often look back with interest, life in the greenwood was common ;-but in a climate like ours, the halo which has been thrown around it by poetry and tradition is in a great degree deceptive. The writer of "The Olden Time" for example, speaks enthusiastically of the period,

"When the outlaw dwelt 'neath the greenwood tree,
Chasing the red deer merrily;

And England's bowmen battled stour,
On the fields of Cressy and Agincour."

Immediately after the Norman Conquest, an unusually large number had their residence in the recesses of the forest; living of course in humble habitations which were difficult of access, and whose locality was little known. M. Thierry says,—

As to the Anglo Saxons who could not or would not emigrate, many of them sought refuge in the forests with their families; and if they were rich and powerful, with their servants and vassals. Old narratives and legends, and the popular romances of the English have shed a kind of poetic tint on the character of the bold outlaw, and over the wandering and unrestrained life he led in the green woods and glades.

Another period of residence in the forest, was after 1265; when the followers of De Montfort Earl of Leicester who had been vanquished at Evesham, sought refuge from the oppression of Henry III. and his triumphant but unpopular friends. To this period, now just six centuries ago, we may probably assign Robin Hood. He is perhaps little more than an impersonation of the outlaw in general, who was repaid in popular sympathy for the privations which he bore in respect to domestic comforts. "To the little band," says an able writer, "who preferred making the shadowy desert' their "dwelling place, the northern mountains and forests, especially

* See the Robin Hood Ballads by Ritson; the Introduction to Gutch's Robin Hood; and "Introduction to the Robin Hood Ballads," Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, vol. i.

"the latter, afforded the most eligible retreat."

In the summer time, their life was sufficiently agreeable*; and accordingly we find that almost all the adventures of the outlaw and his men took place at that season of the year. A few quotations may suffice to show this. That they had houses of some sort is evident, not only from the nature of the case, but also from allusions which occur incidentally in the poems.§

Shakspeare, who lived more than three centuries later, was familiar with circumstances virtually the same. It is true that towns, villages, farms, pastures, and factories then covered much of the face of the country, but it is also true that many forests still remained, of less extent in general than in the days of Hereward or Robin Hood, but yet sufficiently large to shelter men of wild habits, or whose appetite for venison was stronger than their regard for the

*In Sweden the residents in towns are in the habit of resorting to the woods in summer, almost in the same way as they visit the sea-side in other countries.

+ "When Phoebus had melted the sickles of ice
And likewise the mountains of snow,

Bold Robin Hood he would wander away
To frolic abroad with his bow."

"In summer time, when leaves grow green,
And birds sing on every tree,
Robin Hood went to Nottingham
As fast as he could dree."

"Whan shaws been sheene and schrobbes ful feyre,
And leaves both large and longe,

It's merrye walkyng in the fayre forest
To heare the small birdes songe."

"In summer time when leaves are green
And flowers both great and gay."

"Hit befell at Whitsuntyde

Early on a May mornyng."

At the great bunting-parties in the Highlands, hundreds of men were (and it may be still are) accustomed to live out of doors during the whole of August and perhaps part of September. Taylor the water poet attended such a hunting in the seventeenth century, and he says-"I was for the space of twelve days, after [leaving an old castle in Braemar,] "before I saw either house or corn-field, or habitation for any creature but deer, wild horses, wolves, and such like creatures,—wh made me doubt that I should never have seen a house again."

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§ They brought hym unto the lodge dore

When Robyn hym gan se.

laws of property. His own biography exhibits something more than mere sympathy for their illegal practices; and numerous allusions in his writings show how thoroughly he understood the nature of life in the forest. The last couplet in Ariel's song* no doubt expresses a popular sentiment,—

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Merrily, merrily shall I live now,

Under the blossom that hangs on the bough."

But in As You Like It, where the forest of Arden forms part of the scene, we notice a little more of life in the greenwood. If we regard the grades of civilization as three in number, the mere hunter is at the bottom, the shepherd in the middle, and the agriculturist (including the manufacturer, trader, &c.) at the top.† But in every country, there are thriftless idlers who prefer ease and independence to industry and abundance; and some of them are sketched in the song of Jacques.‡

The popular opinion may also be gathered from a remark by Charles the wrestler. "They say the old duke is already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England; they say many young gentlemen flock to him every day: and fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world.”

It was impossible to prevent the mind from glancing at thoughts of this kind, as I rode silently beside my companion

Tempest, v, 1.

+ Mr. Hepworth Dixon, On the Great Prairies, and the Prairie Indians.

Act ii, Scene 5.

through the primitive woods of Araucania. Hill and valley, presented scarcely an indiThe track along the green

plateau and elevated sea-beach, cation of the presence of man. sward had been marked out by the feet of oxen, and by the unshod wooden wheels of timber carriages; the brilliant sunshine and pure air imparted new life to the harrassed dweller in towns; and no habitation was visible, though there might have been two or three nestling in the bushes a few perches from the track. Scarcely even the note of a bird broke the complete, yet in no way unpleasant, stillness which reigned around. In all the circumstances, and in part of the train of thought awakened by them, I should scarcely have been startled at hearing a bugle note sounded, or at seeing a ranger,* clothed in green, emerge from the thicket to the glade.

In our own country, the medieval houses of the wealthy were composed in a great degree of wood. This was found in the adjoining forest; and so abundant was it that oak, which is more excellent than other kinds of timber, was largely employed. We have

4. Woodward, or Forest-ranger.

+ It seems, however, that willow, which was more abundant than oak and more easily worked, had been extensively employed, previous to oak. Also, chimneys appear to have been unknown in the olden time. A writer in 1598 remarks"When our houses were built of willow, we had oaken men, but now that our "houses are come to be made of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many altogether of straw,"

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churches in England, and the local name Woodchurch, once much more prevalent than at present, shows that in medieval times they were much more numerous. Now if a building which is erected for the people of all time who may surround it, be made of such perishable materials, it is not surprising that ordinary residences, designed in the first instance to serve the wants of the generation who reared them, were of wood also. Numerous houses, not more than three centuries old, are scattered over the country, the whole internal fittings and partition walls of which are of oak.

There are many and clear facts to show that our old English houses were built of wood. In the first place we have a pen and ink drawing of one in the Pictorial Vocabulary*

of the fifteenth century, the original MS of which is in the possession of Lord Londesborough. The building is evidently constructed of wood, with strong beams at the corners, and posts with cross laths intermediate. The door

* This and other quotations are from "A volume of Vocabularies, from the "tenth century to the fifteenth." 1857. Edited by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., and privately printed at the expense of Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A. Sometimes the quotation is from one of the various authors; but in less important cases the page only, of the whole collection, is referred to.