J. G.
Exon.
WHITE ROSES.
(Vol. vii., p. 329.)
The allusion is to the well-known Jacobite badge of the white rose, which was regularly worn on June 10, the anniversary of the Old Pretender's birthday, by his adherents. Fielding refers to the custom in his Amelia:
"On the lovely 10th of June, under a serene sky, the amorous Jacobite, kissing the odoriferous Zephyr's breath, gathers a nosegay of white roses to deck the whiter breast of Celia."—Amelia, edit. 1752, vol. i. p. 48.
The following lines are extracted from a collection of considerable merit, now become uncommon, the authors of the different papers in which were Dr. Deacon and Dr. Byrom, and which is entitled Manchester Vindicated (Chester, 1749, 12mo.). The occasion was on a soldier snatching a white rose from the bosom of a young lady on June 10, 1747:
I.
"Phillis to deck her snowy breast