Va^s/ Vi-^ vi^fi/ v*r-^£/ Va^c/ Va^c/ Va^Ms/Vi^c/ Va^c/ Va^i/ vs^fi/ 



CHAPTER V 



THE OLD ROSES 



l2)HE arayeth her thorn wyth fayr colour and good 

 smell, among all floures of the worlde the floure of the 

 rose is cheyf and beareth ye pryse. And by cause of ver- 

 tues and swete smelle and savour. For by fairness they 

 fede the syghte : and playseth the smell by odour, the 

 touche by softe handling.' 1 I am writing in a rose garden ; 

 filled with the beauty of the roses, which for centuries have 

 reigned in the gardens of princes and peasants alike and 

 whose very names are full of romance. For centuries, 

 these roses have held the secret of all that is sweetest and 

 best in the home life of our race. Small wonder that the 

 rose is our national flower, for it is the symbol of the home. 

 What modern roses can compare for beauty or for 

 fragrance with these queens of ancient lineage ? Look at 

 a bowl of these roses in a room filled with treasures of art, 

 and see how perfectly both in form and colour they are 

 in keeping with pictures by the great masters, with price- 

 less furniture and tapestries. Put the * elegant ' long 

 stalked pointed modern hybrid teas in the same room and 

 see how out of place they look. Or again, look at the old 

 roses set in a crock on a cottage window sill. The queens 



1 From Batman's translation (1582) of De Proprietatibus Return, by 

 Bartholomaeus Anglicus. In the original — ' Decore et odore nobilitant 

 spinam suam. . . . Flos ros int' flores optinet principatn, et io solet 

 pricipalis que homls scz capitis rosaru floribus coronare ut dicit pli et 

 hoc ratione decoris odoris suavitatis et virtutes. Nam sua pulcritudie 

 aspectQ reficit suo odore olfactu afficit suavitatis mollicie tactum delink.' 



I05 



