106 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



tliis roll in his custody, but as a copy* (tliough I have 

 reason to believe not a fac simile), was executed by Mr. 

 Ninham, of this City in 1846, and was exhibited vnth 

 the original at a meeting of the Norwich Archseological 

 Society, on the 22nd of October in that year (as I find 

 by an entry in the MS. "Proceedings"t of that date), 

 we know that its abstraction must have occurred within 

 the last thirty years. The long period, however, that 

 has already elapsed renders its recovery the more diffi- 

 cult, and, to this end I am desirous of giving every 

 possible pubHcity to the fact that a roU of so much 

 value, if only in an archseological sense, both to the 

 city and comity, is not forthcoming. 



From an inspection of such swan-rolls as T have, at 

 present, had access to, it would seem that prior to the 



* This copy was fortunately made at the suggestion of the late 

 Mr. Thomas Brightwell to provide against the possible loss of the 

 original, but when completed the Town Council declined to pur- 

 chase it at the sum named by Mr. Ninham, and it subsequently 

 passed into the possession of Mr. Osborne Springfield, of Catton. 

 This roll, which consists of several folio sheets of vellum, bound 

 in book form, represents the heads and beaks of swans, in profile, 

 and not, as is more usually the case, a drawing of the upper 

 mandible only, with the marks on its surface, as in Yarrell's 

 illustrations. Bloraefield's small figures are, however, also in 

 profile (whether taken or not from the Corporation Eoll), but in 

 his the beak of the swan is represented open, and the marks are 

 displayed on the ujiper mandible only, whereas Ninham represents 

 each swan's head with the beak closed, and, by an error in draw- 

 ing, places some of the marks on the lower mandible, an impos- 

 sibility, as the lower mandible shuts close into the upper one, 

 which leads me to question this being a fac simile of the Ancient 

 Eoll. The copy contains about forty-six distinct marks, now or 

 formerly in use on the Yare and Weusum, besides several dupli- 

 cates, and from these, through the kind permission of Mr. Spring- 

 field, I purpose making selections for an additional plate, should 

 the Eoll of 1598 not be recovered by the completion of this volume, 

 t See also "Norfolk Archeeology," vol. i., p. 371. 



