Lincoln green

Frontispiece of Howard Pyle's 1883 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood showing tunic and leggings approximating a Lincoln green shade[1]

Lincoln green is the colour of dyed woollen cloth formerly originating in Lincoln, England, a major cloth town during the high Middle Ages. The dyers of Lincoln, known for colouring wool with woad to give it a strong blue shade,[2] created the eponymous Lincoln green by overdyeing this blue wool with yellow weld or dyers' broom.[3][4] Other colours like "Coventry blue" and "Kendal green" were linked to the dyers of different English towns.[5]

Lincoln green is often associated with Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.[6]

  1. ^ Woolfson, Michael Mark (2016). Colour: How We See It And How We Use It. World Scientific. pp. 98–99. ISBN 9781786340870.
  2. ^ Evans, Gavin (2017). The story of colour: an exploration of the hidden messages of the spectrum. Michael O'Mara Books. ISBN 9781782436911. Lincoln...specialized in woollen cloths dyed with woad blue.
  3. ^ Reseda luteola.
  4. ^ Stefan's Florilegium.
  5. ^ Nares, Robert; Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O. (James Orchard); Wright, Thomas (1888). "Lincoln Green". A Glossary; or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to Customs, Proverbs, etc. Vol. 2 (New ed.). London: Reeves and Turner. p. 514.
  6. ^ The Child Ballads 117 A Gest of Robyn Hode (c 1450) "Whan they were clothed in Lyncolne grene"

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