The Wild Rose in the Blue Bird Fresco

The oldest, undisputed image of a wild rose known to us so far is on a painting of some 3,500 years ago now famously known as ‘Blue Bird Fresco’ found in 1923 at the Palace of Knossos.

Blue Bird Fresco

Knossos

With a very long history of human civilisation which began as the first Neolithic settlement at circa 7000 BCE, Knossos is considered the oldest city in Europe. About 5 km away from the north central coast of Crete, the city was located on the left bank of the Caeratus—a small stream which falls into the sea on the north side of the island. According to legend, Knossos was believed to be founded by Minos, the mythical king of Crete. The locality was associated with Jupiter—the most interesting legend of Greek mythology—who was said to have been born, married, and buried in the vicinity. It is believed the Neolithic people arrived probably from overseas by boat built first a succession of wattle and daub villages at the hill.

Knossos Region

The palace and the surrounding locality were built around 2000 BC to house about 18,000 people and its peak after 1700 BC about 100,000 people lived in the city. It is believed that the first Cretan palaces including the ones in Knossos were built after circa 2000 BC, during the early part of the Middle Minoan period. Dwellers of these palaces held a greater wealth and political and religious authority. The original settlements were believed to be destroyed by earthquakes (to which Crete is prone to) during Middle Minoan II, sometime before c. 1700 BC. By c. 1650 BC, they rebuilt the town on a grander scale. The period between 1650 and 1450 BC regards the height of Minoan prosperity.

The Palace of Knossos

Throne Room at the Palace of Knossos

The British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans (1841-1951) unearthed the ‘Palace of Knossos’ in early 1910s. The palace was by far the largest, covering three-acres with its main building alone and the premises expands to five-acres when it’s out-buildings are considered. The chief building is the Great Palace known as ‘House of Minos’ in which had stores occupied of sixteen rooms. In those rooms there were large earthen storage jars (known as pithoi) up to five feet tall used to store oil, wool, wine, and grain. The palace had several rooms oriented towards north and south direction. Among them was the throne-room with some well-preserved wall paintings and a small bathroom augmented with drainage and water-supply systems. The palace theatre was large enough to seat 400 spectators and a rectangular orchestral area was probably used for religious dances.

Sir Arthur Evans (1841-1951)

In 1923 Sir Evans excavated the ‘House of the Frescoes’, a small Minoan building constructed in Neopalatial Period (1700-1450 BC), to the west of the palace at Knossos. The building derives its name because of its famous frescoes, which are among the most outstanding of the Minoan era. It was believed to be destroyed by an earthquake. Evans found fragments of frescoes in a large deposit in layers. It took five long weeks to remove the frescoes in eighty-four trays. The restored frescoes are now in display in the Herakleion Museum.

In 1928 Evans identified three separate scenes of Frescos—two with blue monkeys and one with a blue bird, and it is believed now that they belong to a single continuous panel known as the ‘Monkeys and Birds Frieze’. The original purposes of the paintings were not botanical, but rather magico-religious, pharmacological, or decorative.

Blue Bird Fresco

The most famous of three was the Blue Bird Fresco, that contained a painting of a blue bird, a rose, an iris, a lily, and another plant. Evans identified the bird as ‘European Roller’ (Coracias garrulous), the lily as the ‘pancratium lily,’ the iris as a ‘dwarf Cretan iris’ and the remaining plant was recognised as ‘wild pea or vetches’. But the wild rose of the fresco was not identified.

Evans hired a team of artists—Émile Gilliéron (1850-1924) and his son, Émile (1885-1939)—from Switzerland to assist the restoration. They repainted the most of the Blue Bird Fresco but left a part of the original rose unaltered. There were reservations about the accuracy of the wild rose repainted by Gilliéron. While the originally painted rose had flowers of five overlapping petals in faded pale pink and slightly yellowed with age, in contrast, the restored flowers had flat, six-petaled, medium yellow-pink roses that lacked the delicate rendering of the original. Gilliérons made another mistake by restoring one of the monkeys as a blue boy gathering saffron. But the part of blue tail left was a visual indication of the original painting of a blue monkey mistaken as a blue boy.

Incorrect restoration made the identification of the wild rose difficult. Various attempts have been made to identify this rose since 1928 and a few of the suggestions included Rosa canina, R. corymbifera Borkh, R. sancta Richard syn.R. richardii. None of the above roses met the criteria of having three leaflets with prominent veins and grows on rocks, and has a mature height of under about 1 m. The attention was given to a few surviving fragments of the original fresco to identify the wild rose and was now identified as Rosa pulverulenta—with prominent veins on leaves and rosy-pink flowers—a native of the eastern Mediterranean region.

R. pulverulenta (syn. Rosa glutinosa) also known as the Cretan rose, is a species rose native to Mediterranean, Caucasus and western Asia. It is a compact shrub with pine-scented, sticky, oval to roundish leaflets with prominent veins and they are edged with compound, glandular teeth. A leaf is comprised of mostly five or seven leaflets in numbers. Rosy-pink flowers are 2.5 to 4 cm across with long sepals and are borne usually in pairs or solitary. Fruits are globose with bristles and turn to dark red when ripened and retains sepals. R. pulverulenta was introduced to west in the early 19^th century, It is still growing in the rocky areas of western and central Crete.

In the end of 13^th century BC, R. pulverulenta with pine-scented foliage and prickly hips was widely cultivated for fragrance and to produce scented oil for anointment and perfume. Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40–90 AD), Greek physician and pharmacologist, whose work, De Materia Medica,was the foremost classical source of modern botanical terminology, remarked roses in general in Greek medicine. R. pulverulenta would have been used as a medicinal plant above its perfumery and decorative uses, therefore assumed to be drawn in the blue bird fresco.

Photo credits:

• Blue Bird Fresco – Olaf Tausch (2018), Wikimedia Commons
• Palace of Knossos – World History Encyclopedia (2019)
• Throne Room at the Palace of Knossos – World History Encyclopedia (2019)
• Sir Arthur Evans (1841-1951), drawn by Sir William Richmond (1907), Wikimedia
• ‘European Roller’ (Coracias garrulous) – Arno Meintjes
• R. pulverulenta Bloom – Salila Bryant (2020)
• R. pulverulenta hips – Royal Botanical Garden, Kew

Bow Bells: A church and a rose

Bow Bells (1991)

‘Bow Bells’ is an English rose bred by David Austin in 1991. It has a deep-pink, very fragrant, semi-double flowers in cupped bloom form. The parentage of this rose is (‘Chaucer’ x ‘Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’) x ‘Graham Thomas’. Pink blooms hang in large sprays like charming pink bells, hence named as ‘Bow Bells’. Bow Bells simply means the church bells of St Mary le Bow.

St Mary le Bow Church

St Mary le Bow Church at Cheapside, London

You may have heard the phrase ‘Born within the sound of Bow Bells’. According to tradition a true Cockney must be born within earshot of the sound of Bow Bells. In simple terms a Cockney is someone who is a native of East London. Anyone claiming to be a Cockney today is very proud to be able to use the name.

Today, in the noisy, traffic congested London, you will barely here Bow Bells even you are standing near by the church. But 150 years ago, when London was a quiet place, the bells could be heard across the City from far distance. The bow bells, which could be heard as far away as Hackney Marshes, were once used to order a curfew in the City.

Bow Bells of St Mary le Bow church

St Mary le Bow church with its steeple had been a landmark of London. It is one of the oldest, largest and historically most important of many churches in the City of London. It is the second most important church after St Paul’s Cathedral. This church was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 by Sir Christopher Wren on the main east-west thoroughfare of London, Cheapside. Cheapside was the City’s largest street market. Even today Cheapside streets bear the names of products once sold nearby. St Mary le Bow, being the only church that actually stood in Cheapside, was at the heart of the busy life all around it. A new church steeple was built 1478-1512. The current structure was the designs of Wren between 1671 and 1673 and the 68 m steeple was completed in 1680.

Archaeological evidence indicates that a church existed on this site in Saxon times. There is a Norman crypt still under the present church. A medieval version of the church had been destroyed by the London Tornado of 17 October 1091 when it had its roof blown away. During the later Norman period the church, known as “St Mary de Arcubus”, was rebuilt and it was famed for its arches (bows) of stone. ‘Bow’ is an old word for an arch. The previous “great bell at Bow” installed in 1762 was destroyed in an air raid of 1941, during which the bells crashed to the ground. The tower now contains a new peal of twelve bells that were cast in 1956 at the famous Whitechapel Bell-foundry.

Since the early 1940s, a recording of the Bow Bells made in 1926 has been used by the BBC World Service as an interval signal for the English-language broadcasts. It is still used for the same purpose.

St Mary le Bow is still one of the important churches in the City. Due to its associations with the Cockney tradition, the church holds a special place among the city’s remaining historic churches.

Photo credits:

St Mary le Bow church by Steve Cadman (2005), Wikimedia

Bow Bells of St Mary le Bow church, The Telegraph

The Rose of Love

Written by Edith G. Laidlaw (09.07.1920-28.10.2019

Quote me no idle quotes
Write me no teasing prose
Spin me no dreams of faraway
Just promise me, poems of the Red Red Rose

Tell me no deeds of derring do
Slay me no Dragons, kill me no foes
But ride the White Charger, Gallant and bold
And bring me a posy of the Red Red Rose

Just come with joy in your heart
To play the lute with courtly pose
And like the Troubadours of old
Sing me a song of the Red Red rose

Let the happy years roll always on
While love ever strongly grows
And when I am old and my life is done
Place on my grave a Red Red Rose

Photo credit: Jorge Royan (2009)

Thyme

Thymus vulgaris, commonly known as thyme, is an aromatic, perennial herb native to the Mediterranean region. It is a low-growing, hardy plant with a pleasant, pungent, clover-like flavour. Ancient Roman and Greek civilisations used thyme for religious, medicinal, culinary, and ornamental purposes. The name of this herb is derived from the Greek word for ‘courage’ or the word meaning ‘fumigate’. It was known to be burnt in Greek homes to get rid of stinging insects or to get rid of odour. Thyme was brought to Europe during the Middle Ages. It is heavily used in modern French and Italian cuisines.

There are over fifty of ornamental and culinary thyme varieties, and most of them are fragrant. Some of them form ground covers, others have creeping habits, while some varieties have thin, woody stems forming low-growing shrubs. Their fragrant profiles vary as well. This herb is a deciduous plant and loses its foliage during winter. Small thyme flowers in colours of white, pink or purple attract beneficial insects including bees to a garden.

Thyme grows in sunny locations and prefers sandy or loamy soil and even thrive in rocky gravel. Poorer the soil, the better the growth of thymes. It can be easily propagated by seed, cuttings layering, or dividing rooted sections from early spring to summer. Growing thyme from seed is time taking, and some thymes do not always come true from seed.

Medicinal Properties:

This herb has antiseptic properties and hence was used as a medicine to treat plague and heal infected wounds on the battlefields. Drinking thyme tea alleviates headaches, depression and nervousness. This herb is well used in meat dishes, roasts, salads and in flavouring butter, oil and vinegar. Thyme is regarded as an excellent source of many nutrients. It contains vitamin C (75% of the daily recommended value), vitamin A (27%), fiber (16 %), riboflavin, iron (27%), copper, and manganese (24%), 11% each in calcium and manganese and doses of vitamin B6, folate, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.

Thyme is a remedy for flu and other respiratory diseases. It contains an essential oil, thymol, an antiseptic that can help keep away colds and flu and soothe sore throats. It has antispasmodic properties, too, which is a great help in alleviating coughs and help clear mucus in the upper respiratory tract. It’s also used in commercial mouthwashes.

Thyme Varieties in My Garden:

Thyme is a herb that I often use in my cooking. This is an essential ingredient for pizzas, roasts, salads and pasta dishes. I grow wild thyme, English thyme, pizza thyme, variegated lemon thyme and two varieties of carpet thymes (common thyme and another unknown, ground-hugging variety) in my garden.

• Common thyme: a hardy, low-growing plant with pointy, dark green leaves that are packed with fragrance and flavour. 
• Creeping thyme:  an attractive groundcover which produces white flowers in summer. 
• Golden thyme: adds a pop of colour and flavour with small, aromatic yellow and gold leaves. 
• Lemon thyme: brings a fresh lemony flavour with its bright, rounded green leaves. Perfect for use with fish and poultry as well as in fruit salads.
• Pizza thyme: an evergreen herb with large, glossy leaves and hints of oregano flavour. 

Thyme is a must have herb in garden. My interest in thyme grew when I saw wild thyme growing on rocky outcrops in Cromwell. The hardy, fragrant, low growing, wild thyme survived in harsh winters and dry summers on rocky, barren soil in Central Otago thriving in neglect.

Brief History of Thymes in New Zealand:

It is believed that thyme was introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s by Jean Desire Féraud (1820 – 1898), a French goldminer affectionately known as “the Old Fraud”. Descended from a wine-making family in Burgundy Féraud travelled to central Otago in search of gold. His luck struck on the west bank of the Clutha River. The location is now known as Frenchman’s Point. With his newly found riches, Féraud bought 100 acres of land and planted orchards, herbs, and vineyard in 1864. His Monte Christo orchard and vineyard near Clyde made cordials, bitters and wines. He was the Otago’s first wine maker and his stone-built Monte Christo winery, which is now the oldest winery in New Zealand still standing today.

On his farm, Monte Cristo, near Clyde, Féraud planted thyme along with sage and marjoram. Thyme escaped from his garden and, unpalatable to both sheep and rabbits, the herb spread over rugged, rocky landscape like a slow burning wildfire, smouldering in hues of lilac and mauve during summer. Now, the herb covers an estimated 2000 ha of sun-browned and rocky highlands reaching out along the converging valleys of the Clutha, Manuherikia and Kawarau Rivers.

The Thyme Festival in Otago originated from the community’s desire to celebrate the beauty of the Central Otago landscape in November when the wild thyme blooms. In 2002 the festival evolved into a week celebrating the arts and sustainability with the theme of cherishing the environment and reflected in the week-long workshops, working artists, demonstrations, walks, talks, performances and exhibitions. A joyful Celebration Evening on Saturday is followed by the next day a market and other activities to end our salute to the wild thyme in Central Otago’s unique environment.

Harvesting Thymes:

I harvest my culinary thyme varieties twice–once before flowering and another time in mid or late autumn. Harvested thyme should wash thoroughly and remove other entangled debris (and hair of you have pets) before leaving them to drain water and then air-drying for a week or two. The dried foliage can then be removed just by rubbing and dried leaves can be stored in airtight containers in a cool, dark place for 4 to 6 months. Fresh-cut thyme should be wrapped in damp kitchen paper, placed in a perforated bag or container, and stored in the fridge. It will last for up to 5-6 days.

This Scottish song brings tears to me every time I hear playing it. Not because I am sad, but it is too pretty and take me to the mountains of Scotland where heather and thyme grow in abundance.

NB: I don’t claim the ownership of photographs. Photo credit goes to those who photographed them.

Thornless Banksia Roses

Salila Bryant

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ (1824), Photo credit:  A. Barra (2007), Wikipedia Commons

Growing over garden sheds, fences and pergolas, covered in thousands of blooms of yellow and white Banksiae roses in New Zealand are a picturesque sight in spring during the months of October and November.

The majority of the Banksiae roses are native to central and western China, in the provinces of Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Yunnan growing at altitudes between 500 and 2,200m. These roses have been growing in the gardens of China for hundreds of years. In its natural habitats of different regions, the external characteristics of the same variety vary significantly.

Rosa banksiae was named for Lady Dorothea Banks (1758-1828), the wife of the prominent botanist and patron of natural science, Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), who was the president of the Royal Society (1778–1820)– the position he held for 42 years. Dorothea was the elder daughter of William Hugessen. Sir Joseph married her in March 1779 and settled in a large house at Soho Square.

All Banksiae rose varieties are ramblers that share similar morphological characteristics. This includes cascading branches with deep-green foliage, once-blooming habits, cluster-flowered, hardiness, and resistance to diseases. The leaves vary from three to seven pointed leaflets which are smooth, elongate-oval in shape, glossy on both sides and finely dentate. Flowers are produced at nodes of long stems in tight clusters. The flowers are small in diameter varying between 1.5 and 2.5 cm and are white or pale yellow in colour.

There are six varieties of Banksiae roses in New Zealand.

R. banksiae var. normalis (Pre 1796), Photo credit:  T. Kiya, Wikipedia

R. banksiae var. normalis (Pre 1796), also known as the ‘Wild Banks Rose’ is believed to be the natural wild form of the species rose. Its single, white flowers with five petals are very fragrant and they bloom from late spring into summer. Phillips & Rix (1988) in their book titled Roses, describe the rose as “scented of violets”. This is a vigorous, climbing rose with long, slender stems, a few thorns, and small, pale green leaves. Clusters of single, fragrant, white flowers.

Botanist Dr Albert Regel discovered this rose in Wushan in 1877 and brought it to Europe. The presence of this rose in Europe is going back another century. According to Mr. E. H. Woodall reported in the 1909 issue of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, Captain Drummond of Megginch, informed that his ancestor Robert Drummond, who had sailed to China with his brother Admiral Sir W. Drummond in 1796, had brought back various plants, including the single, White Banksiae rose. Even long before 1796, it was reported that single-flowered, White Banksiae rose was growing in gardens along the Riviera in France as well as in Switzerland and Italy. Therefore R. banksiae normalis could go back another eighty years from its date of introduction, 1796.

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutescens’ / Single Yellow Banksiae Rose (before 1870), Photo credit: T. Kiya

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutescens’ / Single Yellow Banksiae Rose (before 1870):  This is a rambling rose that can grow up to a height of 6m. It has slender, nearly thornless shoots with copper-tinted young foliage. Single, small, yellow flowers with a sweet scent are borne in small clusters from late spring into early summer and are followed by yellow hips. This is reputed to be the most fragrant of all Banksiae roses. R. banksiae ‘Lutescens’ is believed to be a natural mutation of the wild rose, R. banksiae var. normalis.

According to The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book Sir Thomas Hanbury introduced ‘Single Yellow Banksiae’ to England in 1870 from his famous garden at La Mortola, Menton in France.

Both R. banksiae var. ‘normalis’ and R. banksiae ‘Lutescens’ are rare roses in New Zealand.

R. banksiae var. banksiae / ‘Banksiae Alba Plena’, Photo credit: Fritz Liess

R. banksiae var. banksiae / ‘Banksiae Alba Plena’ was introduced to Europe by William Kerr, from the famous Fa Tee nursery in 1807. Kerr had been sent on a plant-hunting expedition by Sir Joseph Banks. This rose was named the ‘White Lady Banks’ for Lady Dorothea Banks. This rose was first described and published on page 258 in Volume 3 of the second edition of Hortus Kewensis or A Catalogue of the Plants Cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew.

With numerous petals replacing most or all the stamens, R. banksiae var. banksiae with its white, semi-double flowers is believed to be a cultigen (deliberately altered or selected by humans) developed in Chinese gardens.

A White Lady Banks rose planted in 1885, in Tombstone, Arizona is the largest rose bush in the world. Officially covering more than 750 m2 (over 8000 ft2), this Banksiae rose resides behind a historic inn that is now a museum.

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ (1824), Photo credit: Salila Bryant

Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ (1824) which is also known as ‘Yellow Banksiae Rose’ has a delightful habit of producing thousands of small, semi-double, primrose-yellow flowers on long, thornless canes. Joseph Sabine, Secretary of the Horticultural Society of London, now known as the Royal Horticultural Society, decided to send out their employee, a young gardener, John Damper Parks to China with instructions “to collect among other specimens, as many good varieties of Chrysanthemum as possible.” Parks set out in 1823 and returned in 1824 with sixteen new varieties of chrysanthemum, the ‘Yellow Banksiae Rose’ and a yellow form of the Tea Rose now known as ‘Parks’ Yellow Tea-scented China’. Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ is also believed to be a natural mutation of the wild rose, R. banksiae var. normalis.

‘Yellow Banksiae Rose’ is the most common variety of the Banksiae roses growing in New Zealand. Unlike most other rambling roses, this rose is easy to maintain because of its thornless canes. It can be kept quite compact with pruning. This rose will grow flat and dense against a wall or fence, or over an archway. Alternatively, it can be allowed to grow in its natural, free-spirited style, through a tree or over a shed. It has two-month of flowering season in spring or early summer, which usually falls between September and October in New Zealand. This rose has been a firm favourite with gardeners around the world since it was first grown at Kew Gardens almost two centuries ago. It is the hardiest growing rose in more sheltered positions. This rose won the prestigious “Award of Garden Merits” from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1993.

Roses hide lots of secrets behind their colourful petals. Almost all roses I know have five sepals, I was surprised to find some clusters of ‘Yellow Lady Banks Rose’ holding flowers of both four and five sepals. When I look closely most of their stamens were turned into petals (known as petaloid) and anthers were undeveloped or absent in the remaining stamens. This could be the reason why Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’ is infertile and doesn’t set hips.

‘Fortuniana’ (circa 1850)

‘Fortuniana’ (circa 1850): ‘Fortuniana’ is believed to be a natural cross between R. laevigata and R. banksiae. It is a vigorous, disease-free, upright growing rose with long, gracefully arching canes. Leaves consist of three to five, dark green, leaflets with small but prickly thorns along its mid-rib. In early spring double, creamy-white blooms with a hint of pink bloom and a perfume reminiscent of violets. This is a rose that does not need much care, it thrives even in dry, sandy soils. Because of its robust growth and hardiness, ‘Fortuniana’ is used as a rootstock in some parts of South Florida and in Western Australia.

In 1850 Robert Fortune—the plant collector and explorer—sent a rose from China to England that he repeatedly observed in numerous gardens of Ningpo and Shanghai. The rose was named R. Fortuniana (Banksiana) in honour of its discoverer, Robert Fortune including a description of this rose on page 71 (including plate 71), Volume II of Paxton’s Flower Garden by Professor Lindley and Sir Joseph Paxton published in London, in 1850.  

In the article “Fortune’s Five Roses”, Darrell G. H. Schramm, on page 11 of On Any Other Name: Newsletter of the World Federation of Rose Societies’ Conservation and Heritage Committee, September 2020, writes the history of this rose in China goes back a further 1000 years. Dr Guoliang Wang, Chinese rose authority and botanist, revealed ‘Fortuniana’ known as Tu Mi in its native China was depicted in a 1000 years old, large, Chinese scroll painting in front of a temple of the Song Dynasty. Although rose specialists in the West consider this rose to be a hybrid of R. banksiae, Chinese experts believe it is much older than the several Banksiae forms and it belongs to a small class of roses in China known as Tu Mi (or Tumi).

R. banksiae ‘Purezza’ (1961), Photo credit: Rudolf Bergmann (2021)

R. banksiae ‘Purezza’ (1961): Purezza is an Italian Banksiae hybrid. It is a cross between Tom Thumb (1936) and R. banksiae Lutescens. It is asmaller and repeat-flowering version of the white Banksiae rose. Loosely petaled, semi-double flowers are pure white and fragrant, and they continuously bloom in large clusters from summer to autumn. This rose also inherited the vigorous growth habits of Banksiae roses.

Taking Care of Banksiae Roses

Banksiae roses should not be pruned to the bones like other garden roses. It should be moderately pruned after flowering in spring because the flowers occur on new wood produced in the previous season. Pruning in late winter means that you are cutting away the new season’s flowering wood. This is an easy rose to grow with high disease resistance and low requirements of maintenance. Any reasonably fertile soil in a sunny position will suit it well. They create a delightful sight when in bloom.

In early summer, after the end of the flowering season. they put out some long, slender shoots which can grow very high. When they are long enough to your requirement, it is advised to pinch the tips of these canes to form laterals which will produce flowers next year.

Note: This article was first published in the Heritage Roses New Zealand Journal, Vol. 48(3), May 2023, pp. 21-25. All Rights Reserved. Republishing is only allowed with the written permission of the author.

Gardening…

In the Rose Garden by Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839-1924)

To study culture, and with artful toil,
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil;
To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands,
The grain, or herb, or plant that each demands;

To cherish virtue in an humble state,
And share the joys your bounty may create;
To mark the matchless workings of the power
That shuts within its seed the future flower;

Bids these in form of elegance excel,
In colour these, and those delight the smell;
Sends nature forth, the daughter of the skies,
To dance on earth, and charm all human eyes;

To teach the canvass innocent deceit,
Or lay the landscape on the snowy sheet—
These, these are arts pursued without a crime,
That leave no stain upon the wing of time.

-William Cowper (1731-1800)-

The Active: Ship and a rose in New Zealand …

The Active (1987)

The Active (1987)

The Active is a beautiful rose with golden buds opening to pale apricot flowers in single bloom form with red anthers. The flowers fade to white at aging. It is believed to be a seedling of Mutabilis (before 1894). Ken Nobbs registered this perpetual flowering rose with red anthers to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the arrival of the first non-missionary settlers in New Zealand in the brig ‘Active’ in 1817.

The Brig Active

The brig, Active was built in Calcutta around 1808/09 and was owned by Jonathon Burke McHugo. Mr Samuel Marsden purchased the ship for about 1400 sterling pounds at an auction in Port Jackson of Sydney Harbour, Australia for the purpose of establishing a mission station in New Zealand.

Samuel Marsden (1765-1838)

The ship had set sails from Port Jackson on 19 November 1814 with captain Thomas Hansen in command and reached the Bay of Islands in New Zealand on 22 December 1814 with thirty-five passengers, crew and returning Māori leaders on board along with a collection of horses, cattle, poultry, goats, cats and dogs. Reverend Samuel Marsden, Captain Hansen’s entire family of five, two other missionaries, William Hall and Thomas Kendall, together with their wives and children were on board to establish the first, permanent, European settlement at Oihi in New Zealand. Ruatara, Korokoro and Hongi Hika were the returning Māori chiefs.

Ruatara who had been befriended in 1809 with Marsden who was principal chaplain in New South Wales. He had stayed for some time with Marsden at his Parramatta farm. Ruatara had seen the advantages of European technology and recognised that having a mission station next to his pā (village) at Rangihoua would attract European ships visiting New Zealand. It was Ruatara who provided the land and protection for the mission station that was to be built at the base of his pā.

After sailing three weeks, the arrival of the Active in Rangihoua Bay on the morning of the 22 December 1814 signalled the beginning of permanent European settlement in New Zealand. When the ‘Active’ anchored at Rangihoua Bay in the morning, a crowd of Māori gathered on the beach. They were overjoyed to see the return of their leaders. It was reported as the ship dropped its anchor at 3pm, the crew fired salutes from musketry and the ship’s cannon as a mark of respect for Ruatara. No doubt, it must have impressed the crowd on the beach.

Boats ferried passengers to the shore. When the cattle and horses were taken to the shore there was a dismay and bewilderment among the Māori because they had never seen such animals before. When one of the cows charged into the crowed their consternation quickly turned to panic. When Marsden mounted on one of the horses and rode up and down the beach that helped dispel their fears of these animals. Later that day Korokoro and Ruatara staged a large mock battle on the beach for the missionaries’ entertainment and concluded with a vigorous haka (ceremonial war).

The First Christian Service in New Zealand

Three days later, at 10 am on Christmas Day of 1814, Samuel Marsden preached the first Christian service in New Zealand, on the site where Ruatara had fenced and erected a pulpit and reading desk in its centre, with upturned canoes used for seats. Marsden took his place at the pulpit and addressed the congregation, Ruatara interpreted sermon to his people. Māori and their chiefs from Kerikeri and Kororareka attended the service, and three hundred warriors performed a furious haka around Marsden at the end of the service.

The following day, Ruatara and his people built eighteen meters long and five metres wide raupo whare (grass hut) on a piece of flat land above high-water mark and divided it into four rooms to house the Hansen, King, Hall, and Kendall families temporarily. The mission station at Oihi grew with permanent cottages built with timber and a school was opened with Kendall as the schoolteacher and thirty-three Māori and European pupils attended. Land was cleared for grazing and crops and trees were planted. Samuel Marsden returned to New South Wales in February 1815 on the ‘Active’ and Thomas Hansen continued as master for the following two years.

After owning the ‘Active’ for ten years Marsden finally sold the brig to Sydney merchant Robert Campbell. The brig was found to be unseaworthy just after two voyages and was destined to be broken up. In its final voyage to Calcutta the ship was lost at the sea with everyone on board.

The settlement at Oihi earmarked several significant firsts in New Zealand history. It was the site of the first European settlement, the first Christian church service, the birth of the first European child, the first purchase of land, the first school, the first European farm, and the first industry. As New Zealand’s first established European community operating alongside Māori, it paved the way for future mission stations in New Zealand. Marsden Cross was erected by the Church at Oihi and it was unveiled by the Governor-General of New Zealand, Lord Plunket in March 1907.

References:

H. McLintock (1966). Marsden, Samuel (1765-1838), In 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

H. McLintock (1966). Ruatara (c. 1787-1815), In 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

Website, Hansen Family

Wikipedia, 1814 in New Zealand

Night for Adventures

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)

Sometimes when fragrant summer dusk comes in with scent of rose and musk
And scatters from their sable husk the stars like yellow grain,
Oh, then the ancient longing comes that lures me like a roll of drums
To follow where the cricket strums his banjo in the lane.

And when the August moon comes up and like a shallow, silver cup
Pours out upon the fields and roads her amber-colored beams,
A leafy whisper mounts and calls from out the forest’s moss grown halls
To leave the city’s somber walls and take the road of dreams.

A call that bids me rise and strip, and, naked all from toe to lip,
To wander where the dewdrops drip from off the silent trees,
And where the hairy spiders spin their nets of silver, fragile-thin,
And out to where the fields begin, like down upon the breeze.

Into a silver pool to plunge, and like a great trout wheel and lunge
Among the lily-bonnets and the stars reflected there;
With face upturned to lie afloat, with moonbeams rippling round my throat,
And from the slimy grasses plait a chaplet for my hair.

Then, leaping from my rustic bath, to take some winding meadow-path:
Across the fields of aftermath to run with flying feet,
And feel the dewdrop-weighted grass that bends beneath me as I pass,
Where solemn trees in shadowy mass beyond the highway meet.

And, plunging deep within the woods, among the leaf-hung solitudes
Where scarce one timid star intrudes into the breathless gloom,
Go leaping down some fern-hid way to scare the rabbits in their play,
And see the owl, a fantom gray, drift by on silent plume.

To fling me down at length and rest upon some damp and mossy nest,
And hear the choir of surpliced frogs strike up a bubbling tune;
And watch, above the dreaming trees, Orion and the Hyades
And all the stars, like golden bees, around the lily-moon.

Then who can say if I have gone a-gipsying from dusk till dawn
In company with fay and faun, where firefly-lanterns gleam?
And have I danced on cobwebs thin to Master Locust’s mandolin –
Or I have spent the night in bed, and was it all a dream?

Abraham Darby (1985)

Abraham Darby Rose (1985)

‘Abraham Darby’ is an English rose bred by David Austin crossing Aloha (1949) and Yellow Cushion (1966) and it inherits both Hybrid Tea and Floribunda genes. Large buds of this rose open to very cupped, double, coppery-pink blooms with lighter edges. It is a repeat-flowering rose that produces blooms throughout the season. Because this rose has large, fruity fragrant flowers that tend to nod, it is suitable to grow as a climber.

In 1985 David Austin named this rose after another Shropshire gentleman, Abraham Darby honouring his contribution to the development of iron and steel industries that helped launch the Industrial Revolution.

Abraham Darby (1678-1717)

Abraham Darby (1678-1717):

Abraham Darby, who was one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution, was born on Wren’s Nest Hill in Sedgley, Staffordshire in 1678. He was the son of Ann Baylies and John Darby, a tenant farmer and locksmith by trade. After his apprenticeship in a malt-mill in Birmingham, Darby worked in a malt-mill operation in 1698. In the late 1600s, manufacturers had difficulty to produce the constant high heat needed for successful smelting due to shortage of coal.He went to Holland in 1704 to learn more about the iron industry and fascinated with the idea of using cast iron instead of brass in the manufacturing of pots and other wares. When Darby worked in a copper smelting industry and observed that coke was used in that smelting process with success. Coke is a grey, hard, and porous fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities. He realised coke burned hotter and more steadily than coal and sustained the higher temperatures needed for smelting.

Darby Pots

Darby soon gained a reputation for skill and enterprise. In 1702 with a number of fellow workers he formed Bristol Brass Company at Baptist Mills in Bristol and started making cooking pots. ‘Greensand’ moulds developed by him helped mass-produce cast pots thinner and had a monopoly in the trade to sell cooking pots over England and Wales. In 1708 Darby took a patent on the smelt iron in sand process.

When his original partners pulled out from the investment he leased a furnace in Coalbrookdale at a strategic location where both coke and coal for smelting were available. There he founded Bristol Iron Works.

Darby married Mary Sergeant and had three sons. After eighteen months of illness Darby died on 5 May 1717 at his home in Madeley, Shropshire at the age of 38. Although he had built a house for himself in Coalbrookdale but did not live to occupy it. He was buried in the Quaker burial-ground at Broseley, Shropshire. His widow died only a few months later.

Severn River Bridge: World’s first iron bridge (Built in 1779)

Darby’s death left his business in a mess. His eldest son, Abraham Darby II, was only six years old and his two brothers were even younger and they were sent away to school. His children followed their father’s footsteps and joined the business in Coalbrookdale. Darby’s childrem continued to create innovation in the iron production process. Abraham Darby II produced iron engine cylinders. After his father’s death, Abraham Darby III assisted in the design of the Severn River Bridge. Built in 1779 it was the world’s first iron bridge. After Abraham Darby III’s death the company produced the first locomotive engine, which incorporated iron in the design of a high-pressure boiler.

Although lots of us know about the Industrial Revolution, those who lunched it were unknown to many of us. ‘Abraham Darby’ rose immortalises the gentleman who contributed generously for the development of iron and steel industry in Britain.

References: Wikipedia and Encyclopaedia.com

Ambridge Rose (1990)

Ambridge Rose (1990)

Ambridge Rose (1990)

Registered as ‘AUSwonder’, Ambridge was bred by late David Austin in 1990 with Charles Austin (1973) and an unknown seedling as parents. Deep-cupped, medium sized, double blooms of this rose are peachy apricot, with a strong myrrh fragrance. They have a rich, deep, apricot pink at the centre, paling to a delicate luminous pink champagne at the outer edges. Ambridge rose has a story to tell.

Ambridge Village (Source: BBC)

This rose was named after the fictional village of ‘Ambridge’ in the ‘The Archers”, the world’s longest-running BBC radio drama that entertains millions of Britons every day! Having aired over 19,200 episodes, it was initially created as an everyday story of country folk and now, a contemporary drama in a rural setting. The Archers soon became a popular source of entertainment, attracting nine million listeners by 1953. It is still a significant show in British popular culture, with over five million listeners on Radio 4 and with over one million listeners via the internet. It is the most listened radio programme in BBC other than news.

Fictional Bridge over River Am (Source: BBC)

Fictional Church of Ambridge Village (Source: BBC)

In ’The Archers’, Ambridge is the fictional village in the fictional county of Borsetshire, in England. This beautiful village is, nestling in the Vale of the River Am in the shadows the Hassett Hills. The village gets its name because of the bridge across the River Am. Ambridge is possibly based on the village of Cutnall Green. However various other villages have inspired for Ambridge too; The Bull, Ambridge’s pub, is modelled on The Old Bull in Inkberrow, whereas Hanbury’s St Mary the Virgin is modelled on Ambridge’s parish church, St Stephen’s. The rural setting is created by incorporating several farms, a Victorian mansion, 300 years old country house, a pub, shop and a post office. What an honour it is, having a rose named for this beautiful fictional village in the country side of England!