 
N’er archer were as he so good, 
And people called him Robin Hood. 
Such outlaws as he and his men, 
Will England never see again.” 
“Obit, 24 Kal Decembris, 1247.” 
Robin’s main stronghold was in Sherwood 
forest, near Nottingham, where he held high 
carnival, robbing fat bishops, high prelates and 
whoever came in his way if they had plenty of 
money, but it has never been recorded that he 
molested the poor. 
On the contrary, it is said, he robbed the 
rich and gave it to the poor, and the fatherless 
and the widow was his special care. It is said 
that his band, composed of the best men in the 
country, consisted of one hundred men. 
His manner of recruiting was somewhat 
singular, for in the words of an old writer, 
“Wheresoever he heard of any that were of 
unusual strength and hardiness, he would dis¬ 
guise himself, and rather than fail go like a 
beggar to become acquainted with them, and 
after he had tried them with fighting, never give 
them over until he had used means to draw them 
to live after his fashion.’’ 
Their unusual way of fighting was what was 
called the quarter staff, and the better the drub¬ 
bing he got, the better he liked his man. In 
the great forests which covered the best part of 
the north of England at that time he reigned 
like an independent sovereign at perpetual war 
indeed, with the King of England and all his 
subjects, with the exception, however, of the 
poor and needy. When molested by a superior 
force in one place, he retired to another, still 
defying the power of the law and the Govern¬ 
ment. The deer with which the royal forests 
then abounded afforded our hero and his com¬ 
panions an ample supply of food throughout the 
year. ' ' ' • | : || j I *[ 
The feats of marksmanship of Robin and his 
men were wonderful, if true. It is said that 
Robin could take two arrows from his sheath 
and at thirty paces could cut off a leaf from a 
tree and shoot the other arrow through the leaf 
before it fell to the ground. His other accom¬ 
plishments at the butts were to hit the dead 
center of the target and split the arrow with 
the next shot. The William Tell act would be 
nowhere compared with this. 
Robin and his leading men—that is, Little 
John, Will Scarlet, Allen A Dale and Much, the 
Miller’s Son, “Whose every inch of his body 
was worth a whole man, according to Robin’s 
idea’ - —were said to have been dressed in Lincoln 
green, or light green, and the remainder in 
brown, and the foresters and gamekeepers in 
Lancashire and Yorkshire to my knowledge are 
thus dressed to this day, the headkeepers in 
green coats and the underkeepers in brown coats, 
mostly velvet. Friar Tuck was said to have been 
dressed in dark gray, with an immense hood, 
and of course Robin’s band was never complete 
without old Tuck. Robin's bow is still preserved, 
they say, at Fountain’s Abbey in Yorkshire. 
It was in the river near this venerable old 
pile where Robin commanded Friar Tuck to 
carry him across the stream, and where the 
wily old Friar dumped Robin in when he got 
in the middle. 
The many dramatic pieces of which Robin 
Hood is hero, or in which he is introduced as 
an important character, indicate the extensive 
popularity of the wondrous bowman. He is men¬ 
tioned several times in Shakespeare. In the “Two 
Gentlemen of Verona' one of the outlaws swears 
“By the bare Scalp of Robin Hood’s fat friar.” 
In the comedy “As You Like It” where on Oliver 
asking, “Where will the old Duke live?” Charles 
answers, “They say he is already in the forest 
of Arden, and a merry man with him, and they 
live like old Robin Hood of England.” 
No fewer than a dozen lanes, courts and 
alleys in London bear the name of Robin Hood, 
and it looks as if his name and fame will be 
popular for all time. 
And of Tuck the merry Friar, which many a sermon 
made 
In praise of Robin Hood, his outlaws and their trade. 
An hundred valiant men and this brave Robin Hood, 
Still ready at his call, that bowmen were right good. 
All clad in Lincoln green, with caps of red and blue, 
His fellows winded horn not one of them but knew, 
When setting to their lips their little bugles shrill. 
The warbling echoes waked from every dale and hill, 
Their baldricks set with studs, athwart their shoulders 
cast, 
To which under their arms their shafts were buckled fast; 
All made of Spanish yew, their bows were wonderous 
strong. 
They not an arrow drew but was a cloth-yard long. 
Of archery they had the perfect craft, with broad arrow, 
or 
Butt, or prick, or roving shaft. At marks full ten score 
They used to prick and rove. 
Yet higher than the breast for compass never strove; 
Yet at the farthest mark, a foot could hardly win, 
At long-outs, short, and hoyles, each one could cleave 
the pin; 
Their arrows finely paired, for timber and for feathers, 
With birch and brazel pierced, to fly in any weather; 
And shot they with the round, the square, or forked pile, 
The loose gave such a twang, as might be heard a mile. 
And of those archers brave, there was not any one 
But he could kill a deer, his swiftest speed upon, 
Which they did boil and roast in many a mighty wood, 
Sharp hunger the fine sauce, to their more kingly food. 
Then taking them to rest, his merry men and he, 
Slept many a summer’s night under the greenwood tree. 
MAJOR OAK IN SHERWOOD FOREST, ENGLAND. 
It is said Robin Hood slept under this tree in summer. 
Hollow trunk will hold fifteen people. 
FROM WINDOW MARKED WITH A CROSS ROBIN HOOD 
SHOT HIS LAST ARROW, DEC. 24, 1247. 
