ROSE GOSSIP.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 30 November 1912, Page 10

ROSE GOSSIP.

Although the rose is the national flower of England, it has always held a high place in the lives of Frenchwomen. Most of the villages within hail of Paris have their roseries. Belgium has initiated, the pleasant usage of France, and during the sojourn of Louis XVIII. at Blankenberg, he was requested to place the crown of innocence on the local rosiere, who had much simple politeness in her nature; so, looking up at the august face of His Majesty, she curtsied, and said, "Dieu vous la rende," a mode of thanksgiving which made the audience smile, because Louis-de-Desire had no direct descendants. Roses- were the signs of homage which peers of France had from time immemorial offered to j their Sovereign. On May-day in Provence, a young i girl, crowned with roses, is* seated at each end of the principal streets and thoroughfares of some towns She is called "La Belle de Mai," and her companions levy contributions on the passers-by for her wedding portion, much as the Etonians begged for "salt" in the old Montem days. When a beautiful Princess Galitzin besought the blessing of Archbishop Hoton, the prelate silently took a rose from the shrine of our Lady of Grace and presented it to her. The Emperor Charles Quint gave a rose as the device of his wife, Isabella of Portugal. Luther had a rose engraved on his private signetring. At Provins the gardeners choose a king every year, and he is called "Roi dcs Rosiers," or monarch of the rose trees. He is • throned on St. Fiacre's Day at. vespers, just as the choristers, who sing service in the saints' church, chant the words, "Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit immiles."

In the latter part of the fifth century the rose was made the prize of moral conduct at a festival held for the purpose. Saint Medard, Bishop of Noyon, was also lord of the neighboring manor of Salceney, and, having wisely taken into his head that virtue should not be its sole reward, he determined to recompense the most clisc^eet^ young woman he could find with a solid gift of twenty-five pounds and a chaplet of roses. St. Medard perpetuated his gift by assigning a small piece of his land to trustees for ever, on condition that the rent of it should be applied every year to provide for the accessories and expenses of what he described as the "Ceremony of Roses."

Among the old customs of Auvergne was one which decided that a wreath of roses should form the whole marriage portion of the daughters of noble families, where there were heirs male to the lands and property belonging to them. At Lucy, near Auxerre, twelve boys, selected by the mayor, were boiutd to accompany every * bride to church, and they carried a cross made of roses, for which service the bridegroom gratified them with seven sous and six centimes in money newly coined. A fief of Gouray, on the Marne, was held by the presentation of four roses to the lady of the manor, or to the lord's eldest daughter,'* upon All Saints' Day.