Note 191 — BOOK THE THIRD 1812-1815
Reading edition
Still a hotel in 1825 and formerly a house of Lord Monson’s. The Houses of York, Stuart, and Bourbon all adopted white as their emblems and divine hereditary right to the government of their fellow creatures as their fundamental maxim.* Even English soldiers were permitted to wear it, a circumstance which provoked the following epigram from the pen of Mr. Rogers:
Wear it awhile, against him led, With your own blood you’ll dye it red. But had your brave forefathers worn it, Great Nassau from their brows had torn it.—V.H.
[* It is a moot point whether divine right can be said to date back in practice to the Wars of the Roses; though, in theory, Sir Robert Filmer (1604-1653), a writer well known for his extreme opinions on this subject, held that the doctrine commenced with the creation of man.]