44. 'A Robynhode,' etc.
In the Convocation Books of the Corporation of Wells, Somerset, vol. ii, "under the 13th Henry 7, Nicholas Trappe being master, there is the following curious entry, relative, apparently, to a play of Robin Hood, exhibitions of dancing girls, and church ales, provided for at the public expense.
"'Et insuper in eadem Convocatione omnes et singuli burgenses unanimi assensu ad tune et ibidem dederunt Magistro Nicolao Trappe potestatem generalem ad inquirendum in quorum manibus pecuniæ ecclesiæ ac communitatis Welliæ sunt injuste detentæ; videlicet, provenientes ante hoc tempus de Robynhode, puellis tripudiantibus, communi cervisia ecclesiæ, et hujusmodi. Atque de bonis et pecuniis dictæ communitati qualitercunque detentis, et in quorumcunque manibus existentibus. Et desuper, eorum nomina scribere qui habent hujusmodi bona, cum summis, etc.'" H.T. Riley in the First Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1874, Appendix, p. 107.
The passage in the Wells Convocation Records is perhaps illustrated by an entry in the Churchwardens' Accounts of the Parish of Kingston-upon-Thames, cited by Ritson, Robin Hood, 2d ed., I, cxviii, from Lysons, Environs of London, 1792, I, 228:
With this may be compared the following:
(Churchwardens' Accompts of St. Helen's [at Abingdon, Berks], Archæologia, I, 18). This latter entry is loosely cited by Ritson, I, cxiv, 2d ed., as dating from 1556. Ibidem may be found his opinion as to R.H.'s bower (n. *). Hampson, Medii Ævi Kalendarium, I, 265, quotes this entry, also with the wrong year. He has no doubt about the Bower: "An arbour, called Robin Hood's Bower, was erected in the church-yard, and here maidens stood gathering contributions." I, 283. (All the above by G.L.K.)
P. 46 b, note. The Sloane Manuscript cited by Ritson as No 715 is No 780 (which is bound up with 715) and is "paper, early xviith century:" Ward, Catalogue of Romances, etc., I, 517. This correction is also to be made at p. 121 b, note; pp. 129 a, 173 b, 175 b.
51 b, sts 62-66.
The late Miss Hamilton McKie, New Galloway, told me this story:
A sturdy beggar, or luscan, came to a farm-house among the hills and asked quarters for the night. The gudewife, before entrusting him with the bedclothes in which to sleep in one of the outhouses, required a pledge or security for their return. He said he had none to offer but his Maker, and got his night's lodging. In the morning he walked off with the bedclothes, but, becoming bewildered in a mist, he wandered about the whole day, and in the evening, seeing the light of a house, made towards it and knocked at the door. A woman opened it and said, "Your Cautioner has proved gude!" He had come back to the same house.
Mactaggart gives the story in his Gallovidian Encyclopedia, p. 325, but without the trait of the security. (W. Macmath.)
46 b, line 9. Read S.S. for S.G.
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