heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE CLIFFORDS. 265
His daughter is said to have been educated at the nunnery of God
stow, where she probably became acquainted with Henry II., as that
monarch resided constantly at the Palace de Bello Monte (now Beaumont
Street), built by Henry I., 1153, just outside the then city walls, and here
also his
son Richard Cceur de Lion was born.
legitimate
Without adopting all the stories current about this young lady,
it is
evident that Eleanor of Guienne was not likely to tolerate such a rival,
and that the King
should endeavour to conceal her from her jealous eye,
first (if tradition is
true) at Ludgershall, near Aylesbury, where there is
still a lane called "Rosamond's way," and then in a carefully secluded
bower at Woodstock, where, in what is now called Blenheim park, Fair
Rosamond's well is still shewn, so called from a tradition that this rill
supplied her bath during her residence hereat. Indeed, when Sir John
Vanbrugh was employed by the great Duke of Marlborough to build his
the "ancient remains"
palace here he pleaded to be allowed to preserve
of Rosamond's bower, but Duchess Sarah was an imperious and suspicious
lady, and imagining that he had an eye to it as a residence for himself, or
to spite him, on the plea of saving ^200 for its repair
ordered it to be
swept away, 1709.
Local tradition says that Fair Rosamond accepted neither the poison
nor the dagger which the indignant Queen offered her, but that she retired
to the nunnery where she had been brought up, and ended her days in
penitence, worshipping, from time to time, in the crypt of St. Peter's in
the East, Oxford, and eventually was buried by her parents beneath the
high altar.
"Her body then they did entombe
When life was fled away;
At Godstowe, near to Oxford towne,
As may be seen this day."
King John, with more charity than one is inclined to ascribe to him,
or to vent his spleen, is said by Lombard to have erected a costly monument
with this inscription
:
" Hie jacet, in tumulo, Rosa mundi, non Rosa munda
Non redolet, sed olet qua
redolere solet."
It would be difficult to give a correct interpretation of this little
distich, preserving at the same time the particular imagery of the Latin,
but it is not quite clear whether the writer intended it in praise or in
blame, whether he would gracefully whitewash the not altogether unquestionable
memory of the departed, or cunningly express his
opinion as
to her real character. If the former, and he is to be regarded as speaking
with that charity which covereth a multitude of sins, perhaps the following
would be an appropriate rendering
: