The "Bruce" of our author is a concoction from Barbour and a certain _Book of Virgin Parchment_, upon the same subject, by Peter Fenton, known only to Gordon, and, like _Penardo_, sets propriety at defiance, "Christ and Jupiter being with matchless indecorum grouped together:"[4] it, too, came originally from the press of Dort, 1615; again from that of James Watson, Edinburgh, 1718; and a third time, Glasgow, by Hall, 1753. J. O. [Footnote 4: Irving's _Scottish Poets_.] * * * * * ROBIN HOOD. (Vol. vi., p. 597.) Ireland, too, is associated with the fame of this renowned wood-ranger. This "_pen_-ultima Thule," which received and protected the refugees of Roman oppression and the victims of Saxon extermination, was looked to in later times as a sanctuary where crime might evade punishment; and in the _Annals of Robin Hood_ this national commiseration was evinced. "In the year 1189," writes Holinshed, "there ranged three robbers and outlaws in England, among which 'Robert' Hood and Little John were chieftains, of all thieves doubtless the most courteous. Robert, being betrayed at a nunnery in Scotland, called Bricklies, the remnant of the 'crue' was scattered, and every man forced to shift for himself; whereupon Little John was fain _to flee the realm_ by sailing into Ireland, where he sojourned for a few days at Dublin. The citizens being 'doone' to understand the wandering outcast to be an excellent archer, requested him heartily to try how far he could shoot at random, who, yielding to their behest, stood on the bridge of Dublin and shot to a hillock in Oxmantown (thereafter called Little John's shot), leaving behind him a monument, rather by posterity to be wondered than possibly by any man living to be counterscored."--_Description of Ireland_, fol., p. 24. The danger, however, of being taken drove Little John thence to Scotland, where, adds the annalist, "he died at a town or village called Moravie." JOHN D'ALTON. I may perhaps be allowed to subscribe to the opinion expressed by H. K., that "though men of the name of Robin Hood may have existed in England, that of itself could afford no ground for inferring that some one of them was the Robin Hood of romantic tradition;" and at the same time to express my dissent from the conclusion, that "any pretence for such a supposition is taken away by the strong evidence, both Scotch and French," which H. K. has "adduced in support of the opposite view." The inferences which I draw from the facts adduced by H. K. are, that the fame of the hero of English ballads probably extended to France and Scotland, and that the people of Scotland probably sympathised with this disturber of the peace of the kingdom of their "aulde ennemies."