116 BRITISH BIRDS. 



not, as far as I can find out, any foundation in fact. In Earl Stanhope's 

 ' Miscellanies,' second series, we have : — 



" Swans sing before they die ; -'twere no bad thing 

 Should certain persons die before they sing." 



In the 'Morning Advertiser,' August 26, 1872, occurs: — ''Repeal of 

 Magna Charta. — Two acts for the revision of the statute law were passed 

 during this session of Parliament. A great number of ancient and obsolete 

 enactments are repealed, including a portion of the Great Charter of the 

 Liberties of England, signed by King John at Runnymede, and confirmed by 

 King Edward V. Among the other acts abolished are these : house boot and 

 key boot within the forest, purveyance for the King's dogs and horses &c. 

 (Richard II.) ; Labourers to be sworn or put in the stocks (Henry V.) ; No 

 one but a lord's son shall possess Swans (Edward IV.)." 



Henry VIL granted the office of Keeper of the Swannery of Whittlesea 

 Mere, for seven years, to David Cecill in 1507. Charles 11. made Edward, 

 Earl of Sandwich, Master of the Swans within the whole kingdom of Eng- 

 land (1662). 



On January 29, 1859, the ' Times ' announced : — " The ancient tavern, so 

 well known all over England as the ' Swan with Two Necks,' Lad Lane, is being 

 razed to the ground. Since the improvements (so-called) in that serpentine 

 line of buildings designated Gresham Street have been carried out, from 

 time to time the ' Swan with Two Necks ' has been spared. For some years 

 past both the old booking-office and the remnant of the tavern adjoining the 

 ancient gateway have been shored up ; in a few days not one stone will be 

 left upon another." 



If "Two Necks" is a corruption of "two nicks," as I am still 

 inclined to think, from a perusal of the evidence, the corruption took 

 place before 1556 ; for in that year Machyn, in his diary, mentions the 

 sign of "the Swane with the ij nekes, at Mylke Street end" (Hotten's 

 ' History of Sign-boards,' p. 217). Pishey Thompson, in his 'History of 



