perfumes those bones which the voice of the All-Powerful would one day restore to life."

The Roman Catholics of this day admit flowers to their churches and ceremonies, and on feast days they adorn the altars with bouquets and garlands. At the most imposing of these solemnities, the day of the "Fête-Dieu," rose petals, during the processions, are scattered in the air, and blended with the perfume of censers, directed towards the Host; in many of the towns, particularly those in the south of France and of Europe, the streets through which the procession passes are scattered throughout with fragrant herbs and flowers of every kind.

Since the extinction of paganism in a greater part of the world, the custom of wearing crowns of flowers at festivals has passed entirely away. Women only use roses as an ornament for their hair, or employ them in different parts of their toilet. In our own country the toilet of a bride is never considered perfect unless she wears a wreath of roses and other flowers, whose snow-white hue is an emblem of her departing maidenhood. Sometimes she is provided only with a bouquet of white roses, and camellias, and her bridesmaids wear similar ornaments of nature's manufacture.

The Rose is abundantly used by children in their beautiful celebration of May-day. We well recollect our own enjoyment of one of these scenes some seven years since. We were returning from a ride in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., on the first day of this, the sunniest of the months of Spring—a day dedicated not to the spirit of motion, and celebrated not by processions of furniture carts, amid the bustle and noise of a populous city, but dedicated there, at the sunny south, to innocent and joyous festivity, and celebrated amid all the fresh and fragrant luxuriance of southern vegetation, surrounded by the delicate sweetness of the magnolia, the Rose, and other flowers, while the mocking-bird, with its sweet and varied note, is the minstrel for the occasion. Riding quietly along the road, we were suddenly stopped by a procession which had just dismounted from a number of carriages in a beautiful grove hard by. It consisted

mostly of noble-looking boys and beautiful girls, of allages under fourteen, the latter dressed in white and crowned with wreaths of roses and other flowers. The manly attention of the boys to the fair creatures with whom they walked hand in hand, would not have disgraced the gallantry of Bayard, or the politeness of Chesterfield. As the procession wound slowly from our view, under the shade of the lofty live oak and the rich magnolia, we could not help reflecting how beautiful was this graceful enjoyment of the sunny days of childhood, and how preferable to the mental excitement and precocious training of many of the infant philosophers of this most enlightened nineteenth century.

It is much to be regretted that in circles where fashion reigns supreme, nature is gradually giving way to art, and instead of the fresh and natural beauty of a newly-gathered Rose, various forms of artificial flowers are found upon the center table, or in the hair of those whose quick discernment and refined taste should lead them to perceive the great inferiority of these artificial toys to the delicate beauty and welcome fragrance of a Rose just from its parent plant.

Very much additional matter could be inserted respecting the early history of the Rose, and its connection with ancient superstitions. Sufficient, however, has been given to show the esteem in which the Rose was held by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ROSE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

N 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 distilled 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 formerly 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 rosesas a single peppercorn, which is still a reserved rent, represents a pound of peppercorns-a payment originally of some worth, but descending by degrees to a mere formality. Among the newyear gifts presented to Queen Mary in 1556, was a bottle of rosewater; and in 1570 we find, among the items in the account of a dinner of Lord Leicester, when he was Chancelor of the University of Oxford, 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 Hatton, for twenty-one years, the tenant covenants to pay, on midsummer-day, a red rose for the gatehouse and garden, and for the ground (fourteen acres) ten loads of hay and £10 per annum; 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. 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 wrote 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 allowed 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 far 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 was the only prize worthy of valor. It was not, however, always taken for such emblems, nor did it always bring to mind pleasant and agreeable images, but was often the signal for bloodshed in a desolating civil war which raged in England for more than thirty years.

The rival factions of the White and the Red Rose arose in 1452, during the reign of Henry VI., between the houses of Lancaster and of York. The Duke of York, a descendant of Edward III., claimed that his house possessed a nearer title to the crown than the reigning branch. He adopted a white rose on his shield, for his device, and the reigning monarch, Henry VI., of the house of Lancaster, carried the red rose. After sev

eral furious civil wars, after having flooded the whole kingdom with blood, and after the tragical death of three kings, Henry VII., of the house of Lancaster, re-united, in 1486, the two families by marrying Elizabeth, the heiress of the house of York. The adoption of the red rose, by the house of Lancaster, was at a period far prior to these civil wars. About 1277, the Count of Egmont, son of the King of England, and who had taken the title of Count of Champagne, was sent by the King of France to Provence, with some troops, to avenge the murder of William Pentecôte, mayor of the city, who had been killed in an insurrection.

When this prince returned into England, after executing his orders, he took for his device the red rose, that Thibaut, Count of Brie and of Champagne, had brought from Syria, on his return from the crusade some years before. That Count of Egmont was the head of the house of Lancaster, who preserved the red rose on their arms, while the house of York, on the other hand, adopted the white rose as their device.

An anecdote is told of the Prince of Bearne, afterwards Henry IV. of France, who was not 15 years of age when Charles IX. came to Nerae, in 1566, to visit the court of Navarre.

The fifteen days that he spent there, were marked by sports and fêtes, of which, the young Henry was already the chief ornament. Charles IX. loved to practice archery; in providing for him that amusement, they thought that none of his courtiers, not even the Duke of Guise, who excelled at this sport, would venture to prove himself more adroit than the monarch. The young Henry, however, advanced, and at the first shot, carried off the orange, which served for a mark. According to the rules of the sport, he wished, as victor, to shoot first in the next trial; the King opposed it, and repulsed him with warmth; Henry stepped back a little, drew his bow, and directed the arrow against the breast of his adversary; the monarch quickly took shelter behind the largest of his courtiers, and requested them to take away "that dangerous little cousin." Peace being made, the same sport was continued on the following day; Charles found an