186 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



another respect the Austrian brier is diflferent from all 

 other roses. We naturally connect roses 'with a sweet 

 scent : — 



* The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem 

 For that sweet odour that doth in it live.' 



Yet many of the modern hybrids are quite scentless, 

 and the Austrian brier has actually an offensive scent, 

 so that it was called by the old writers ' Bosa foetida,' 

 ^ Rosa graveolens simplex flore extus ruhro intus luteo,' while 

 a modern writer says, ' Eay says that the flowers smell 

 like honey ; to me they smell more like bugs.' I can 

 only say for myself that the evil smell is much ex- 

 aggerated ; it exists, but is very slight, and must be 

 sought for. But it is not a popular rose, because it is 

 difficult of cultivation, or rather capricious. The Dean 

 of Rochester, the great master in rose-growing, has said 

 that he cannot grow it. I grow it, but not as well as I 

 should wish, while in a neighbour's garden it grows 

 like a weed, sending up suckers in every direction ; and 

 in a neighbouring village the rectory-house had once a 

 grand specimen ^trained to an east wall, and in the 

 flowering season (unfortunately a short one) the plant 

 seen in full sun with many flowers open was really a 

 gorgeous sight. And that reminds me to say that this 

 is a very good way of growing the sweet-brier. I do 



