1891 - Gray, Johnnie - Through Airedale from Goole to Malham (2)

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Robin Hood's Chair is close to the point indicated.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-12-18. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-07-28.

Allusion

At the top of Trench Wood, on entering the Glen there is a large stone with a bowl-shaped cavity, called from time immemorial Robin Hood's Seat. This designation is, of course, purely mythical, many such curious stones and other remarkable objects in our part of the country being associated in some fanciful way or other with this famous mediaeval outlaw. It may just as well have been the judgment-seat of some Druid priest or chief, or even (if credence may go so far) a holy basin for the retention of water in which leaves of the sacred oak were dipped and borne, as we are told, in processionals to the festal altars.* Similar stones are found elsewhere in our district near Druidical temples.

IRHB comments

This passage is found in a sub-chapter entitled "A Ramble among the Antiquities of Baildon Moor". Bold type as in printed source.
P. 150, n. *: "Our Christmas mistletoe is a survival of this Druidical custom."

Lists

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 315-19.
• Outside scope of Sussex, Lucy, compil. 'References to Robin Hood up to 1600', in: Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (Oxford, UK; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994), pp. 262-88.

Editions

• Gray, Johnnie. Through Airedale from Goole to Malham (Leeds; Bradford; Skipton; Goole, 1891), p. 150, and see p. 147 for sub-chapter heading.

Notes