Walter Scott

Ivanhoe Walter Scott

In that pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended inancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys which liebetween Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster. The remains of this extensive wood are stillto be seen at the noble seats of Wentworth, of Warncliffe Park, and around Rotherham. Herehaunted of yore the fabulous Dragon of Wantley; here were fought many of the most desperatebattles during the Civil Wars of the Roses; and here also flourished in ancient times those bands ofgallant outlaws, whose deeds have been rendered so popular in English song. Such being our chief scene, the date of our story refers to a period towards the end of the reign ofRichard I., when his return from his long captivity had become an event rather wished than hopedfor by his despairing subjects, who were in the meantime subjected to every species of subordinateoppression. The nobles, whose power had become exorbitant during the reign of Stephen, andwhom the prudence of Henry the Second had scarce reduced to some degree of subjection to thecrown, had now resumed their ancient license in its utmost extent; despising the feeble interferenceof the English Council of State, fortifying their castles, increasing the number of their dependants, reducing all around them to a state of vassalage, and striving by every means in their power, to placethemselves each at the head of such forces as might enable him to make a figure in the nationalconvulsions which appeared to be impending. The situation of the inferior gentry, or Franklins, as they were called, who, by the law and spirit ofthe English constitution, were entitled to hold themselves independent of feudal tyranny, becamenow unusually precarious. If, as was most generally the case, they placed themselves under theprotection of any of the petty kings in their vicinity, accepted of feudal offices in his household, orbound themselves by mutual treaties of alliance and protection, to support him in his enterprises, they might indeed purchase temporary repose; but it must be with the sacrifice of that independencewhich was so dear to every English bosom, and at the certain hazard of being involved as a party inwhatever rash expedition the ambition of their protector might lead him to undertake. On the otherhand, such and so multiplied were the means of vexation and oppression possessed by the greatBarons, that they never wanted the pretext, and seldom the will, to harass and pursue, even to thevery edge of destruction, any of their less powerful neighbours, who attempted to separatethemselves from their authority, and to trust for their protection, during the dangers of the times, totheir own inoffensive conduct, and to the laws of the lan