1632 |
At the end of Martin Parker’s ballad A True Tale of Robin Hood he writes, ‘the epitaph which the prioress of the monastery of Kirklees lay in Yorkshire set over Robbin Hood, which as is before mentioned, was to bee reade within these hundred yeares, though in old broken English, much to the same sence and meaning’. |
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Decembris quarto die, 1198 : anno regni Richardii Primi 9. |
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Robert Earle of Huntington |
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Lies under this little stone |
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No archer was like him so good |
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His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood |
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Full thirteen yeares, and something more |
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These northern parts he vexed sore |
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Such out-lawes as he and his men |
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May England never know agen. |
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‘Some other superstitious words were in it, which I thought fit to leave out’. (One wonders what these words were). |
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1665 |
It is believed that Nathaniel Johnston made a drawing of the grave,* a slab with a cross and the inscription; |
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‘Here lie Robard Hude Willm Gold burgh Thoms’ |
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There is a stone erected near the slab with some sort of inscription, this is clearly visible in the drawing, however the words cannot be read. |
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1697-1702 |
Thomas Gale dean of York, left a record of an epitaph of Robin Hood among his papers: |
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Hear undernead dis laitl stean |
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laiz robert earl of Huntingtun |
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near arcir ber az hei sa geud |
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an pipl kauld im robin heud |
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sick utlawz az hi an iz men |
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vil england nibr si agen |
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obiit 24 kal dekembris 1247. |
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The epitaph has been written in some form of archaic English. |
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* It has recently been suggested by David Hepworth, that the drawing which appears in several books, is not by Nathaniel Johnston. He believes this is a copy of a drawing by William Stukeley. The copy could be the work of the wife of the Rev. Fleming St. John of Herefordshire who owned the Stukeley papers, which are now in the Bodleian Library. The original drawing is among the Stukeley papers, he may have copied Nathaniel Johnston’s drawing which could now be lost. |