176 



PARSONS ON THE ROSE. 



peppercorn, which is still a reserved rent, represents a 

 pound of peppercorns — a payment originally of some 

 worth, hut descending by degrees to a mere formality. 

 Among the new-year gifts presented to Queen Mary in 

 1556, was a bottle of rose-water; and in 1570 we find, 

 amonrr the items in the account of a dinner of Lord Lei- 

 cester, when he was Chancellor of the University of Ox- 

 ford, three ounces of rose-water. In an account of a grant 

 of a great part of Ely House, Holborne, by the Bishop of 

 Ely, to Christopher Ilatton, for twenty-one years, the 

 tenant covenants to pay, on midsummer-day, a red rose 

 for tlie gate-house and garden, and for the ground (four- 

 teen acres) ten loads of hay and £10 per annum; the 

 Bishop reserving to himself and successors free access 

 through the gate-liouse, for walking in the gardens and 

 gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. In 1597, we 

 find Gerard speaking of the Damask rose of Damascus 

 and the Cinnamon rose as common in English gardens. 

 Hakluyt says that the rose of Damascus was brought to 

 England by De Linaker, physician to Henry IX. ; and his 

 successor. Sir Richard Weston, who w^rote in 1645, says, 

 " We have red roses from France." In the reign of 

 James I., the keeper of the robes and jewels at Whitehall, 

 among a variety of other offices, had separate salaries al- 

 loAved him, "for fire to air the hot-houses, 40s. by the 

 year;" and, "for digging and setting of roses, in the 

 spring gardens, 40s. by the year." 



It would seem, by these incidents, that previous to the 

 seventeenth century, roses were fir from being abundant, 

 and indeed were so rare, that a bottle of distilled water 

 was a fit present for Royalty, and a few roses an amply 

 sufficient rent for house and land. 



In the times of chivalry, the Rose was often an emblem 

 that knights were fond of placing in their helmet or shield, 

 implying that sweetness should always be the companion 

 of courage, and that beauty w^as the only prize worthy of 



