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The silver swan, who living had no note,
When death approached unlocked her silent throat, Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, Thus sung her first and last and sung no more: Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes, More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.
Meet David Barber. You can see him in his resplendent brass buttoned red blazer emblazoned with the royal insignia as he is rowed up the river from Sudbury to Abingdon by Thames watermen. He is The Queen's Swan Marker and each year in July he makes his annual swan census on this beautiful reach of the Thames; an 800 year old Royal custom known as Swan Upping. Most of the swans living on Britain's waterways belong to the Crown, a status enjoyed by these graceful white birds since the 12th Century. Since that time the Sovereign has protected the graceful bird and employed a member of the royal household as Swan Master. It is his job to count the season's new cygnets and, with the Queen's Swan Warden, (a position currently held by a professor at Oxford University), to check that the swan population is being maintained in a healthy environment. Each of this season's new cygnets is ringed and tallied by the Warden. Until the turkey took its place, the swan was considered a banqueting delicacy to be served up at Royal feasts in Westminster Hall or in Henry VIII's Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace. In feudal and medieval times times strict game laws with harsh penalties were administered by the sovereign in the preservation of the royal bird on the Thames. The swan upping performed the useful function of giving the Royal chefs at the various palaces, such as Westminster, Eltham, Greenwich and Hampton Court, notice of the number of birds available for the table. Swans are no longer eaten, but royal protective laws remain in force, (without the harsher penalties of death or maiming), and swan upping now has conservation as its raison d'etre. 50 years ago the ancient royal privilege of swan ownership might have disappeared. Their royal status, together with the 800 year old Palace position of Swan Marker and Swan Warden and the royal ceremony of swan upping each July was scrutinised by Parliament with a view to cost cutting and leaving the birds to look after themselves. But when Parliament looked at the question of swan welfare in detail it became obvious that behind the ceremonial and royal livery lay an animal rights and welfare cause worth supporting if swans were to continue to thrive and grace the Thames with their beauty. |
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