SUMMER MEETING. 5^ 



then celebrated by a cardinal priest, assisted by the bishop of the holy 

 college, arrayed in a rose-colored chasuble. A decree was made by 

 Urban Y that his blessing of the golden rose should be repeated every 

 year. After the benediction the Pope made a present of the blessed 

 rose to some church or sovereign to which he wished to show special 

 favor. If ihe recipient was not present, which was usually the case, 

 the rose was sent to him by the hand of a cardinal or officer of the 

 pontifical court. According to some authorities this was done on 

 Good Friday, to others on Mid-Lent Sunday, which is called Rose 

 Sunday. 



In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there are some curious 

 records, which are a little hard to interpret, in regard to the value at 

 which roses were held. Sir William Clopton granted to Thomas 

 Smith a piece of land in Hampstede, "for the annual payment of a 

 rose— at the Nativity of John Biptist — to Sir William and his heirs, in 

 lieu of all services. Dated at Hampstede on Sunday next before the 

 Feast of All Saints, 1402." Again, "in 1576 Richard Cox, Bishop of 

 Ely, granted to Christopher Hatton of a certain valuable property, 

 for twenty one years, tenant covenants to pay on Midsummer's day 

 one red rose for the gate-house and garden, reserving to himself and 

 his successors free access through the gate for walking in the garden, 

 and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly." The only explanation of 

 this, in view of the last and italicized clause, is that the transfer was 

 for some unknown consideration, and the rose paid as nominal rent, as 

 is often done nowadays, to meet some requirement of the law. And 

 yet the fact that vassals in those days were required to contribute 

 sometimes a bushel of roses to their liege lord yearly, for the manu- 

 facture of rose-water, looks as if they might have some recognized 

 commercial value. About this same time roses, in France, could only 

 be grown by royal permission. 



Marquis de Chesnel tells in his "History of the Rose" that one 

 of the old customs of the provinces in noble families was that a father 

 who had both sons and daughters gave his property to his sons, and 

 to his daughters, as a marriage portion, a wreath of roses. 



A very remarkable fact of history shows the estimation in which 

 roses were held in the early ages. Until the days of Richelieu there 

 existed in France a very singular custom, the origin of which is lost in 

 the dimness of early history. The peers of France, the dukes, and even 

 the kings and queens of Xavarre, all who owned the French sovereign 

 as suzerain, were obliged to present roses to the parliament of Paris in 

 April, May and June. Some one of the peers was appointed to perform 

 the ceremony, evidently in the presence of the others. The nobl© 



