THE ROSE IX THE MIDDLE AGES. 



175 



upon the center table, or in the hair of those whose quick 

 discernment and refined taste should lead them to per- 

 ceive the great inferiority of these artificial toys to the 

 delicate beauty and welcome fragrance of a Rose just 

 from its parent plant. 



Very mucli additional matter could be inserted respect- 

 ing the early history of the Rose, and its connection with 

 ancient superstitions. Sufiicient, liowever, has been given 

 to show the esteem in which the Rose was held by the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE ROSE m THE MIDDLE AGES. 



In Great Britain, according to Loudon, "one of the 

 earliest notices of the Rose occurs in Chaucer, 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 dis- 

 tilled from it being used to give a flavor to a variety of 

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

 preserved 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 services. The demand for roses for- 

 merly 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 acknowledgment, was the 

 diminutive representation of a bushel of roses — as a single 



