SWAN rOETRY. 
205 
This is but a single sjDecimen of tlie "way in "wliicli the 
poets of all ages have offered tributes of adm h-ation to this 
enshrined spirit of watery solitudes. We know not who 
the author of the above may be, but here is a picture painted 
by James Edmeston, which brings the bird in its leafy home 
vividly before us : — 
Queen of the silent lake, 
Gliding majestic in thy liquid Court, 
Deep in the shadowy brake 
Where the imagined water-nymphs resort, 
Where foxgloves hang their bells, 
And oaken bowers their branches intertwine, 
And solitude in leafy covert dwells ; 
That sanctuary, snowy Queen, is thine ! 
Few violate thy state. The timid deer 
3Iay drink the pure wine as he trots along; 
The forest-loving birds may hover near ; 
The nightingale may pour her strain of song; 
Yet Queen, acknowledged, on thy glassy tlirone 
Thou reign' st in quiet majesty alone. 
But we must not linger with the poets, or a whole host 
of them of every age and clime, from Virgil down to 
Tennyson, will be filling our imagination with beautiful 
dreams and fancies, and charming our sense of hearing with 
sweet melody. At present, we must view this bird in its 
more matter-of-fact aspect. When the Mute or Tame 
Swan was first introduced into this country it would be 
difficult to say. In old times, almost every nobleman's 
estate, every conventual establishment, and every trade 
guild or company had its swannery ; no royal demesne was 
complete without it, and many were the statutes and ordi- 
nances from time to time made and provided for the preser- 
vation of the royal birds, after enumerating the breeding 
and feeding places of which, a recent writer says :— 
England, let us remind the reader, was once the country of Swans. 
A few are still foimd on our rivers, on the Thames, the Isis, and 
the Cam, preserved as relics of former times, as sacred and historic 
birds, like the pigeons of Venice and the eagles of Geneva. But tho 
day was when every watercourse had its herd of SwanS; when the 
snaring of Swans was regarded as a manly and aristrocratic sport. 
Especially were they found in those level countries where the aquatic 
