Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/68

 to submit to the new lord, or to see their cottages set on fire, and their wives and children perhaps murdered before their eyes.

20. Some of the English nobles hid in the forests with their families, and as many of their vassals as would go with them, where they made habitations, and supported themselves by robbery and hunting; and this was the origin of the numerous bands of robbers that, in after times, were the terror of the country.

21. The famous Robin Hood, who lived in the reign of Richard the First, is supposed to have been a descendant of one of these unfortunate English nobles.

22. The Bishops' sees and abbey lands were seized in the same violent manner, as the estates of the nobles, and given to the Norman clergy; and many of the monasteries, after being broken open and plundered, were taken for the abode of monks who came over from Normandy in great numbers.

23. The Normans built a great many castles in different parts of the country; and, if they wanted to build one on a spot where there happened to be houses, they thought nothing of turning out the inhabitants, and pulling down the houses, to make room: and they pressed the poor people, both men and women, to do all the