Robin Hood entertaining Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest

Daniel Maclise’s (1806-1870) large painting, titled Robin Hood entertaining Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest (1839) is probably the most well-known interpretation of the legend on canvas. Versions of this colourful work of art have appeared on countless book covers about the outlaw down the years.

As you can see Robin Hood, centre stage, is wearing a scarlet tunic. This is a direct reference to the ballad, Robin Hood and Queen Catherine. Maid Marian is seated in a bower, a reference to the May Games and her role as the Queen of the May. In the background you can just about make out the targets being moved closer; a reference to the Geste and how the targets were too far away for King Edward's men. Little John stands on the left of the picture holding one of the king's deer. Friar Tuck is seen slouching in front of an oak tree.

Maclise was born in Cork, in 1806 from a humble background which he later tried to conceal. He was the eldest of seven children and was educated at a local English School where he developed a talent for drawing and caricature. His creative ability attracted attention from several influential patrons and in 1822 he became one of the first students and the newly established ‘Society for Promoting the Fine Arts’. When Sir Walter Scott visited Cork in 1825, Maclise made a sketch of him that was lithographed, and that inaugurated his public career.

Once he left Cork in the late summer of 1827 Maclise spent nearly all the rest of his life in England where he felt completely at ease and eventually lived in a beautiful house in 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in London.

In 1828, Maclise was enrolled as a student of painting in the Royal Academy (RA) and a year later was awarded the Silver Medal for antique drawing and in 1831 the Gold Medal for History Painting. His fascination with history would become the foundation of his later career.

Maclise travelled to Ireland a year later and painted two famous works associated with his Irish material: All Hallows Eve (or Snap Apple Night) and The Installation of Captain Rock. From the 1830’s to 1840’s Maclise was prolific as an illustrator, which included fantastical work for Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends in 1826 , Thomas Moore's lavish Irish Melodies (1845), Lord Tennyson's Poems (1857). He also produced designs for Charles Dickens’s Christmas Books and during the early 1830s he executed a series of portraits of literary and other celebrities of the time, including his friend Dickens, as well as caricatures, which were afterwards published as the Maclise Portrait Gallery (1871).

In 1839 he completed his oil on canvas (72 in. x 144.1in.) Robin Hood Entertaining Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest (re-touched in 1845).

In 1843 Queen Victoria purchased his Scene from Undine to present to Prince Albert on his birthday. The Prince in his turn commissioned Maclise to execute one of the frescoes in the Garden Pavilion at Buckingham Palace. . . This was followed by commissions for two frescoes in the New Palace of Westminster: The Spirit of Chivalry completed in 1848 and The Spirit of Justice completed in 1849.

In 1857 he agreed to paint two huge frescoes in the Royal Gallery in the new Parliament buildings, and in 1859 he began The Meeting of Wellington and Blucher on the walls of Westminster Palace. It was begun in fresco, a process which proved unmanageable, and he asked if he could resign from the task. But after being encouraged by Prince Albert, Maclise travelled across to Berlin to study ‘the new medium of water-glass painting.’

So he carried on with his project and its pendant, The Death of Nelson, but it was not completed until 1865 and the effort completely undermined his health. Maclise’s spirit seemed to have been broken and he turned his back on public life. He refused a knighthood and presidency of the Royal Academy and sadly passed away of acute pneumonia on the 25th April 1870.

Sudden Oak Death

I have just seen the news about ‘Sudden Oak Death,’ which is now spreading across the West Country and leaving thousands of trees (not only Oak’s) dead. The reports have been around for a while (including its spread in America) but this is the first time I have heard of it. I love the countryside and ancient forests and despair as our small island disappears under a concrete blanket. So is this yet another disaster to our natural wildlife?

Even more worrying for me is if this spreads to the Midlands it could contaminate Sherwood Forest! I sincerely hope not because I want future generations to experience the magic of walking through those ancient sunlit glades, with just the birdsong as company. Something I intend to do very soon.

So far the report said that that tens of thousands of trees have already been felled to try and prevent the disease from spreading, because it is carried on the wind by tiny spores. Let’s hope it can be stopped before it’s too late!

BBC Report

Picture Strip 3: Disney's Story of Robin Hood

Another couple of pages from Laurence's excellent picture strip of Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).

To see previous pages, please click on the label 'Picture Strip.'

The Giant

The biggest bonus of running this blog is getting to know some of my regular visitors and discovering their marvellous array of interests and hobbies. To say that I am extremely privileged to have such a fantastically talented group visit my blog is an understatement. One of the members of this group, that I fondly call ‘The Whistling Arrows,’ is Mike. We have already heard some of his childhood memories and recently Avalon has made him a Blogger Buddy and featured his many talents on her website at Avalon's Blog.

Mike is not only a brilliant artist and illustrator but also a film maker with his new western movie ‘Circle of Death,’ hopefully released in December. But did you know he also writes short stories?

Here is his latest composition that he sent in a few weeks ago:

The Giant

From deep in Sherwood Forest among fallen leafs something stirs, a small squirrel carries an acorn that through instinct he buries in the forest floor and promptly forgets about it.

Nine hundred years had passed since that day, now from that tiny acorn a magnificent oak, a giant of the forest had grown, majestic, towering above all others in the forest. Beneath its leafy boughs Robin had pledged his love to Marian, minstrels had sang of their love beneath the tree, and Robin's band often took refuge among its branches. The giant oak had given shade, shelter and comfort to generations of people and animals, the stag, the badger, the fox, the birds of the forest and insects of all kinds. Kings and queens had come and gone and many battles had been won and lost, still the tree stood tall.

Surviving lightning strikes, drought, and even fire, it had seen love, life, and death. The rising and setting of the sun thousands of times and it seemed it would go on for ever. But now the giant was old, its magnificent trunk was gnarled and twisted, and its topmost branches were withering and bare of leaf, the great oak was beginning slowly, to die.

The sun rose as it always did, but now, there was a new sound in the forests, an unfamiliar sound, loud, grinding, closer and closer it came and then stopped, the whirring sound of a chainsaw suddenly filled the air sending birds flying in all directions. The razor sharp blade cut deep into the trees aging branches sending them crashing to the forest floor. In the end just the great trunk, stood alone, time and time again the blade broke as it sliced away at the trunk, then finally with a deep grown the massive trunk leaned slowly then crashed to the forest floor with a sound like thunder that echoed through Sherwood Forest.

The Sun streamed down and lit the place where the tree had stood the giant was no more, all that remained were leafs and branches, all fell quiet once more in the forest, then scampering from the giants leafs came a squirrel carrying an acorn which he buried nearby and promptly forgot about.

(Mike Giddens)

I would like to say a special thank you to Maria (Azul Maria) who very kindly allowed me to use one of her atmospheric pictures to accompany Mike’s story. To see more of her stunning photography please click here: Maria's Photographs.

Picture Strip 2: Disney's Story of Robin Hood

This is Part 2 of Laurence's superb picture strip of Walt Disney's live action movie, the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952).

Joan Rice's Letter, September 9th 1959

We have recently discovered that Joan Rice continued her acting career on the stage after her film career had sadly faded. Which at least goes someway in dispelling the cruel myth spread about by some, that she couldn’t act. This letter by Joan was sent in by Neil quite a while ago and is part of his personal collection.

It was written by Joan to a Mr. Northover, who must have arranged things for her during a stage production that she appeared in at the Savoy Theatre in Kettering, Northants in 1959.

It reads:

Savoy Theatre

9 Sept 59

Dear Mr Northover,


Thank you very much for sending me the copy of your report.


Please don’t apologise for anything, I was delighted to meet and talk to you. I hope you are going to enjoy the show tonight.


The spread in the paper was really something – if I do my job as well as you do yours we’ll all be all right.


Thanks for your good wishes one can’t have too many of those.


Sincerely


Joan Rice

 

Above is the theatre programme also kindly sent in by Neil, of that production, showing that Joan played the part of Catherine, in Arthur Miller’s ‘A View From The Bridge.’

This was her favourite play.

Picture Strip 1. Disney's Story of Robin Hood

Here is another treat for us all, courtesy of Laurence. He has laboriously managed to put together a picture strip of the whole of Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, and above are the first two pages.

Laurence says:

"I have completed the whole movie, and you are right, it took me quite a while to do! There are around 85 pages in all - plus a cover and a cast list. I can forward them as and when if you like, if you think your readers can take it!"

Well I am sure you can all take it. So, I intend to post two pages of the picture strip every week- sit back and enjoy!

[The images are as large as Blogger will allow, so if you have trouble reading the text, you should be able to magnify the page via the right - hand corner of your screen.]

Anthony Forwood

Above is a rare film still of Anthony Forwood (1915-1988) as Will Scarlet from Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). ‘Tony’s’ role as Scarlet is sadly not developed in the movie, although he is already installed as a rather dapperly dressed member of the band of outlaws. Scarlet is referred to as ‘Cousin Will’ in a scene where Robin first meets Little John, but seems of a higher class than a yeoman forester, like Robin and his father.

Perhaps (for amusement) my merrie band of Whistling Arrows could fill in the gaps in Lawrence Watkin’s screen play, and explain how Will Scarlet joined Robin’s band of outlaws?

To read more about Anthony Forwood’s life and the historical connections in the legend between Will Scarlet/Scarlett/ Scathelock/ Scadlock and even Alan-a-Dale, please click on the relevant labels.

The Old York Road and Robin Hood's Cave

Once again Albie has sent in some great pictures of ‘Robin Hood Country,’ along with interesting details of the locations. A while ago I explained that I was very interested in re-discovering some of the ancient track ways that led through the parts of Sherwood Forest. So this time Albie takes us along part of the Old York Road in Nottinghamshire.

The main London to York road, also known the Great North Way, ran straight through Sherwood, and travellers were often at the mercy of robbers living outside of the law. Hence the name ‘outlaws’. It was such an important route in early times that it was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086:

“In Nottingham the River Trent and the dyke and the road to York are so protected that if anyone hinders the passage of ships, or anyone ploughs or makes a ditch within two perches of the King’s road, he has to pay a fine of £8.”

Here are Albie’s descriptions of his pictures:

The River Maun Looking North

"This was taken from the hump back bridge on the lane (Whitewater Lane) that runs between Walesby and the A614. The river, known as both the Maun and Whitewater locally, drains from Mansfield before meeting the Meden a couple of miles further north. The bridge was built in 1859 for the estate workers at Thoresby Hall to travel from Walesby and Ollerton without having to ford the river.

Old York Road Looking West

                                              Old York Road Looking North

These are taken at the point where the Old York Road crosses the lane to Walesby around 100 metres from the hump back bridge. The road south goes into New Ollerton and onwards to Old Ollerton through a large housing estate built for the now demolished Ollerton Coal mine. The picture north is where the road becomes a foot path bordering the Walesby Forest Scout Centre to the east and the River Maun to the west.

The York Road, North at Robin Hood's Cave

These pictures were taken above and at the side of Robin Hood’s Cave which is obscured by vegetation. Local legends have it that Robin and his outlaw band would hide here below the main road above ready to ambush the unwary traveller. A local historian reckoned the caves have been used since the retreat of glaciers at the end on the Ice Age. This historian, now deceased, maintained that Walesby and parish is the oldest continually inhabited place in Europe though this would be difficult to prove. Artefacts dating to the Bronze Age have been found around the village as have numerous Roman coins.”

                                              Robin Hood's Cave

                                         Robin Hood's Cave 2

Many thanks Albie. I can’t help thinking of Carmen Dillon’s set design for Disney’s Story of Robin Hood when I see those pictures of Robin Hood’s Cave. Also of the outlaws looking down, as the rich travellers made their nervous way along the York Road.