The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-16
THE WHITE ROSE
Buds and Blooms on White Head.
The Children of sold York; Plant their
Standard in Casco Bay.

Now is the winter of our discomfort made glor ious
summer by the sons of York
And all the clouds that lower about our house deep
In the bosom OF the ocean lie.
Among the old English territorial names
brought to the new English shores that OF York
is certainly one of the most distinguished, as it
is among the oldest. The English shire is cell
ebrated in merry song and story, and its West
Riding in sober jurisprudence. The name was
the war-cry of the adherents of the White
Rose and centuries after was the ducal title of
the cadets of the house of Stuart. From James
II, the last Stuart who reigned on both sides the
Tweed, rather than from the Duke Richard out
of whose loins three kings of England sprang, it
is probable the Maine county got its name; for
when Gorges brought his royal patent and his
city charter to the long beach under the brow
of Agamenticus, he and the sturdy immi-
grants his vessels bore thought little of the war
of the Roses, or of the grandchildren of the
Black Prince. They had in their minds their
Stuart patron, and gave his title to the rugged
shores that stretched from the mouth of the
Piscataqua to the western limit of the Cana
dian dominion of France
Maine was prominently a Stuart colony
Indeed, the old parish of Scotland" was
formed by Highland refugees who fled from
Cromwell and his Ironsides after the rout of
Dunbar. These gladly welcomed the new
comers,who brought tidings of the Restoration,
and later gave harbor to the loyal and unfortu-
nate adherents of James and his sons Thus
Western Maine became a house of refuge TO
Englishmen, Irishmen and Scotchmen who
spent their fortunes and perilled their lives for
the Stuart. With these mourners for lost
cause came the 'men of Kent" to whose chill
dren we are indebted for the victory at Tripoli
and the great naval name of Preble. The
Kentish folk settled to farming; the Highland
caterans, in default of cattle-lifting, took to
catching fish. The two gradually blend
ed into one. Thus it comes about that the sons
of York county to-day pillow both the fertile
land and the sterile strengthening store of
grain from the one and gaining hardihood from
their adventures on the other.
But of these things, of princely quarrels, of
Kentisl downs or Highland hills, or Georges
and his visionary city, the three hundred peo-
pie born in York and living in Portland, who
gathered at White Head yesterday ,recked little
They had later and more glorious memories
memories of the honorable part borne by their
fathers in the founding and strengthening of
the nation; but even of these they made slight
mention. Born in the purple, they had no oc-
casion to assert themselves They held FAM
lily union, enjoyed picnic, just like common
folks. Throwing aside the robes of royalty
and the cares of state, they gave themselves up
to enjoyment with all the zest and frankness
of children, each welcoming some old play
mate to the new play ground, and each, while
paying full tribute to the beauties of Casco
Bay, murmuring:
There is no place like the old place where you and
were born;
Where first our eyelids opened on the splendors of
the morn."
They had the grand, enviable appetite of
children too, these sons and daughters of York.
After a leisurely ramble through the woods to
the cliffs of White Head, they fastened back
to eight long tables that soon groaned under a
load that would have appalled, stout-stomached
Gargantua. Under the steaming sea-weed,
close by, lay. in fancied security, fifty bushels
of clans, fifty dozen of eggs, six hundred ears
of corn, three hundred Holsters, five barrels Of
sweet potatoes, and sixty loaYes of bread.
These were taken up by attentive walters, and
taken down by these hearty boys and girls as
quick as margins are gobbled by broker in
corn. The feast was as short, and sweet and
satisfactory as the blessing invoked upon it by
the Rev. DR.. Joseph Kicker.
The people who devastated this modest little
lunch are pillaried below: