371 



her out of the sight of his jealous Junn the Qneene, he built a labyrinth in his 

 house (Woodstock) with many inexplicable windings backward and forward; 

 which, notwithstanding, is no where to be seen at this day." 



It is also recorded of King Henry II. : — 



" (,'oncubiues he bad many, but two more famous than the rest ; and one of 

 them more famous than the other, and this was Rosamond, daughter of Walter 

 Lord Clifford, whom he kept at Woodstock in lodgings so cunningly contrived, 

 that no stranger could find the way in ; yet Queen Eleanor did, being guided by 

 a threed. So much is the eye of jealousie quicker in finding out, than the eye of 

 care is in hiding. What the Queen did to Rosamond when she came to her is 

 uncertain ; but this is certain, that Rosamund lived but a short time after, and 

 lies buried in the nunnery of Godstow, near to Oxford. " 



Upon the tomb were inscribed these verses :— 



Hie jacet in tomba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda : 

 Non redolet, sed olet, quae redolere solet. 



Henry II. had two sons by Rosamond Clififord— Ist, William " Longue- 

 ^pde"(Longsword), who married the daughter and heiress of the Earl of Salisbury, 

 and succeeded to the title and estates of that powerful nobleman ; 2nd GeofiFrey, 

 who was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln. When Prelate elect (he was appointed 

 when very young) he dispersed the northern insurgents, and greatly assisted his 

 father the King, who, on meeting him after the rebellion, expressed his gratitude 

 in very emphatic language. After five years' banishment in his brother King 

 John's time, he died in the year 1213. 



There are several portraits of Fair Rosamond, but they can hardly be 

 considered genuine. One represents her as charmingly fair, with a beautiful 

 colour upon her cheeks, and holding a cup in her hand upon which she is gazing 

 intently. This may account for the supposed legend of the poison. 



It is said, and mostly believed, that Rosamond retired before her death to 

 the convent of Godstow, where she endeavoured by a religious discipline to atone 

 for her former misdoings. 



Henry, we are told, "for her sake, bestowed many presents upon the nuns, 

 who, through gratefulness to her memory, buried her in their choir, hung a pall of 

 silk over the tomb, and surrounded it with lamps and tapers." 



Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, disapproved of their conduct, and remarking that 

 there was no difference between the mistress of a King or of any other man, 

 ordered the body to be removed, but the nuns replaced it as soon as the Bishop 

 had taken his departure. Whatever may have been the end of Fair Rosamond, 

 whether she was poisoned, whether she died a premature death, worried by Queen 

 Eleanor, or whether she passed away, as some writers aver, in a good old age, it 

 is certain that her faults have been forgotten, but that her memory is still 

 fresh. 



With no better words can we take our leave of her than the following :— 



Qui meat hue oret, signumque salutis adoret ; 

 Utque sibi veniam detur, Rosamunda precetur. 



