"being compelled to apply to a nun for assist ance in a disorder that required bleeding, "she performed the operation so that he died "under it.

"At Kirklees, in Yorkshire, now the seat "of the Armitage family, but which was formerly a Benedictine nunnery, and pro"bably the very place where he received his “death wound, is a grave-stone near the park,, “under which, as it is said, Robin Hood lies "buried. There is an inscription on it, now "not legible; but Mr. Ralph Thoresby, in his Ducatus Leodiensis, from the papers of "Dr. Gale, dean of Yorke, gives the following as his epitaph :

"Dr. Perey doubts the genuineness of this epitaph, and with good reason; for the "affected quaintness of the spelling, and the

"even pace of the metre, are certainly ground "for suspicion."*

He

This epitaph certainly wears a suspicious appearance, and as such was considered by the late Bishop of Dromore, who, notwithstanding, on the authority of Stukeley's pedigree, seems inclined to allow to Robinhood the claim of baronial descent. accounts for the probability of such a personage as our outlaw having existed and signalized himself by such habits, atchievements, and course of life, as are attributed to him in the old and popular songs of our country, in a very natural and judicious manner.

"The severity of those tyrannical forest "laws, (says he,) which were introduced by our "Norman kings, and the great temptation ❝ of breaking them, by such as lived near the

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royal forests, at a time when the yeomanry "of this kingdom were every where trained 66 up with the long bow, and the art of shoot'ing, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such "as were the best marksmen. These natu * Sir John Hawkins's History of Music, vol. i. p. 413,

"rally fled to the woods for shelter, and

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forming into troops, endeavoured by their "numbers to protect themselves from the "dreadful penalties of their delinquency. "The ancient punishment for killing the "king's deer was, loss of eyes, and emascula"tion; a punishment far worse than death. "This will easily account for the troops of "banditti which formerly lurked in the royal "forests, and from their superior skill in arσε chery, and knowledge of all the recesses of "those unfreqnented solitudes, found it no "difficult matter to resist or elude the civil

power." Such troops must necessarily have had leaders; and these would of course be selected from the most daring and expert of the respective bands; one of whom, from his superior hardihood, skill, and wild generosity; "which robbed the rich to feed the poor,' obtained a popularity above his fellows, in his own time; and has been handed down to the present day, by traditionary stories, and popu lar ballads, under the well-known appellation of ROBINHOOD.

*Percy's Ancient Poems, &c. v. i. 82.

Before we dismiss this celebrated archer, who makes so interesting a figure in Ivanhoe, we cannot but notice the pleasing manner in which our author has represented his personal appearance; as well as the accuracy with which he has described his costume. The masterly painting of Chaucer, indeed, gives the portrait of a forester two hundred years after the time of Locksley; but, it is probable, that no - great alteration had taken place in the garb of an English dweller in the green-wood, from the reign of Richard I. to that of Richard II.

And he was cladde in cote and hode of grene;
A sheaf of peacock arwes bright and kene
Under his belt he bare full thriftily:
Well could he dresse his takel yemenly:
His arwes drouped not with fetheres lowe,
And in his hand he bare a mighty bowe.

A not-hed + had he, with a browne vissage;
Of woode crafte‡ could he wel alle the usage;
Upon his arme he bare a gaie bracer,§
And by his side a swerd and a bokefer ;
And on that other side a gaie daggere,

* The peacock's feathers seem to have been generally made use of for fea, thering arrows.-Wart. Hist. Eng. Poet. 457, note (1).

+ Not-hed. His hair closely cut; so that his head appeared like a nut,
↑ Woode-crafte. The wiles of hunting.

Bracer. Armour for the arms. Roger Ascham give the following use of it: "A bracer" (says he)" serveth for two causes: one to save his arm from the ་་ strype of the stringe, and his doublet from wearing. And the other is, that the "stringe gliding sharplye, and quicklye, off the bracer may make the sharper "shot."

Harneised wel, and sharpe as point of speare;
A Christofir ** on his brest of silver shone ;
An horn he bare the baudric ++ was of grene..
A Forster was he sotheley as I guess t

MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

LANGUAGE. The diction adopted by the Author of Waverley, in the Novel of Ivanhoe, and the defect in the manner of its being employed, we have already adverted to: but, in the former particular he had a difficulty to encounter; and it is not easy to see, how he could completely have surmounted it. The language of our country in the twelfth century would now be unintelligible from its obsoleteness; our modern tongue would have been in sipid from its familiarity; and the only means left him, in order to obtain that hue of antiquity in the phraseology of his story, which its date required, was, to seek the forms of expression

A Christopher. A little image of St. Christopher, who was the patron of Яeld sports.

++Baudric. The Baldrick or strap by which the horn was suspended-Jun Etymol. in voc. Bawdreck.

‡‡ Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.