Brewer's: Rosamond

(Fair). Higden, monk of Chester, says: “She was the fayre daughter of Walter, Lord Clifford, concubine of Henry II., and poisoned by Queen Elianor, A.D. 1177. Henry made for her a house of wonderful working, so that no man or woman might come to her. This house was named Labyrinthus, and was wrought like unto a knot in a garden called a maze. But the queen came to her by a clue of thredde, and so dealt with her that she lived not long after. She was buried at Godstow, in an house of nunnes, with these verses upon her tombe”:

Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda; Non redolet, sed olet., quae redole'rë solet.

Here Rose the graced, not Rose the chaste, reposes; The smell that rises is no smell of roses. E. C. B.

Rosamond Clifford is introduced by Sir Walter Scott in two of his novels—The Talisman and Woodstock.

Jane Clifford was her name, as books aver Fair Rosamond was but her nom de guerre.

Dryden: Epilogue to Henry II.

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