Saturday Rave: Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

I didn't have many books when I was young, but one book I did have was The Adventures of Robin Hood. I think it must have been bought for my elder brother.

It was great stuff. Lots of fighting. I loved knowing the joke about Little John (who was so very big) and I rather fancied the young and fashion-conscious Will Scarlet (scarlet because of his stockings). The others all wore Lincoln green, which I imagined to be a sort of sludgy colour, suitable for hiding in a muddy wood.

There was even a love interest.

Then there was the very very bad Sheriff of Nottingham (booooo!) and jolly Friar Tuck, and of course Sherwood Forest itself, huge, shadowy and sun-splashed, and older and greater than any of the arguments.

I loved it all.

Well, is there anywhere a young person, school-imprisoned and family-imprisoned, who doesn't want to be an outlaw?

Phrase To Use today: Lincoln green. This was a yellowish or brownish green, called after a cloth which used to be made in Lincoln, England. Unfortunately the colour wasn't so named until the 1500s, which makes it much too recent to have been worn by Robin Hood.

Lincoln greyne, however, was scarlet. It is said that Robin Hood sometimes wore Lincoln greyne on posh occasions: though not, presumably, when he was trying to avoid being spotted by the Sherriff of Nottingham.