Needwood Forest

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John Jackson, 1776 - Needwood Forest - 52 pages
 

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Page 15 - Robert entertained an hundred tall men and good archers with such spoils and thefts as he got, upon whom four hundred (were they ever so strong) durst not give the onset. He suffered no woman to be oppressed, violated, or otherwise molested; poor men's goods he spared, abundantly relieving them with that which by theft he got from abbeys, and the houses of rich earls : whom Major (the historian) blameth for his rapine and theft; but of all thieves he affirmeth him to be the prince, and the most gentle...
Page 15 - The personal courage of this celebrated outlaw, his skill in archery, his humanity, and especially his levelling principle of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, have in all ages rendered him the favourite of the common people...
Page 14 - The ancient punishment for killing the king's deer was loss of eyes and castration, a punishment far worse than death. This will easily account for the troops of banditti which formerly lurked in the royal forests, and, from their superior skill in archery and knowledge of all the recesses of those unfrequented solitudes, found it no difficult matter to resist or elude the civil power. Among all those, none was ever more famous than the hero of this ballad, whose chief residence was in Shirewood...
Page 46 - those bare scatter'd antlers strew the glade, Arm after arm shall leave the mouldering bust, And thy firm fibres crumble into dust ; The Muse alone shall consecrate thy name, And by her powerful art prolong thy fame ; Green shall thy leaves expand, thy branches play, And bloom for ever in the immortal lay.
Page 45 - Age after age, the sov'reign of this wood ; You, who have seen a thousand springs unfold Their ravell'd buds, and dip their flowers in gold; Ten thousand times yon moon relight her horn, And that bright eye of evening gild the morn. Say, when of old the snow-hair'd druids pray'd With...
Page 14 - ... trained up to the long-bow, and excelled all other nations in the art of shooting, must constantly have occasioned great numbers of outlaws, and especially of such as were the best marksmen. These naturally fled to the woods for shelter; and forming into troops, endeavoured by their numbers to protect themselves from the dreadful penalties of their delinquency.
Page 15 - First) were many robbers, and outlaws, among 'the which Robin Hood and Little John, renowned thieves, continued in woods, despoyling and robbing the goods of the rich. They. killed none but such as would invade them : or by resistance for their own defence.
Page 27 - Or, when hliick clouds involve the pole, Disarms the thunders as they roll!— Beneath how Nature throws around Grand inequalities of ground, While down the dells and o'er the steeps The wavy line of Paphos creeps...
Page 7 - Here, fired by native beauty, traced The footsteps of the goddess Taste: Won from her coy retreats she came, And led him up these paths to fame. Here every flower improves the gale, From the meek violet of the vale To her who flaunts in air sublime, The woodbine, queen of Summer's prime: While each delicious shade may vie With those of boasted Arcady. There sweet varieties appear Of thickets shaped by nibbling deer, Of hills that swell with gradual ease, Wood-skirted lawns, and scatter'd trees; Of...
Page 17 - Flows, as ihe fteps, and fweeps the plain. Silence and Night inchanted gaze, And Hefper hides his vanquifh'd rays ! — Now the waked reed-finch fwells his throat, And night-larks trill their mingled note...

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