(Vol. vi., p. 597.)
Ireland, too, is associated with the fame of this renowned wood-ranger.
This "_pen_-ultima Thule," which received and protected the refugees of
Roman oppression and the victims of Saxon extermination, was looked to in
later times as a sanctuary where crime might evade punishment; and in the
_Annals of Robin Hood_ this national commiseration was evinced.
"In the year 1189," writes Holinshed, "there ranged three robbers and
outlaws in England, among which 'Robert' Hood and Little John were
chieftains, of all thieves doubtless the most courteous. Robert, being
betrayed at a nunnery in Scotland, called Bricklies, the remnant of the
'crue' was scattered, and every man forced to shift for himself;
whereupon Little John was fain _to flee the realm_ by sailing into
Ireland, where he sojourned for a few days at Dublin. The citizens
being 'doone' to understand the wandering outcast to be an excellent
archer, requested him heartily to try how far he could shoot at random,
who, yielding to their behest, stood on the bridge of Dublin and shot
to a hillock in Oxmantown (thereafter called Little John's shot),
leaving behind him a monument, rather by posterity to be wondered than
possibly by any man living to be counterscored."--_Description of
Ireland_, fol., p. 24.
The danger, however, of being taken drove Little John thence to Scotland,
where, adds the annalist, "he died at a town or village called Moravie."