WHITE DUCK 115 



stated already when I said that half the inhabitants 

 of Winchester would turn out to gaze at and admire 

 the white duck seen by the Itchen if white ducks were 

 rare as white swallows in the land. How many things 

 which are beautiful seem not so because of their 

 commonness and of the uses to which they are put! 

 What comes now to help me is the memory of a matter 

 in old English history. Close upon a thousand years 

 ago there lived a very beautiful lady of whom little 

 is known except that she was an earl's daughter, and 

 that the young king, who had a passion for beauty 

 exceeding that of all men, even in those wild and 

 violent times, loved and made her his queen. After 

 bearing him a son, who was king too in his time, she 

 died, to England's lasting sorrow. And she was 

 known throughout the realm as the White Duck, on 

 account of her great beauty. We can only suppose 

 that at that distant period the white duck was a 

 rarity in England, therefore that those who saw it 

 looked with concentrated attention at it as we look at 

 any rare and lovely thing — a kingfisher, let us say — 

 and were able to appreciate its perfect loveliness. 



