met with our mates, and before we part from them we will try
what mettle they are made off. What, Robin Hood, said one of the
keepers; I the same, reply'd Robin. Then have at you, said the
keepers; here are three of us and three of you, we will single out
ourselves one to one; and bold Robin, I for my part am resolved to
have a bout with thee. Content, with all my heart, said Robin Hood,
and Fortune shall determine who shall have the best, the outlaws
or the keepers; with that they did lay down their coats, which
were all of Lincoln Green, and fell to it for the space of two
hours with their brown bills, in which hot exercise Robin Hood,
Little John and Scarlock had the better, and giving the rangers
leave to breathe, demanded of them how they liked them; Why! good
stout blades i'faith, saith the keeper that fought with Robin, we
commend you. * * * I see that you are stout men, said Robin Hood,
we will fight no more in this place, but come and go with me to
Nottingham, (I have silver and gold enough about me) and there we
will fight it out at the King's Head tavern with good sack and
claret; and after we are weary we will lay down our arms, and
become sworn brothers to one another, for I love those men that
will stand to it, and scorn to turn their backs for the proudest
Tarmagant of them all. With all our hearts, jolly Robin, said the
keepers to him; so putting up their swords and on their doublets,
they went to Nottingham, where for three days space they followed
the pipes of sack, and butts of claret without intermission, and
drank themselves good friends."

The story of "George-a-Green," the brave Pindar of Wakefield is very
similar to that of Robin Hood. George was as fond as his more noted
friend of giving and taking hard knocks, and it is his skilful and
judicious use of the quarter-staff in fulfilling the duties of his
office, which gives rise to the incidents of the story. A curious relic
of chivalry appears in the passage where Robin Hood the outlaw, and
George a-Green the pound-keeper, meet to decide with their
quarter-staves the relative merit of their sweethearts.[30]

Of the stories relating to the yeomanry the most important was the
"Pleasant Historic of Thomas of Reading; or, The Sixe Worthie Yeomen of
the West," by Thomas Deloney, a famous ballad-maker of the 16th
century. It is the narrative of the life and