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ROSE. 115 
houses, and their union by the marriage of 
Henry VII. with the heiress of the York 
family, are prettily typified in the colouring of 
the York and Lancaster Rose. 
In the East, the Rose is an object of peculiar 
esteem, and the acceptance of this flower when 
offered is a token of the highest favour. How- 
ever interesting it might be to collect the various 
oriental legends and traditions in which the 
Rose acts a principal part, I must abstain from 
the attempt, otherwise this single article might 
be swelled to the size of a decent volume, espe- 
cially if I should include the many charming 
illustrations of the love of the nightingale for 
the Rose. In a fragment by the celebrated 
Persian poet Attar, entitled Bulbul Nameh— 
the Book of the Nightingale—all the birds 
appear before Solomon, and charge the Night- 
ingale with disturbing their rest by the broken 
and plaintive strains which he warbles forth in 
a sort of frenzy and intoxication. The night- 
ingale is summoned, questioned, and acquitted 
by the wise king, because the bird assures him 
that his vehement love for the Rose drives him 
tc ‘distraction, and causes him to break forth 





