UOSACE^. 229 



Roses. An old rpciiie, in which our grandmothers delighted, and which, when con- 

 cocted by their busy hands, served to perfume the state chambers for many a day, is as 

 follows : — 



A few lanrel and bay-leaves, knotted marjoram and dried balm of Gilead : besides 

 these, to every two pecks of rose-leaves there should be orris-root sliced, gum benjamin 

 jind storax, 2 oz. of each ; ^ oz. of musk, ^ lb. of augelica-root sliced, and tlii-ee .Seville 

 orange? stuck as full of cloves as possible, dried in a cool oveu, and either pounded or 

 thrown in whole. 



Englishmen exalt the Rose as their national flower, for ever happily blended with 

 the shamrock and thistle ; but we must not forget that at one period of our history 

 it was the symbol for internal war and bloodshed, when the Ked and the White Roses, 

 and those that wore them, as nearly related to each other as the flowers themselves, 

 waged a deadly fight with each other, — when, according to Skakespeare, Warwick says 

 to Plantageuet : — 



" This brawl to-day. 



Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, 



Shall send between the Red Rose and the White 



A thousand souls to death and deadly night." 



A prophecy which was but too fatally fulfilled. 



The Union or York-and-Lancaster Rose, a very elegant variety, with mixed red 

 and white petals, has been generally referred to the marriage of Heniy VII. with 

 Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., by which the animosity of the contending houses 

 was happily and finally extinguished. An old author penned the following lines, 

 worthy of Anacreon, on presenting a white Rose to a Lancastrian lady : — 



" If this fair Rose offend thy sight, 

 It in thy bosom wear ; 

 'Twill blush to find itself less white, 

 And turn Lancastrian there." 



The old saying, to speak " under the rose," is somewhat difficult to explain ; but 

 mythological writers afford a solution to it by telling us that " Cupid, the god of love, 

 made Harpocrates, the god of silence, a present of the first Rose, to bribe him not to 

 divulge the secrets of his mother Venus." Hence the Rose became the symbol of 

 silence, and was usually placed above the heads of the guests in banqueting-rooms, in 

 order to banish restraint, and intimate that nothing would be divulged that was said 

 suh rosa. 



According to old legends, the Rose was created without thorns, which grew on 

 the i)lant in consequence of the wickedness of men. It was said to be the chosen flower 

 of Jlahonied, the Eastern prophet ; and travellers in Syiia and Egy[)tgive us wonderfMl 

 accounts of the rose-gardens there, and the delight which the inhabitants take in the 

 perfume of the flower. Among the Persians the Feast of Roses is a time of rejoicing, 

 and lasts through the whole time of their flowering. 



As a sacred emblem in the Roman Catholic Church, the Rose has long been regarded. 

 It is supjiosed to be an emblem of the Virgin, and was recognized as such by St. Dominic 

 when he introduced the devotion of the Rosary, with direct reference to the life of 

 St. Mary. The prayers are said to have been symbolized as Roses. 



The Wild Rose is sometimes called the Canker in various parts of the country ; 

 but, as it is a term of reproach, we do not desire to perpetuate it. Shakespeare alludes 



