1809.] 
the slightest suspicion of any design, in- 
consistent with the character of a man 
of honour and integrity ; notwithstanding 
the unfeeling, cruel, and opprobrious 
epithets, with which his name and his 
memory have been unjustly loaded.” 
From the whole tenor of Dr. Sher- 
wen’s Introduction, for it seems that it 
is an Introduction only to a larger work; 
it is evident, to use his own words, that 
the discsvery ef truth is his object; and, 
that he is not only as anxious as Mr.:C. 
to do justice to the reputation of Chat- 
terton, as a poet, but to do much more, 
viz. to vindicate and establish his cha- 
racter for veracity as a man, 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
BEG leave to offef your correspon- 
dent the following derivation of the 
phrase, “* Under the Rose.” It was the 
custom of both Greeks and Romans, in 
their convivial parties, not only to 
strew the ground with roses, and to 
anoint themselves witha perfume of the 
same flower, but to sit crowned with 
wreaths or chaplets of roses.* The rea- 
son of this preference given to the rose, 
above other flowers, 18 said to be the 
consequence of its having been the em- 
blem of taciturnity, which was held pro- 
verbially indispensable on such occasions, 
Mica prepore cupmotay, XC. 
Est rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo facta laterent 
Harpocrati matris dona dicavit Amor. 
Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amcis, 
Conviva ut sub ea dicta cavenda sciat. 
Many of our ancient rooms have the 
rose in the centre of the cieling, perhaps 
in allusicn to the ancient custom. 
The real cause, however, of using the 
rose in banquets, and cuysroogia, is with 
greater probability supposed to have 
been the cooling and refreshing fragrancy 
of that flower. The ancients adduce 
likewise, the origin of the rose, as a rea- 
son for its use m convivial meetings. 
Cupid, who was sportively dancing at 
one of the banquets of the gods, is said 
to have overturned the goblet of Nep-. 
tune, sparkling with nectar, ‘The pre- 
cious liquid sprinkled the ground, and 
the rose, tinged with the saine glowing 
colour, instantly sprang from the earth. 
Your's, &c. A. BB. 
* Hor. 1. iii. of. xix, et alibi. Plin. 1. 21. 
}. ili. Diosc. ad verbum. Anacreon e:¢ ecdovy 
Eur. Cyclops, 55, é&c. 
+ Other accounts of the birth of the rose, 
may be seen in Ovid. Met, x. Bion, Epit. 
Pervigil. Veneris; &c. 
- 
Origin of the Phrase, Under the Rose. 
265 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, [ 
N your Magazine of August, Nemo 
has not been happy in his conjectural 
answer to the enquiry of your correspon- 
dent J. H. relative to the phrase, * Under 
the Rose ;” the true origin of that expres- 
sion may, therefore, not be unaccept- 
able. ) 
The first rose seen by mortals was, ac- 
cording to mythologists, a beautiful one 
presented by Cupid to the god of Silence, 
to induce him to preside over the amours — 
ef Venus. Thus the rose became sacred 
to that goddess, and emblematic of ses , 
crecy; and in consequence, at thé syme | 
posia, or convivial meetings of the . 
ancients, chaplets of that flower were 
worn, and roses hung up to inspire 
unrestrained communication, by, intima- 
ting that whatever passed there, would 
not be repeated elsewhere. Hence, any | 
thing imparted in confidence, with a de« 
sire that it should remain secret, was 
said to be spoken sub rosé, or under the 
Tose. Your’s, &c. 
Bath, August 28, 1809. FE, 
Ss 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EEING no satisfactory answer in 
your valuable Repository, to the 
Query, as to the origin of the phrase, 
Under the Rose, t venture to suggest, that 
it_ probably owes its birth to the bloody 
conflicts between the houses of York and 
Lancaster, when the red and white rose 
were the emblems of the two contending 
parties. Great secresy must necessarily 
be observed at the meetings of the van- 
quished party; it is probable that on _ 
these occasions, a rose was fixed up in 
some conspicuous place in the room, as 
a memento to the persons present, and 
a badge of their principles, and nothing 
was to be divulged which passed under 
the Rose. -The sign of the Rose, and 
Rose and Crown, is still not uncommon 
at inns and public houses, and it is likely 
that it was formerly much less so. Dr, 
Donne, who lived two hundred years 
nearer those times than we do, Says, in 
one of his letters, possibly with an allu- 
sion to this phrase, that “ his temple of 
friendship, is the Rose in Smithfield.” 
The sign is, | think, peculiar to England ; 
I do not recollect meeting with it on the 
Continent, though I have been much in 
foreign parts, ~ ‘Your’s, &c. 
August 25, 1809, InpacaTor. 
Ler 
