152 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



gaze on it with the touch of a vanished hand in ours, 

 with a father's blessing on our heads and a mother's 

 prayer that we might never lose our love of the beau- 

 tiful. Happy they who return, or regain, that love." 



THE DAMASK ROSE (Rosa damascene*) is a 

 native of Syria, whence it was brought to Europe 

 about 1270 by Thibault IV, Comte de Brie, return- 

 ing from the Holy Land. We know exactly when 

 it was introduced into England because Hakluyt, 

 writing in 1582, says: "In time of memory many 

 things have been brought in that were not here be- 

 fore, as the Damask Rose by Doctor Liniker, King 

 Henry the Seventh and King Henry the Eighth's 

 physician." 



"Gloves as sweet as Damask Roses" Autolycus 

 carries in his peddler's pack for "lads to give their 

 dears," along with masks for their faces, perfume, 

 necklace-amber, pins, quoifs, and "lawn as white as 

 driven snow." * 



Parkinson informs us: 



"The Damask Rose-bush is more usually nour- 

 ished up to a competent height to stand alone (which 

 we call Standards), than any other Rose. The bark, 

 both of the stock and branches, is not fully so green 

 as the Red or White Rose. The leaves are green 



'"The Winter's Tale"; Act IV, Scene III. 



