336 ANATID^. 



Monday in August, when collected in a small stew or pond, 

 the number annually varying from fifty to seventy, and 

 many of them belonging to private individuals,* they begin 

 to feed immediately, being provided with as much barley as 

 they can eat, and are usually ready for killing early in 

 November. They vary in weight, some reaching to twenty- 

 eight pounds. They are all cygnets. If kept beyond 

 November they begin to fall off, losing both flesh and fat, 

 and the meat becomes darker in colour and stronger in 

 flavour. A printed copy of the following lines is usually 

 sent with each bird : — 



TO ROAST A SWAN. 



Take three pounds of beef, beat fine in a mortar, 



Put it into the Swan — that is, when you've caught her. 



Some pepper, salt, mace, some nutmeg, an onion. 



Will heighten the flavour in Gourmand's opinion. 



Then tie it up tight with a small piece of tape, 



That the gravy and other things may not escape. 



A meal paste, rather stiff, should be laid on the breast. 



And some whited brown paper should cover the rest. 



Fifteen minutes at least ere the Swan you take down. 



Pull the paste off the bird, that the breast may get brown. 



THE GRAVY. 



To a gravy of beef, good and strong, I opine. 

 You'll be right if yon add half a pint of port wine ; 

 Pour this through the Swan, yes, quite through the belly. 

 Then serve the whole up with some hot currant jelly. 

 N.B. The Swan must not be skinned. f 



In former times the Swan was served up at every great 

 feast ; and occasionally a cygnet is seen exposed for sale in 

 the poulterers' shops of London. 



No. 11. Eton College has the privilege of keeping Swans 

 on the Thames, and this is the College swan-mark. It is 



* Bloomfield's History of Norfolk contains representations of numerous swan- 

 marks. 



t Mr. Stevenson, in his account of the Mute Swan in Norfolk, already men- 

 tioned, says that he has ascertained that these lines were written by a relative 

 of his own, the Rev. J. C. Matchett. 



