[3] A writer in the _Edinburgh Review_, (July, 1847, p. 134,) has cited an allusion to Robin Hood, of a date intermediate between the passages from Wyntown, and the one about to be cited from Bower. In the year 1439, a petition was presented to Parliament against one Piers Venables of Aston, in Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be _Robyn Hode and his meynè_." _Rot. Parl._ v. 16. [4] "Legendis non raro incredibilibus aliisque plusquam anilibus neniis." Hearne, _Scotichronicon_, p. xxix. [5] Hearne. Mr. Hunter agrees to this. [6] Hearne, p. 774. [7] _Scotichronicon_, ed. Goodall, ii. 104. [8] A comparison of the legends concerning William Tell, as they appear in any of the recent discussions of the subject, (e.g. Ideler's _Sage von dem Schuss des Tell_, Berlin, 1836,) with those of Robin Hood and Adam Bell, will be found interesting and instructive. [9] In his _Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands_, l. xi. Thierry was anticipated in his theory by Barry, in a dissertation cited by Mr. Wright in his Essays: _Thèse de Littérature sur les Viccissitudes et les Transformations du Cycle populaire de Robin Hood._ Paris, 1832. [10] London and Westminster Review, vol. xxxiii. p. 424. [11] No. 4. _The Ballad Hero, Robin Hood._ June, 1852. [12] Hunter, p. 28, p. 35-38. [13] Mr. Hunter thinks it necessary to prove that it was formerly a usage in England to celebrate real events in popular song. We submit that it has been still more customary to celebrate them in history, when they were of public importance. The case of private and domestic stories is different. [14] Most remarkable of all would this be, should we adopt the views of Mr. Hunter, because we know from the incidental testimony of _Piers Ploughman_, that only forty years after the date fixed upon for the outlaw's submission, "rhymes of Robin Hood," were in the mouth of every tavern lounger; and yet no chronicler can spare him a word. [15] Matthew Paris, London, 1640, p. 1002. [16] Mr. Hunter had previously instituted a similar argument in the case of Adam Bell, and doubtless the reasoning might be extended to Will Scathlock and Little John. With a little more rummaging of old account-books we shall be enabled to "comprehend all vagrom men." It is a pity that the Sheriff of Nottingham could not have availed himself of the services of our "detective." The sagacity that has identified the Porter might easily, we imagine, have unmasked the Potter.