Varions Origins.

Colonist, Issue 18, 22 December 1857, Page 4

Varions Origins.

OF UNDER THE ROSE.

There has arisen much petty controversy about the common expression 'under the rose,' and two different origins have been assigned. Some people assert that it ought to be spelt under the rows, for that in former days almost all towns were built with the second stofey projecting over the lower one—a, sort' of piazza, or row, as they termed it, and which may still be seen at Chester and some other old English towns; and that whilst the elders of the family were sitting at their windows gravel} 7: enjoying the air, their sons and: daughters were making love where they could not see them, 'under the-rows:' Q;he other is much more elegant. Oupic^ itis said^ gave ia rose to Harpocrates,'the grid of silence, and from this legend originated the practice that prevailed amongst northern nations of suspending a rose from the ceiling over the upper end, of the table, when, it ,was intended that the conversation >vas to be kept secret; and this it was, according to others, whkih gave rise to the phrase, ' under the rose.'