And of every handfull that he met He lept ouer fotes thre: 290 "What devilkyns draper," sayd litell Much, "Thynkyst thou to be?" Scathelocke stoode full styll and lough, And sayd, "By god allmyght, Johan may gyve hym the better mesure; 295 By god, it cost him but lyght." "Mayster," sayd Lytell Johan, All unto Robyn Hode, "Ye must gyve that knight an hors, To lede home al this good." 300 "Take hym a gray courser," sayd Robyn, "And a sadell newe; He is our ladyes messengere, God lene that he be true."[L304] "And a good palfraye," sayd lytell Moch, 305 "To mayntayne hym in his ryght:" "And a payre of botes," sayd Scathelocke, "For he is a gentyll knyght." "What shalt thou gyve him, Lytel Johan?" sayd Robyn. "Syr, a payre of gylte spores clene, 310 To pray for all this company: God brynge hym out of tene!" "Whan shall my daye be," sayd the knyght, "Syr, and your wyll be?" "This daye twelve moneth," sayd Robyn, 315 "Under this grene wode tre." "It were grete shame," sayd Robyn, "A knyght alone to ryde, Without squyer, yeman, or page, To walke by hys syde. 320 "I shall the lene Lytyll Johan my man, For he shall be thy knave; In a yemans steed he may the stonde, Yf thou grete nede have." 9 Barnsdale is a tract of country, four or five miles broad, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was, we are told, woodland until recent inclosures, and is spoken of by Leland as a "woody and famous forest" in the reign of Henry the Eighth. From the depths of this retreat to Doncaster the distance is less than ten miles, and to Nottingham, in a straight line, about fifty. A little to the north of Barnsdale is Pontefract, and a little to the northwest is Wakefield, and beyond this the Priory of Kirklees. Mr. Hunter, whom we follow here, has shown by contemporary evidence that Barnsdale was infested by robbers in the days of the Edwards. "In the last year of the reign of King Edward the First, the bishops of St. Andrew's and Glasgow, and the Abbot of Scone were conveyed, at the King's charge, from Scotland to Winchester. In this journey they had a guard, sometimes of eight archers, sometimes of twelve; but when they had got as far south as Daventry, they had no archers at all in attendance, and proceeded without a guard, in three days from thence to Winchester. But when they passed from Pontefract to Tickhill, the guard had been increased to the number of twenty archers, and the reason given in the account of the expenses of their journey, for this addition to the cost of the conveyance, is given in the two words, _propter Barnsdale_." 22. lust, Ritson.