(Vol. vii., p. 329.)
The allusion is to the well-known Jacobite badge of the white rose, which
was regularly worn on June 10, the anniversary of the Old Pretender's
birthday, by his adherents. Fielding refers to the custom in his _Amelia_:
"On the lovely 10th of June, under a serene sky, the amorous Jacobite,
kissing the odoriferous Zephyr's breath, gathers a nosegay of white
roses to deck the whiter breast of Celia."--_Amelia_, edit. 1752, vol.
i. p. 48.
The following lines are extracted from a collection of considerable merit,
now become uncommon, the authors of the different papers in which were Dr.
Deacon and Dr. Byrom, and which is entitled _Manchester Vindicated_
(Chester, 1749, 12mo.). The occasion was on a soldier snatching a white
rose from the bosom of a young lady on June 10, 1747: