172 PAESONS ON THE ROSE. 



cast roses, violets, and lilies, on the urns which enclosed the ashes of 

 their wives. These modest flowers were emblematic signs of their 

 grief Our Christians were content to place a Rose among the ornaments 

 of their graves, as the image of life." 



Ill Turkey, females that died unmarried had a rose 

 sculptured at the top of their monument. 



At the well-known cemetery of Pere la Chaise, which 

 has often excited the ecstasy, admiration, or praise of many 

 travelers, but which in reality exhibits neither elegance, 

 sentiment, nor taste, wreaths of roses and other flowers 

 are frequently seen upon the thickly crowded tombs, either 

 as mementos of affection, or in compliance with a popular 

 custom ; while the street leading to the cemetery is filled 

 with shops in which are exposed for sale the wreaths of 

 flowers. 



The prevalence of the same custom in Denmark is al- 

 luded to by Shakespeare, in Hamlet, in the scene of 

 Ophelia's burial. 



The custom still remains also in America and Great 

 Britain. In Wales, when a young girl dies, her female 

 companions bring flowers with them to her funeral, and 

 place them in her coffin. They plant lilies and snow-drops 

 over the graves of children, and wild and cultivated roses 

 over those of adults. 



Gwillym, a Welsh poet, thus speaks of the custom in 

 one of his elegies : — " Oh ! while the season of flowers 

 and the tender sprays, thick of leaves, remain, I will pluck 

 the roses from the brakes, to be offered to the memory of 

 a child of fairest fame ; humbly will I lay them on the 

 grave of Ivor." 



Evelyn tells us that " the white rose was planted at the 

 grave of a virgin, and her chaplet was tied with white 

 riband, in token of her spotless innocence ; though some- 

 times black ribands were intermingled, to bespeak the 

 grief of the survivors. The red rose was occasionally 

 used in remembrance of such as had been remarkable for 



