CHAPTER IV 



THE ROSE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 



• N Great Britain, according' to Loudon, " one of 

 the earliest notices of the Rose occurs in Chau- 

 cer, who wrote early in the 13th century ; and 

 in the beginning of the 15th century, there is 

 evidence of the Rose having been cultivated for 

 commercial purposes, and of the water distilled 

 from it being used to give a flavor to a variety 

 of dishes, and to wash the hands at meals — a custom still pre- 

 served in some of the colleges, and also in many of the public 

 halls within the city of London." 



In 1402, Sir William Clopton granted to Thomas Smyth a 

 piece of ground called Dokmedwe, in Haustede, for the annual 

 payment of a rose to Sir William and his heirs, in lieu of all ser- 

 vices. The demand for roses formerly was so great, that bushels 

 of them were frequently paid by vassals to their lords, both in 

 England and France. The single rose, paid as an acknowledg- 

 ment, was t}\e diminutive representation of a bushel of roses — 

 as a single peppercorn, which is still a reserved rent, represents a 

 pound of peppercorns — a payment originally of some worth, but 

 descending by degrees to a mere formality. Among the new- 

 year gifts presented to Q,ueen Mary in 1556, was a bottle of rose- 

 water ; and in 1570 we find, among the items in the account of 

 a dinner of Lord Leicester, when he was Chancelor of the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford, three ounces of rose-water. In an account of 

 a grant of a great part of Ely House, Holborne, by the Bishop of 



3* 



