60 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



of to-day would astonish the possessors of gardens in the Middle 

 Ages, and the varied forms and colours would bewilder them, 

 yet in some of our finest-looking roses they would miss, what 

 to them was the essential characteristic of a rose, its sweet 

 scent ! Nothing more readily than the subtle fragrance of a rose 

 can conjure in our minds a dream of summer, and many a one 

 since the days of Chaucer has experienced what the poet felt 

 when, approaching a rose-garden, he exclaimed : 



" The savour of the roses swote 

 Me smote right to the herte rote," 



or when crowns of roses and lilies perfume the air, 



" The swete smel, that in myn herte I find 

 Hath changed me al in another kind." 



There were both red and white double roses, as well as the 

 single, and the common dog-rose and sweetbriar. They were 

 planted along the walls, or singly, here and there in the garden, 

 or clambering over the arbour. The double-red (a variety of 

 Rosa Gallica) was the most prized, and as if this red rose was 

 the most lovely thing that could be imagined, it is thus brought 

 into an " Ave Maria " of the early fifteenth century : 



" Heil be thou, Marie, that art flour of alle 

 As roose in eerbir so reed ! " * 



Chaucer praises the buds of the double rose, which are more 

 lasting than the quickly-falling petals of the single kinds : 



" I love wel sweitie roses rede : 

 For brode roses, and open also, 

 Ben passed in a day or two ; 

 But knoppesf wilen fresshe be 

 Two dayes atte leest or three." 



When the red or white rose became the badge of two contending 

 parties, it doubtless depended on the side taken by the owner of 

 the garden which colour prevailed therein. The "fresh redde 

 rose newe, against the sommer sunne," % or the " white rose of 

 England that is frishe and wol not fade. Both the rote & the 



* Early Eng. Text Soc. f = buds. 



J Assembly of FoiuLes. By Chaucer. 



