Swan-hopping. 279 
them and their noise is vastly agreeable to the fleets that meet them 
in their course.” (Dodsleifs Fugitive Pieces , vol. ii. p. 244.) 
The swan was called a royal bird, and any stray sw r an 
was appropriated by the sovereign wherever it might be 
found, unless its owner could establish a prior claim by 
means of certain marks. The frequent enforcement of 
the royal prerogative gave rise to a system of marking all 
swans on the beak. The ceremony of “ upping,” or taking 
up the swans once a year for the purpose of marking them, 
was conducted according to the strictest regulations. The 
various marks assigned to the owners of swans in the 
different rivers or waters were duly registered in a roll, or 
standard book. The chief inspector or master was called 
the gamester, and seems to have had a somewhat onerous 
post. The penalty for stealing a swan’s egg from the 
nest was imprisonment for a year and a day, with a fine at 
the will of the king. 
The cock bird was called the cobbe, and the hen the 
penne. A full account of the customs connected with 
swan-marking, or, as it is now called , (i swan-hopping,” is 
given in Yarrell’s British Birds , 1837 (vol. iii.). 
The Dyers’ and Vintners’ Companies of the City of 
London obtained the consent of the Crown to keep swans 
on the Thames at any part of the river between London 
and Windsor. 
The wild swan was not uncommon in England at this 
time, though probably only as a visitor. Drayton, 
describing the Lincolnshire fens, writes — 
“ But wherefore should I stand upon such toys as these. 
That have so goodly fowls, the wandering eye to please ? 
Here in my vaster pools, as white as snow or milk, 
In water black as Stix, swims the wild swan, the ilke. 
Of Hollanders so termed, no niggard of his breath 
(As poets say of swans who only sing in death), 
But as other birds, is heard his tunes to roat, 
"Which like a trumpet comes, from his long arched throat.” 
( Polyolbion , song xxv.) 
