x1v INTRODUCTION. 
mon expression, “ Under the Rose.” The ancients tell 
us that Roses originally were white ; but were changed 
to red by the blood of Venus, when her feet were lace- 
rated by their prickles in her attempt to protect Adonis 
from the rage of Mars. Theocritus and Bion however 
are of opinion that it was the blood of Adonis himself 
that altered their colour. Another tale relates that 
Cupid leading a dance in Heaven stumbled and overset 
a bowl of nectar, which falling upon the earth stained 
the Rose. Ausonius has made the Rose blush from the 
blood of Cupid (Tighe. 47.) Busbequius informs us 
that the Turks have a similar superstition upon the 
subject, and believe that Roses originated from the 
sweat of their prophet Mahomet. Nor has the inge- 
nuity of monkish writers been at a loss to stamp 
Roses in some measure with divinity, though in a dif- 
ferent manner. Marulus tells a story of an holy virgin 
named Dorothea, who suffered martyrdom in Ceesarea, 
under the government of Fabricius; and who con- 
verted to Christianity a scribe named Theophilus, by 
sending him some Roses in the winter time out of Pa- 
radise. A golden Rose was considered so honourable a 
present, that none but crowned heads were thought 
worthy either to give or to receive it. Roses of this 
kind were sometimes consecrated by the Popes upon 
Good Friday, and given to such potentates as it was 
their particular interest or wish to load with favours; 
the flower itself being an emblem of the mortality of 
the body, and the metal of which it was composed of 
the immortality of the soul. Boéthius says that Wil- 
liam King of Scotland received a present of this sort 
from Pope Alexander the third. And Henry the eighth 
is recorded to have had a similar gift from Alexander 
