MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE ST. HELEN’S SWAN-PIT. 
269 
ready to give battle in their defence to all the forces of the 
universe ! The life of the little cygnets must be a happy one, as, 
tended by their constant parents, they are taught all that it is 
becoming for baby swans to know, gradually progressing from the 
down of their infancy to the rather inelegant figure and plumage 
of their hobedyhoyhood ; but there is a sad future before them, 
happily hidden from their knowledge. 
“ The second Monday in August is an eventful day in the history 
of the existence of the dusky cygnets, for on that day their fate is 
decided ; either they are destined to live a life of freedom like 
their parents, or they are hurried off to the swan-pit, there to 
undergo a course of gradual preparation, which ends in the spit. 
“The Swan Upping or ‘Hopping’ on the Norwich rivers, 
although formerly attended with some little pomp, is nowadays a 
prosaic affair enough. On the river and its broads below Norwich, 
it takes place on the second Monday in August, but on the streams 
above the city it is deferred till the last Monday in the same 
month. The morning having arrived, the keeper of the St. 
Helen’s Swan-pit, who represents the Swan right of the city 
corporation, meets the representatives of the various other Swan 
rights, at Buckenham Ferry, ten miles below Norwich, on the 
river Yare ; and the preliminary of breakfast having been got 
through, the procession of boats starts to take up the young 
Swans. This is not always a very easy matter, as the old birds, 
probably with a glimmering recollection of former raids upon 
their broods, make every effort to lead their young ones into a 
place of safety. Before long, however, they are either surrounded 
by boats, and the young ones captured by means of a sort of 
shepherd’s crook, or both old and young are driven out of the 
water and secured. Sometimes, however, a pair of cunning old 
birds will manage to get into the open water, or dodge between 
reed-beds, and give a great deal of trouble before they are 
captured ; but as a rule, they do not show so much fight as might 
be expected, seeming, between their anxiety for the safety of their 
young ones, and fear for themselves, to be quite bewildered ; and 
although the piping of the captured young ones will induce them 
to follow the boat at first, they soon give up the chase, and seem 
to forget the loss of their families. When the parent birds are 
taken from the water, their ‘marks’ are examined, in order to 
