An innocent life, yet far astray!

And Ruth will, long before her day,

Be broken down and old:

Sore aches she needs must have! but less

Of mind than body's wretchedness,

From damp, and rain, and cold.

If she is prest by want of food,

She from her dwelling in the wood
Repairs to a road-side;

And there she begs at one steep place,
Where up and down with easy pace
The horsemen-travellers ride.

That oaten Pipe of hers is mute,
Or thrown away; but with a flute
Her loneliness she cheers:
This flute, made of a hemlock stalk,
At evening in his homeward walk
The Quantock Woodman hears.

I, too, have pass'd her on the hills
Setting her little water-mills
By spouts and fountains wild-
Such small machinery as she turn'd
Ere she had wept, ere she had mourn'd,
A young and happy Child!

Farewell! and when thy days are told,
Ill-fated Ruth! in hallow'd mould

Thy corpse shall buried be;

For thee a funeral bell shall ring,

And all the congregation sing
A Christian psalm for thee.

OBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE. There are few, in England, who have heard nothing of Robin Hood,

"The English yeoman's pride and joy."

His only history is to be found in ballads; barely sufficient is known of him to clothe him in romance: the period in which he flourished is five or six centuries removed, yet there is no name among the thousands sacred to British memories so completely "familiar" as a "household word." That a courageous and courteous outlaw called Robin Hood did exist, towards the close of the twelfth century, had a numerous band of brave and daring associates, for a very long period set the law at defiance, and haunted, chiefly, the forest of merrie Selwood, in Nottinghamshire, is proved upon safe testimony: but doubts may reasonably be entertained concerning his claim to the earldom of Huntingdon, accorded to him in songs comparatively modern; and equally as to the derivation of his surname, whether it came from his alleged ancestors, the Normans, Fitz Odoth or Fitz-ooth, or was merely a corruption of "O' th' Wood," in allusion to the scene of his principal exploits. It would appear, on comparing the several authorities, prosaic and poetic, that about the year 1190, in the reign of the first Richard, Robin Hood was a leader of renowned thieves, who infested forests in the shires of Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Nottingham.

"In Locksly town, in merry Nottinghamshire

In merry sweet Locksly town,

There bold Robin Hood was born and was bred,

Bold Robin of famous renown."

He was probably outlawed, originally, for slaying the royal deer, a crime which subjected the offender to dreadful and repulsive penalties. His skill as an archer, combined with other advantages, natural and acquired, becoming famous, he was joined by many others equally impatient of restraint or reckless of character;

"Such as the fury of ungovern'd youth

Thrust from the company of awful men."

And it is easy to imagine that, in time, he succeeded in so disciplining his forces that they became a formidable band, whom, according to an early historian, "four times the number of the bolder fellows durst not attack." His mode of selecting his associates was calculated to create "a stout army;" for "whersoever he hard of any that were of unusual strength and hardiness, he would desgyse himselfe, and, rather than fayle, go lyke a beggar to become acquaynted with them; and, after he had tryed them with fyghting, never give them over tyl he had used means to drawe [them] to lyve after his fashion." The old ballads are full of these trials of strength; experiments to prove the mettle of the neophyte; and although Robin is described, in nearly all of them, as roundly and soundly beaten, he is always made to take a drubbing in good