This is evidently a comparatively late ballad, but has not come down to us in its oldest form. The story is told to the following effect in the life of Robin Hood in Sloane MS. 715, 7, fol. 157, written, as it seems, says Ritson, towards the end of the sixteenth century. Robin Hood, going into a forest with a bow of extraordinary strength, fell in with some rangers, or woodmen, who gibed at him for pretending to use a bow such as no man could shoot with. Robin said that he had two better, and that the one he had with him was only a “birding-bow”; nevertheless he would lay his head against a certain sum of money that he would kill a deer with it at a great distance. When the chance offered, one of the rangers sought to disconcert him by reminding him that he would lose his head if he missed his mark. Robin won the wager, and gave every man his money back except the one who had tried to fluster him. A quarrel followed, which ended with Robin’s killing them all, and consequently betaking himself to life in the woods. Thoms, Early Prose Romances, II, Robin Hood, 37 ff. Douce notes in his copy of Ritson’s Robin Hood (Bodleian Library) the second stanza of this ballad as it is cited in the Duke of Newcastle’s play, ‘The Varietie’: When Robin came to Nottingham, His dinner all for to dine, There met him fifteen jolly foresters, Were drinking ale and wine. Gutch’s Robin Hood, II, 123. Translated by A. Grün, p. 61; Doenniges, p. 170. 1 Robin Hood hee was and a tall young man, Derry derry down And fifteen winters old, And Robin Hood he was a proper young man, Of courage stout and bold. Hey down derry derry down 2 Robin Hood he would and to fair Nottingham, With the general for to dine; There was he ware of fifteen forresters, And a drinking bear, ale, and wine. 3 ‘What news? What news?’ said bold Robin Hood; ‘What news, fain wouldest thou know? Our king hath provided a shooting-match:’ ‘And I’m ready with my bow.’ 4 ‘We hold it in scorn,’ then said the forresters, ‘That ever a boy so young Should bear a bow before our king, That’s not able to draw one string.’ 5 ‘I’le hold you twenty marks,’ said bold Robin Hood, ‘By the leave of Our Lady, That I’le hit a mark a hundred rod, And I’le cause a hart to dye.’ 6 ‘We’l hold you twenty mark,’ then said the forresters, ‘By the leave of Our Lady, Thou hitst not the marke a hundred rod, Nor causest a hart to dye.’ 7 Robin Hood he bent up a noble bow, And a broad arrow he let flye, He hit the mark a hundred rod, And he caused a hart to dy. 8 Some said hee brake ribs one or two, And some said hee brake three; The arrow within the hart would not abide, But it glanced in two or three.