The evening world., 1894-08-16
A LEGEND OF OLD ENGLAND.
WHY THE ROSE Is THAT COUN-
TRY's NATIONAL FLOWER.
First Earl of Lancaster Imported
IL from France.

That the rose is the National flower
OF England, and was accepted as such at
the conclusion of the wars OF the roses,
when the red rose OF Lancaster and the
white rose of York were united by the
marriage OF the representatives OF the
two warning houses. most Of the readers
panion. How this flower came to be the
badge OF either house. not many peo-
pie even guess.
The few students who suppose they
know its history, say that the white
rose came to the house Of York through
the family OF Cllfforu.. whose device II
had long been and hssond wh hSss
is supposed. dates back to Eleanor OF
Provence, Queen, Of Henry III. and
was her personal device. assumed for
ner descendants OF Lancaster.
But in the recently published life of
Dean Stanley. a devoted student of his
toric traditions "A new and picturesque
origin is assigned to the National flower.
ne gathered the story while Visiting In
a chateau in the little town Of Provins,
France. and believed IT to be correct;
According to II. the red rose of Eng land
was never Provence rose, but instead
was n rose of Provlns.
the chateau of Proyins belonged CEN
turtles ago to the Counts of Champagne
| Ind in the time of the fourth crusade
one of the counts, called Thibaut the
lroubadour. became crusader, and
ON his return he brought TO his wife
,iOwerH,he rose of snaron1and This
was planted In the castle garden where
II grew and hourished
| Soon 1t spread to neishboring gar
| lens. and the town became famous for
roses. Wreaths for the great church
| ,estivals were made from these roses
from the Holy Land; they We're used to
grace all gala occasions, and the good
French housewives even turned them
to more practical account. They made
such an appetizins delicacy from rose
| leaves, put up with sugar or syrup,
that it's fame spread far beyond the
immediate neighborhood and 1t com
entire region under the name OF Con
serves de Roses de Provins.
| A generation later the prosperity OF
the town received sad shock and the
preserving industry no doubt suffered
| with the other industries of its citizens.
| Provins had a Mayor of such oppres-
sive views on the labor question that he
ventured to ring the great curfew bell,
which ended the working day an hour
| later than had been customary.
This the work people would not en-
| dure. They mobbed the unpopular mag
lstrate and killed him in his own house.
They did not stop to consider the pos
| 5ible consequence of such an act. The
line OF the counts of Champagne had
become extinct, but Blanche, the widow
OF the last one. had married Edmund
Crouchback. first Earl of Lancaster. who
promptly undertook to punish the UNI
| ruly Inhabitants.
He made such havoc that the town
never recovered from 1t, and had even
| to submit to having new bell made
and named Guillonette. In nonor of the
murdered Mayor, Gulllsume. This
| bell after six centuries, still rings thu
curfew in Provins every night. WheE
| Edmund went back to England leaving
misery, poverty and terrred quiet be
hind him, he carried home, says Dean
Stanley, two relics
"One was the yard measure, which,
for many years, was in France peculiar
| in Provins: the other was the crimson
rose, which, through him. became the
| rose Of Lancaster"
The heraldic rose of England is still
OF blended red and white significant
Of the union of the two great houses
but as Lancaster was victorious in bat
tie, so also Is the red rose the victor ir
popular favor, and 1t is of that, not o!
the stiff, part-colored rosette of IN,
British coat-of-arms, that We think a!
the emblem and flower OF the nation.
The old French crusaders holy rose
the rose Of Sharon. the rose Of Provins
has become the rose of England