WHITE DUCK 115 



already when I said that lialf the inliabitants of Win- 

 chester would turn out to ^^aze at and admire tlie 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 tliose 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. 



