The Wild Duck. 385 



is of very great use, and often employed as an orna- 

 ment. The elegance of form which this bird displays, 

 when, with his arched neck and half-displayed wings, 

 he sails along the crystal surface of a tranquil stream, 

 which reflects, as he passes, the snowy beauty of his 

 dress, is worthy of admiration. Thomson describes the 

 Swan in the following beautiful manner: 



The stately sailing Swan 



Gives out Ms snowy plumage to the gale, 

 And arching proud his neck, with oary feet, 

 Bears forward fierce, and guards his osier isle, 

 Protective of his young." 



Swans have for ages been protected on the river 

 Thames as royal property ; and it continues at this day 

 to be accounted felony to steal their eggs : by this means 

 their increase is secured, and they prove a delightful 

 ornament to that noble river. Latham says the estima- 

 tion in which they were held, in the reign of Edward 

 IV., was such, that only those who possessed a freehold 

 of the clear yearly value of five marks were permitted 

 even to keep any. In those times, hardly a piece of 

 water was left unoccupied by these birds, as they gratified 

 the palate as well as the eye of their lordly owners 

 of that period : but the fashion of those days has passed 

 away, and Swans are by no means as common now as 

 they were formerly, being by most people accounted a 

 coarse kind of food, and consequently held in little esti- 

 mation : but the Cygnets (so the young Swans are called) 

 are still fattened for the table, and are sold very high, 

 commonly for a guinea each, and sometimes more; 

 hence it may be presumed they are better food than is 

 generally imagined. 



At Abbotsbury there was generally a noble Swannery, 

 the property of the Earl of llchester, where six or seven 

 hundred birds were kept, but the collection has of late 

 been much diminished. The Swannery belonged an- 

 ciently to the abbot, and, previously to the dissolution 

 of monasteries, the Swans frequently amounted to double 

 the above number. 



From the whiteness of this bird, the expression of a 



2c 



