Outlaw trading horse for gallon o’whiskey about to down spirit (5,10)
I believe the answer is:
robin goodfellow
'spirit' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'outlaw trading horse for gallon o'whiskey about to down' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'outlaw' could be 'robin' (Robin Hood) and 'robin' is found within the answer.
'gallon' could be 'g' (abbreviation for the unit of liquid) and 'g' is located in the answer.
'down' could be 'low' (synonyms) and 'low' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for robin goodfellow that I've seen before include "Puck" , "A mischievous sprite" , "mischievous one" , "Brownie" , "Mischief-maker" .)