"He _leaped_ on his beast, and he rode with heaste, To _mak_ his black oath good; 'Twas the Lord's Day, and the folk did pray And the priest in _can_cel stood. "The door was wide, and in does he ride, In his clanking _gear_ so gay; A long keen brand he held in his hand, Our Dickon for to slay. "But Dickon goodhap he was not there, And Robin he rode in vain, And the men got up that were kneeling in prayer, To take him by might and main. "Rob swung his sword, his steed he spurred, He plunged right through the thr_a_ng. But the stout smith Jock, with his old mother's _crutch_[5], He gave him a _woundy_ bang. "So hard he smote the iron pot, It came down plume and all; Then with bare head away Robin sped, And himself was _fit_ to fall. "Robin a devil he _way'd_[6] him home, And if for his foes he seek, I think that again he will not come To _late_[7] them in Kendal kirk."[8] Y.A.C. [2] The unlettered bard has probably confused "styx" with the kindling, "yelding," of hell-fire. [3] Flame. [4] I have often wondered what namsac (so pronounced) could be, but since I have seen the story as told by "H.J.M." it is evidently "namesake." [5] Probably crook in the original, to rhyme with Jock. [6] "I way'd me" is yet used in parts of Yorkshire for "I went." [7] "To late" is "to seek;" from _lateo_, as if by a confusion of hiding and seeking.] [8] "Kirk" is not a very good rhyme to "seek;" perhaps it should be "search" and "church".] * * * * * REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. _Cavell_.--In the time of Charles I., a large tract of land lying south-eastward of Doncaster, called Hatfield Chace, was undertaken to be drained and made fit for tillage and pasture by one Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a celebrated Flemish engineer of that day, and his partners, or "participants," in the scheme, all or most of them Dutchmen. The lands drained were said to be "_cavelled and allotted_" to so and so, and the pieces of land were called "_cavells_." They were "scottled," or made subject to a tax or assessment for drainage purposes. Two eminent topographical writers of the present day are inclined to be of opinion that this word _cavell_ is connected with the Saxon _gafol_, gavel-tributum--money paid--which we have in _gavel-kind_ and _gavelage_. One of them, however, suggests that the word _may_ be only a term used in Holland as applicable to land, and then introduced by the Dutch at the time of the drainage in question. I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me if the word "cavell" is so used in Holland, or elsewhere, either as denoting any particular quantity of land, or land laid under any tax, or _tributum_, or otherwise. J.