+Argument.+--The knight goes to York to pay down his four hundred pounds
to the abbot of St. Mary Abbey, who has retained the services of the
high justice of England 'with cloth and fee,' an offence defined as
conspiracy by statutes of the first three Edwards (see _Notes and
Queries_, First Series, vol. vi. p. 479). The knight, pretending he has
not brought the money, requests an extension of time; but the abbot
will not hear of it, and is supported in his refusal by the justice:
the knight's lands will be forfeited. The justice advises the abbot
(117, etc.) to give the knight a sum to 'make a release' and prevent
subsequent legal difficulties. The knight brings the matter to an end by
paying down the four hundred pounds, saying that had the abbot been more
courteous, he should have had interest on the loan.
The knight returns to his home in Wyresdale, and saves up the sum to
be repaid to Robin Hood. As he sets out for Barnsdale with a goodly
company, he finds a great wrestling-match taking place at Wentbridge,[1]
which delays him a while.
The word 'frembde' (138.3) is now obsolete except in Scots and
north-country dialect, and is spelled in various ways. It occurs more
than once in Chaucer, and twice in Sidney's _Arcadia_. 'Fremit,' the
common Scots form, may be found in Burns. More recently, it appears in
books of Westmoreland, Cumberland, or Northumberland dialect. Cp. Mrs.
Gaskell, _Sylvia's Lovers_: 'There's a fremd man i' t' house.' It means
'foreign' or 'strange.'
[Footnote 2: Wentbridge is mentioned in _Robin Hood and the
Potter_, 6.1. The river Went is the northern boundary of
Barnsdale.]