[Illustration:
_ROBIN HOOD'S HAUNTS_ in the West Riding of _YORKSHIRE_]
The majority of the places mentioned in the northern or Barnsdale cycle
will be found in the south of the West Riding of Yorkshire, a district
bounded by the East Riding and Lincolnshire to the east, Derby and
Nottingham shires to the south, and the river Calder to the north. To
the west, the natural boundary is the high ground of the Peak, which
divides Manchester from Sheffield.
The town of Barnsley lies slightly to the east of a line joining Leeds
and Sheffield; Barnsdale itself is east and north of Barnsley, where the
high backbone of the Pennines drops towards the flats surrounding the
river Humber. The great North Road ('Watling Street,' _Gest_, 18.2)
between Doncaster and Pontefract, crosses the small slow river Went at
Wentbridge (probably referred to in st. 135 of the _Gest_), which may be
taken as the northern boundary of Barnsdale. That this part of the North
Road was considered unsafe for travellers as early as Edward I.'s reign
is shown by the fact that a party going from Scotland to Winchester, and
for most of the journey guarded by a dozen archers, saw fit to increase
their number of guards to twenty between Pontefract and Tickhill,
the latter being on the border of Yorkshire and Nottingham, south of
Doncaster.
The remaining places, except those explained in the footnotes, may be
dealt with here.
'Blyth' (_Gest_, 27.4, 259.4), twice mentioned as a place at which to
dine, is a dozen miles south of Doncaster, and in Nottingham; it is
almost exactly half-way between Barnsdale and Sherwood.
'Verysdale' (_Gest_, 126.4) may be Wyersdale, a wild tract of the old
Forest of Lancashire, near Lancaster.
'Holderness' (_Gest_, 149.1) is the nose of Yorkshire; between the
south-easterly turn of the Humber below Hull and the North Sea.
'Kyrkesly' (_Gest_, 451.3, 454.3), or 'Churchlees' (_Robin Hood's
Death_, 1.3). Kirklees Priory is on the left or north bank of the river
Calder, a few miles north of Huddersfield.
'St. Mary Abbey' is 'here besyde' (_Gest_, 54.4) and in York (84.4).