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Page 17
"This is precisely the notable characteristic of the neighbourhood.
The wild rose is indigenous. There is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor
brae, which is not, in the time of roses, ablaze with their exuberant
loveliness. In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that it
spreads literally like a weed. But it is worth suggestion that the
word may be of the same stock as the Hebrew _r�sh_ (translated r�s
by the Septuagint), meaning _chief_, _principal_, while it is also
the name of _some_ flower; but of _which_ flower is now unknown.
Affinities of _r�sh_ are not far to seek; Sanskrit, _Raj_(a),
_Ra_(ja)_ni_; Latin, _Rex_, _Reg_(ina)."
I leave it to Professor Max Muller to certify or correct for you the
details of Mr. Cockburn's research,[11]--this main head of it I can
positively confirm, that in old Scotch,--that of Bishop Douglas,--the
word 'Rois' stands alike for King, and Rose.
[Footnote 11: I had not time to quote it fully in the lecture; and in
my ignorance, alike of Keltic and Hebrew, can only submit it here to
the reader's examination. "The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms
this etymology beyond doubt, with customary heraldic precision. The
shield bears a _Rose_; with a _Maul_, as the exact phonetic equivalent
for the expletive. If the herald had needed to express 'bare
promontory,' quite certainly he would have managed it somehow.
Not only this, the Earls of Haddington were first created Earls
of _Melrose_ (1619); and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for
Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd (fesse wavy between) three _Roses_ gu.
"Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus
into lingual affinities of wide range. The root _mol_ is clear enough.
It is of the same stock as the Greek _m�la_, Latin _mul_(_tum_), and
Hebrew _m'la_. But, _Rose_? We call her Queen of Flowers, and since
before the Persian poets made much of her, she was everywhere _Regina
Florum_. Why should not the name mean simply the Queen, the Chief?
Now, so few who know Keltic know also Hebrew, and so few who know
Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the surprising extent of the
affinity that exists--clear as day--between the Keltic and the Hebrew
vocabularies. That the word _Rose_ may be a case in point is not
hazardously speculative."]
Summing now the features I have too shortly specified in the Saxon
character,--its imagination, its docility, its love of knowledge,
and its love of beauty, you will be prepared to accept my conclusive
statement, that they gave rise to a form of Christian faith which
appears to me, in the present state of my knowledge, one of the
purest and most intellectual ever attained in Christendom;--never yet
understood, partly because of the extreme rudeness of its expression
in the art of manuscripts, and partly because, on account of its very
purity, it sought no expression in architecture, being a religion
of daily life, and humble lodging. For these two practical reasons,
first;--and for this more weighty third, that the intellectual
character of it is at the same time most truly, as Dean Stanley
told you, childlike; showing itself in swiftness of imaginative
apprehension, and in the fearlessly candid application of great
principles to small things. Its character in this kind may be
instantly felt by any sympathetic and gentle person who will read
carefully the book I have already quoted to you, the Venerable Bede's
life of St. Cuthbert; and the intensity and sincerity of it in the
highest orders of the laity, by simply counting the members of Saxon
Royal families who ended their lives in monasteries.
Now, at the very moment when this faith, innocence, and ingenuity were
on the point of springing up into their fruitage, comes the Northern
invasion; of the real character of which you can gain a far truer
estimate by studying Alfred's former resolute contest with and victory
over the native Norman in his paganism, than by your utmost endeavours
to conceive the character of the afterwards invading Norman,
disguised, but not changed, by Christianity. The Norman could not, in
the nature of him, become a _Christian_ at all; and he never did;--he
only became, at his best, the enemy of the Saracen. What he was, and
what alone he was capable of being, I will try to-day to explain.
And here I must advise you that in all points of history relating
to the period between 800 and 1200, you will find M. Viollet le
Duc, incidentally throughout his 'Dictionary of Architecture,' the
best-informed, most intelligent, and most thoughtful of guides.
His knowledge of architecture, carried down into the most minutely
practical details,--(which are often the most significant), and
embracing, over the entire surface of France, the buildings even of
the most secluded villages; his artistic enthusiasm, balanced by the
acutest sagacity, and his patriotism, by the frankest candour, render
his analysis of history during that active and constructive period the
most valuable known to me, and certainly, in its field, exhaustive.
Of the later nationality his account is imperfect, owing to his
professional interest in the mere _science_ of architecture, and
comparative insensibility to the power of sculpture;--but of the
time with which we are now concerned, whatever he tells you must be
regarded with grateful attention.
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