To go round by Robin Hood's barn

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2015-07-26. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-03-12.

The meaning of the proverbial expression To go round by Robin Hood's barn is "to take the longest way round".[1] A (relatively modern US?) variant is "all the way around Robin Hood's Bush".[2]

Collections and lists

Citations

1913 - Hatfield, James Taft - Book review

Equally clear is Professor Wood's supreme piety toward the aged Goethe. He works from the principle that even the most phantasmagoric episode in Faust contains some adequate, worthy meaning, which he purposes to chase to its capture, though the hunt should lead around Robin Hood's barn; he will let go of no hint until he has harried it to quiescence.[3]

1922 - Bailey, Margaret Emerson - Robin Hood's Barn

[Book title:] Robin Hood's Barn: the Confessions of a Garden Adventurer[4]

Studies and criticism

Brief mention

Also see

Notes