46
THE GARDENS OF WARLEY PLACE.
the genus will undoubtedly remain the standard work upon
roses for many years.4 There appear to be from 160 to 200
recognized species of rose. The rose is intimately con-
nected with English history, and our love for this flower is
probably as old as the Roman invasion. The Damask-Rose,
the Musk Rose, the Moss-Rose, the Cabbage-Rose, and the
Yellow Cabbage-Rose, the York and Lancaster, and the Scotch
Roses, the latter probably descendants from the Burnet roses,
and some hundreds more were known during the last century,
whilst the number obtained from these original species and older
races by hybridization now amounts to some fifty thousand.
In England, Benjamin Cant, of Colchester, did much to nurture
this love of the rose during Victorian times by distributing all
the best varieties from his extensive Colchester nurseries. His
attention was first called to the flower by Mr. W. H. Penrose,
of Dedham, in Essex, who had brought some Hardy Perpetual
and Tea-roses from the celebrated gardens of J. B. Laffey, of
Belle Vue, near Paris. He persuaded Cant to give them a place
in his nursery. From this beginning, after one or two removals,
the present nurseries, covering upwards of one hundred acres,
were evolved. Essex has also produced several celebrated
amateur rose-growers. Having regard to the important part
taken by Essex in the cultivation of the flower, it is a matter
for congratulation that the scholarly work upon roses alluded to
above should have been written by an Essex lady.
The Well-Mead garden at Warley contains the collection
of wild and ancient types of roses collected for study; it is one
of the best collections of the kind that exists. Here are also
Tea-roses, Hybrid Perpetuals, Moss-roses, and others raised
before 1870. Many of these latter are so beautiful in themselves
and so deliciously scented that it is a matter for regret that they
should have been largely discarded by modern gardeners.
Whilst many of the newer roses are truly splendid, there are a
far larger number which cannot be compared in any way with
some of the old favourites. It is interesting to see these old
roses at Warley and to know that although so many of them are
already forgotten, some at least are here saved from oblivion.
This garden, which is entered through a typical Essex red brick
4 The Genus Rosa, by Ellen Willmott, F.L.S., 1910. Drawings by Alfred Parsons, A.R.A.
John Murray, Albemarle Street, W.