

At the center of the ceiling was a slate inlay in the shape of a Tudor Rose. In the drawing room says the Trethevy Manor web site,” a beautiful plaster ceiling was constructed. Trethevy Manor was built in medieval times, the oldest parts of the house dating back to 1151 A.D. Located in part of Cornwall Trethevy is a coastal hamlet between the popular historic village of Tintagel in the south with its legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Throughout history roses have served as symbols to represent everything from romantic love to unromantic war ( The War of the Roses, in England, 1455-85) where it was a white rose was displayed at meetings where people were not supposed to reveal what went on. Some say this was a subtle way of expressing that the wearer "heard all and said nothing." ” Queen Elizabeth I, continues "Roses: History, Legends and Customs", “is said to have worn a rose behind her ear, probably copied after the Spanish. Anything said under the rose - the rose garland hung on the wall or the rose chaplets on their heads - was sub rosa.” Reclining on their beds of roses, they ate, drank, and gossiped. Around their necks they wore garlands of roses. At banquets for these gods, wealthy Romans would lie on couches spread with rose petals. The web site Roses: History, Legends and Customs suggests a historical perspective that is particularly intriguing: “The rose had been sacred to Bacchus, god of wine, as well as to Venus. Today, "sub rosa" (and, less often, "under the rose") is a synonym for "secret," with the added connotation of "illicit." “ Eventually real roses were replaced by plaster ones, and roses were still commonly found in the plasterwork in many Victorian dining rooms. However, says the Word Detective, “it was still common in Medieval times to see a rose suspended over a dining table in France and England to remind guests that conversations at the table were not to be repeated elsewhere. Since all confessions were (and are) in utter confidence, the expression "keep it under your hat" came into being.” This significance has carried over in Christianity where a rose is often carved onto confessionals. In this way they could be easily identified when needed. After the fall of the Roman Empire, notes Patrick Rogers on the History of the Rose,” rose cultivation was continued by Benedictine monks, and as the excesses of the Romans were forgotten, the flower became the emblem of secret Christian societies as a symbol of the blood of Christ.” Canon Carey at Canon Carey’s Corner adds in his selections of Church Words:”Following the English reformation in the 16th century, only certain cathedral canons were licensed to hear private confessions, and they were designation by a rose appliquéd on their clerical hats. Protected by thorns, it is a beautiful, fragrant flower, representing beauty, secrecy, love, life, blood, death and rebirth.

The rose is one of the most important floral symbols in the Western world.

Her plan-so that when Marc Antony met her, he would long remember her for such opulence and be reminded of her every time he smelt a rose thereafter. Roses, eighteen inches deep, were strewn on the floors of her palace, the couches were covered with rose petals, and the fountains were filled with rose water. When she received a visit from her lover, Mark Antony, she spared no expense to entertain him. The etymology extends as far back as the Roman Empire, people understood that some communications deserved special treatment.Ĭleopatra contributed much to the clandestine popularity of the rose in Egypt. Harpocrates kept his mouth shut, and the rose thereafter became the symbol of silence. Venus's son Cupid, quick-wittedly saved his mother's reputation by offering Harpocrates a beautiful rose in return for his vow of silence. “One fine afternoon,” adds the Word Detective,” a child god named Harpocrates stumbled upon the goddess Venus while she was engaged in one of her many illicit rendezvous. According to one reference books "From Achilles' Heel to Zeus's Shield," by Dale Corey Dibbley, the whole story was pretty much invented by Romans mythology. Research offers a fairly wide range of possible derivations of the term. Funk & Wagnalls and The Reader's Digest Great Encyclopdeia Dictionaries both say that because the rose was the emblem of the Egyptian god Horus it was mistakenly regarded by the Greeks and Romans as the god of silence. Synonyms- Secretly confidentially as, to pass on information sub rosa. Sub rosa: refers to " under the rose", meaning "in secret". A phenomenological idiom this Latin expression meaning "under the rose" is still a common way of describing something to be kept secret.
