OLD ROSES. 55 



the Moss Rose, with its mossed buds and fragrant 

 blossoms, of which I have another bed entirely for 

 itself. Perhaps they were the Maiden Blush, or 

 the York and Lancaster, or the sweet old China, 

 with its pink shell petals, which comes so soon and 

 lingers on so late the last Rose, not of summer 

 but of autumn. 1 Then there are other old Roses 

 which should not be neglected. The Rose Unique, 

 which is a white Cabbage Rose, is one ; the Rose 

 Celeste, the thin delicate buds of which are so 

 beautiful, is another. Then there is the little Rose 

 de Meaux, and the old Damask, which indeed 

 seems to have nearly disappeared. 



It must have been one of these Roses, be 

 sure, and not a Tea or a perpetual, which Lady 

 Corisande finds in her garden for Lothair. 



Not of course that we are not grateful for the 

 new Roses, with their brilliant colouring and their 

 perfect form, but we are unwilling that the old 

 should be forgotten. The Gloire de Dijon and 

 General Jaqueminot seem to me the most vigorous 

 and most useful, if not the finest ; but I have two 

 old standards which are at the moment more 



1 It is mentioned in the Baroness Bunseris Life how Mrs. Delany 

 loved to fill her china bowls with the pink buds of the Monthly Rose, 

 surrounded by sea-green shoots of the young Lavender. 



