3-074-873 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Christmas Roses, drawn by A. Johnson, 1883. 'The roses of fair, fresh, and youthful womanhood are never out of season, and bloom as well amidst the snows of an English winter as in the genial warmth of summer. These two young ladies, it may be remarked, are not equally dressed for the outdoor weather of December, though each carries her muff and has put something about her neck; but they seem both of a healthy constitution, and we trust that the lighter-clad will take no harm from the cold. As for the favourite English flower to which these maidens are likened, one of our old Elizabethan poets has said, "It is the very emblem of a maid"; of which Tennyson has also said, in further commendation; "As sweet as English air could make her." Volumes might be filled with quotations of the poets' sayings about roses and girls; but none more to the purpose than that of Edmund Waller: Go, lovely Rose! Tell her, that wastes her time and me, That now she knows, When I resemble her to thee, How sweet and fair she seems to be'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.