This story is a variation of 'Robin Hood and the Potter' (No. 121). There are three considerable gaps in the manuscript of A; but B enables us to complete the story. The passage in which the Sheriff is inveigled into Robin's haunts has close affinity with the Gest, sts. 181 ff. The first three stanzas of A apparently belong to some other ballad. B a is signed T.R., as is No. 133 in two editions. These appear to be the initials of the person who wrote the story over with middle rhyme in the third line of the stanza, a peculiarity which distinguishes a group of ballads sung to the tune of 'Robin Hood and the Stranger' (see Introduction to No. 125).
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