ROSE-BUSH. 315 



beauty, or beauties, shall rest upon better foundation, 

 the Rose shall still be considered as the unrivalled Queen 

 of Flowers. 



" I saw the sweetest flower wild nature yields, 

 A fresh-blown musk-rose." 



The Rose, as well as the Myrtle, is considered as sacred 

 to the Goddess of Beauty. Berkeley, in his Utopia, de- 

 scribes lovers as declaring their passion by presenting to 

 the fair beloved a rose-bud just beginning to open; if the 

 lady accepted and wore the bud, she was supposed to fa- 

 vour his pretensions. As time increased the lover's affec- 

 tion, he followed up the first present by that of a half- 

 blown rose, which was again succeeded by one full-blown ; 

 and if the lady wore this last, she was considered as en- 

 gaged for life *. 



In our country, in some parts of Surrey in particular, 

 it was the custom, in the time of Evelyn, to plant roses 

 round the graves of lovers f . The Greeks and Romans 

 observed this practice so religiously, that it is often found 

 annexed as a codicil to their wills, as appears by an old 

 inscription at Ravenna, and another at Milan, by which 

 roses are ordered to be yearly strewed and planted upon 

 the graves. 



It is the universal practice in South Wales to strew roses 

 and other flowers over the graves of departed friends. 



Moresteilus cites an epitaph, in which Publia Cornelia 

 Anna declares that she had resolved not to survive her hus- 

 band in desolate widowhood, but had voluntarily shut her^ 

 self up in his sepulchre, still to remain with him with whom 

 she had lived twenty years in peace and happiness : and 

 then orders her freed-men and freed-women to sacri- 



* See Gaudentio di Lucca. t Evelyn's Sylva. 



