10 The Rose Garden. 



do not know that his scheme of a flower garden could be much amended. His 

 general arrangements, which are minutely detailed with evident fondness for the 

 subject, would of course appear too formal at present, yet less so than those of sub- 

 sequent times ; and though acquainted with what is called the topiary art that of 

 training or cutting trees into regular figures he does not seem to run into its extra- 

 vagance." Hallairi s Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 444. 



As is well known, it is now customary in Italy, as it was formerly in ancient Rome, 

 to use flowers in times of rejoicing and in religious ceremonies, and the Rose is an 

 especial favourite. 



It has for some ages been a custom of the Roman Catholic Church for the Pope 

 to consecrate a golden Rose and send it to the monarch of some state as a token 

 of his particular esteem. " When the Rose is presented to any sovereign prince who 

 is staying at Rome, he is summoned before the Pope, who delivers it to him as he 

 kneels before him, saying, ' Accept this Rose at our hands, who, albeit unworthy, hold 

 the place of God on earth, by which Rose is typified the joy of the heavenly Jerusalem 

 and of the Church Militant by which to all the faithful in Christ is manifested that 

 most beauteous flower which is the joy and crown of all saints. Receive this, thou 

 dearly beloved son, who art, according to the age, noble, potent, and endowed with 

 many virtues, that thou mayest be more fully ennobled with every virtue in Christ our 

 Lord, as a Rose planted by the streams of many waters ; this grace may He vouchsafe 

 to grant unto thee, who is Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity for ever and ever.' 

 .... The origin of this wondrous custom is lost in the twilight of antiquity, and 

 almost every man who has mentioned it in dictionary or encyclopaedia has given a 

 false or meretricious reading of it. Some form of the custom began soon after the 

 death of the first Pope, St Peter, Keeper of the Keys. The present form of the 



custom began, I believe, with Gregory the Great, about 600 The form of the 



Holy Rose has undergone considerable modifications. Formerly a single Rose, it is 

 now several, and of the most superb make. It is probably worth .1000. The 

 custom can lay claim to an erudite bibliography of at least eight volumes, but nothing 

 in English." Extract from Pall Mall Gazette. In the Musee de Cluny at Paris may 

 be seen the golden Rose of Bale, presented by Pope Clement the Fifth to the Prince 

 Bishop of Bale early in the fourteenth century. Two of our kings received this mark 

 of distinction Henry VI. and Henry VIII. "They made," says M. Boitard, "the 

 delicate and ephemeral Rose emblematic of the frailty of the body and the short 

 duration of human life ; while the precious and unalterable metal in which it was 

 modelled alludes to the immortality of the soul." 



But let us glance cursorily to the land of the East Persia. The poets of that 

 country idolise this flower, placing it in song in company with the nightingales. 

 That it holds a high rank there may be gathered from the following fable : " One 

 day," said Saadi, " I saw a tuft of grass which surrounded a Rose-tree. What ! cried I, 



