^ The Scented (garden $£ 



that before the Wars of the Roses a rose tree at Longleat 

 was observed to bear both white and red roses. ' It is too 

 lamentably knowne in this land, the civill warres betweene 

 the houses of the two brethren John of Gaunt, Duke of 

 Lancaster, and Edmond of Langley, Duke of Yorke, 

 the one making a red rose his cognizance for them and 

 their followers, the other a white : but it is said that 

 before this division, there was seene at Longleete a white 

 Rose tree to beare on the one side faire white Roses, and 

 on the other side red, prognosticating as it were both the 

 division and uniting of both their families.' 



The white rose is often mentioned and figured by the six- 

 teenth century botanists, and according to Bauhin this was 

 one of the roses mentioned by Pliny. The variety Maiden's 

 Blush (R. alba var. rubicunda) was formerly commonly 

 grown in every cottage garden, and Miss Willmott says 

 its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity. This is prob- 

 ably the ' Incarnation Rose ' mentioned by Turner in 

 1557, and it is certainly the ' Incarnation Rose ' described 

 by Parkinson, who says of it, that it is ' in most things like 

 unto the white rose, both for the growing of the stocke, 

 and bignesse of the flower, but that it is more spread 

 abroade when it is blown than the white is, and is of a pale 

 blush colour all the flower throughout. This kinde of 

 Rose is not very great but very thicke and double, and is 

 very variable in the flowers, in that they will be so different 

 one from another : some being paler than others, but 

 the best flowers (whereof there will bee still some) will 

 be of a bright pale murrey colour.' The very dark leaves 

 give great character to this lovely rose and the flowers 

 have a fragrance peculiarly their own. This rose, which 

 Redoute calls Le Rosier Blanc Royal, * la grand Maiden's 

 122 



