CHAP. XLII. flOSA'CEJE. RO'SA. 78? 



tenant covenants to pay, on Midsummer-day, a red rose for the gate-house 

 and garden ; and for the ground (fourteen acres), ten loads of hay, and 10/. 

 per annum ; the bishop reserving to himself and successors free access through 

 the gate-house, for walking in the gardens, and gathering twenty bushels of 

 ro-^'s yearly. (Malcob*** London, 4to, vol. ii. p. 231 237.) On this grant, 

 Sir Thomas G. Culltim observes, that this deed affords us a pleasing instance 

 of relaxation of feudal tyranny ; the old manorial lords generally clogging 

 their grants of land with oppressive services. In the same light we should 

 consider the jocular tenures by which several manors, or parcels of land, were 

 formerly holden. (Cullum's Ilawstcad, 2d edit. p. 1 18.) In 1597, we find Gerard 

 speaking of the damask rose, or rose of Damascus, and the cinnamon rose, as 

 common in English gardens. Hakluyt says that the rose of Damascus was 

 brought to England by Dr. Linaker, physician to Henry VII. ; and his suc- 

 cessor, Sir Richard Weston, who wrote in 1645, says," We have red roses from 

 France." In the reign of James I., the keeper of the robes and jewels at 

 Whitehall, amongst a variety of other offices, had separate salaries allowed 

 him, " for fire to air the hot-houses, 40s. by the year; " and " for digging and 

 setting of roses in the Spring Gardens, 40s. by the year." (History of the First 

 Fourteen Years of King James. T. G. C.) As, during the middle ages, roses 

 were in use in the festivals of the church throughout Europe, it seems 

 probable that they would be generally introduced into the gardens of the 

 priories and other religious establishments. The moss rose was brought to 

 England from Holland early in the eighteenth century. Very little faith is 

 to be placed in the assertions of persons ignorant of gardening and botany, as 

 to the date of the introduction of particular plants; as a proof of which may 

 be given the remarkable fact, that Madame de Genlis, when she was in Eng- 

 land, saw the moss rose for the first time in her life; and, when she returned, 

 took a plant with her to Paris, in order to introduce it into France ; though 

 the fact is, that it was originated in Provence. The musk rose, Hakluyt tells 

 us, in 1592, was first obtained from Italy; and it also was common in the time 

 of Gerard. The single yellow rose was known to Gerard, but not the double, 

 which, Parkinson informs us, as noticed p. 757., was brought to England 

 from Syria before 1629. One of the most valuable of roses, the China rose 

 (R. indica), was first introduced in 1789 ; and it may be said to have created 

 a revolution in the culture of roses, by the innumerable varieties which have 

 been raised between it, the deep red China rose (R. semperflorens), intro- 

 duced the same year, and the European roses. 



Properties and Uses. The great use of the cultivated rose, in all countries 

 where it is grown, is as a floriferous shrub ; but it is, nevertheless, cultivated 

 for the uses to which its flowers are applied in medicine and domestic 

 economy in different parts of Europe, in the north of Africa, and more espe- 

 cially in Asia. In Syria, it has been cultivated from time immemorial ; and, 

 indeed, the aboriginal name of that country, Suristan, is said to signify the 

 Land of Roses. The rose plantations of Damascus, those of Cashmere, of 

 the Barbary coast, and of Fayoum in Upper Egypt, have been already men- 

 tioned as cultivated for making the attar, or essence, of roses from their 

 flowers. In France, the rose de Provins is extensively cultivated in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the town of that name, in the department of Seine et Marne, 

 about 60 miles south-east of Paris ; and also at Fontenay aux Roses, near 

 Paris, for products of a similar nature. In Britain, in the neighbourhood of 

 London, Edinburgh, and other large towns, and in many private gardens, the 

 flowers are gathered for making rose-water, or drying as perfumes. The 

 various preparations from the flowers are, the dried petals, rose-water, vinegar 

 of roses, spirit of roses, conserve of roses, honey of roses, oil of roses, and 

 attar, otto, butter, or essence, of roses. After making some general remarks, 

 we shall notice the mode of preparing each of these articles. 



The kind of rose cultivated for commercial purposes, in Syria, is generally 

 said to be the damask, or Damascus, species ; but, according to Langles 

 (Recherches surla Decouverte de la Rose, &c.), it is the musk rose from which 



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