But I have not time to tell;
Yonder’s the sheriff and his company,
But I hope all will be well.
Hei, down, derry, derry, down;”
and says, “I hope I may sing of old Robin without offending a grand jury, or being presented for disuniting Protestants.”
In The Gentleman’s Magazine for December 1790 is the first verse of a song used by the inhabitants of Helston in Cornwall on the celebration of an annual festivity on the 8th of May, called the Furry-day, supposed Flora’s day, not, it is imagined, “as many have thought, in remembrance of some festival instituted in honour of that goddess, but rather from the garlands commonly worn on that day.” (See the same publication for June and October 1790.) This verse was the whole that Mr. Urban’s correspondent could then recollect, but he thought he might be afterwards able “to send all that is known of it, for,” he says, “it formerly was very long, but is now much forgotten.” The stanza is as follows:
“Robin Hood and Little John
They are both gone to fair O;
And we will go to the merry green-wood,
To see what they do there O.