MUTE SWAN. 



333 



No. 6 is the swan-mark of Lord William Howard, after- 

 wards Earl of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England, 

 in the reign of Queen Mary. 



No. 7 is the swan-mark of Lord Buckhurst ; the keys 

 having reference to his office of Chamberlain of the House- 

 hold. At the time that the Author wrote, the appointment 

 of the royal swanherd's man was vested in the Lord Cham- 

 berlain for the time being. 



No. 8 is the mark of Sir William More, who was appointed 

 by Lord Buckhurst to the office of Master of the Swans for 

 Surrey, "in such sorte as all the rest of the sheres were 

 graunted." One of the conditions recorded in the grant is 

 as follows : " But this order must be kept that the upping* 

 of all those Swans, near or within the said branches of the 

 Terns, may be upped all in one day with the upping of the 

 Tems, which is referred to Mr. Maylard, of Hampton Courte, 

 who hath the ordering of the Tems. So if it pleas you from 

 time to time to send and confer with him." The following 

 is a copy of a letter from B. Maylard, the Master of the 

 Swans on the Thames, to Sir WilHam More, as Master of 

 the Swans for Surrey, extracted from Mr. Kempe's book :— 



"May it please you. Sir, this morning I received a I're 

 affirmed to come from you, but no name thereunto. Where- 

 in yo' request me to come to Perford to confer wt yo' 

 touching the upping of Swanes, w'ch I wold most gladly 

 pforme, yf I were not throughe very ernest busynes letted 

 of my purpose, ffor to morrowe being Tuysdaie I take my 

 jorney along the river of Thames at Gravesend.f And 



* Upping, or taking up the young Swans to mark them, now sometimes called 

 Swan-hopping. 



t Many Swans were formerly kept below bridge. In ancient views of the port 

 of London, they are usually represented as swimming in that part of the river, 

 and some frequent, or did until very recently, the neighbourhood of Rotherhithe 

 and the Surrey Commercial Docks. In an enumeration of the fees of the Con- 

 stable of the Tower in 1381-2, the following occurs : "All maner of Swannes 

 that come through the bridge, or beneath the bridge, be clearlie the Constable's, 

 and also there shall [be] noe swanne eyre beneath the bridge, but the owners of 

 the said swannes shall make a fyne for them to the said Constable, and over that, 

 the Constable shall have of every nest a signet." 



