156 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



twenty bushels of roses were gathered annually a 

 good deal for the time. 



"About thirty species of roses," writes Edmund 

 Gosse, "were known to the Elizabethan gardeners, 

 and most of them did particularly well in London 

 until in the reign of James I, when the increasing 

 smoke of coal-fires exterminated the most lovely and 

 the most delicate species, the double yellow rose. 

 Things grew rapidly worse in this respect, until 

 Parkinson in despair, cried out : 'Neither herb, nor 

 tree, will prosper since the use of sea-coal.' Up to 

 that time in London, and afterwards in country- 

 places, the rose preserved its vogue. It was not 

 usually grown for pleasure, since the petals had a 

 great commercial value; there was a brisk trade in 

 dried roses and a precious sweet water was distilled 

 from the damask rose. The red varieties of the rose 

 were considered the best medicinally, and they pro- 

 duced that rose syrup which was so widely used both 

 as a cordial and as an aperient. The fashion for 

 keeping potpourri in dwelling-rooms became so 

 prevalent that the native gardens could not supply 

 enough, and dried yellow roses became a recognized 

 import from Constantinople. We must think of the 

 parlors of the ladies who saw Shakespeare's plays 



