Verily Robin was far the honester man of the two, and most worthy the
admiration of mankind.
Nor was the kingdom of Robin Hood so much less extensive than that of
England's king as men may deem, though its tenants were fewer and its
revenues less. For in those days forest land spread widely over the
English isle. The Norman kings had driven out the old inhabitants far
and wide, and planted forests in place of towns, peopling them with deer
in place of men. In its way this was merciful, perhaps. Those rude old
kings were not content unless they were hunting and killing, and it was
better they should kill deer than men. But their cruel game-laws could
not keep men from the forests, and the woods they planted served as
places of shelter for the outlaws they made.
William the Conqueror, so we are told, had no less than sixty-eight
forests peopled with deer, and guarded against intrusion of common man
by a cruel interdict. His successors added new forests, until it looked
as if England might be made all woodland, and the red deer its chief
inhabitants. Sherwood forest, the favorite lurking-place of the bold
Robin, stretched for thirty miles in an unbroken line. But this was only
part of Robin's "realm of plesaunce.
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