34 
The Rose. 
probably other great officers at other Courts),when he waited 
on the King at dinner, had one of these crowns. Women, 
when they took the veil, and when they married, were thus 
adorned. Warriors wore their helmets encircled by these 
flowers, as may be seen from their monumental figures. This 
fondness of our ancestors for this fragrant and elegant flower, 
and the various uses to which they applied it, explains a par¬ 
ticular that at first sight appears somewhat whimsical, which is, 
the bushels of roses sometimes paid by vassals to their lords.” 
As an instance of these “ whimsical ” grants, take one made 
in 1576, by Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, to Christopher (after¬ 
wards Sir Christopher) Hatton, of great part of Ely blouse, 
Holborn, for twenty-one years, in which the tenant covenants 
to pay, on Midsummer Day, a red rose for the gate-house 
and garden ; the Bishop reserving to himself and successors 
free access through the gate-house, for walking in the gardens, 
and gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. 
The demand for these beautiful flowers was formerly so 
great that it was indeed no unusual thing for vassals, both in 
France and England, to pay bushels of them to their lords ; 
and there are instances of a single rose being deemed an 
equivalent for rent. Thus, Sir William Clopton granted to 
Thomas Smith a piece of ground, called Dokmedwe, in Han- 
stede, for the annual payment of a rose, at the Nativity of 
John the Baptist, to Sir William and his heirs, in lieu of all 
services : dated at Hanstede, on Sunday next before the Feast 
of All Saints, 3 Henry IV., 1402. 
Chaucer is one of the earliest English authors who mentions 
this flower: and in his “Romaunt of the Rose,” (a translation 
from the French) he gives many of the emblematical meanings 
assigned to it in the mediaeval ages ; and William Dunbar, one 
of Scotland’s truest as well as oldest bards, most poetically 
describes the happy union of Princess Margaret of England 
with his royal master, James IV. of Scotland, under the alle¬ 
gorical title of “ The Thistle and the Rose.” 
In the days of chivalry roses were often worn by chevaliers 
at tournaments, as an emblem of their devotion to love and 
beauty ; knights' also at tournaments wore roses embroidered 
in their sleeves, as an emblem that gentleness should accom¬ 
pany courage, and that beauty was the reward of valour. 
