holy fathers who inhabited it; so that when we descended to the main object of our visit, the domain of the Swans, we had a profound sense of the power and wealth of the lordly Abbot, quondam owner of the Swannery, or the "game of Swans," as it was technically termed; who moreover enjoyed the special privilege granted by the Crown, but very seldom granted to any subject, of seizing within a certain district all white Swans not marked with a recognized and licensed swan-mark cut in the upper mandible and registered by the royal swanherd. This, moreover, was at a period when Swans were generally considered royal property, and permission to own them at all was only given under special circumstances. So it seemed to fit in with all the surrounding circumstances to learn that the seven hundred or eight hundred Swans, which now compose the colony, are only the miserable remnant, in these degenerate days, of the thousands (some say eight thousand) which abounded here in former times.
Leaving the village behind us, and approaching the sea, we found the precincts of the Swannery shut out from profane view by a high fence, at the door of which stood the custodian of the Swans, in all respects the very beau ideal of what a swanherd should be—a fine specimen of the class of keeper, not indeed of the modern fine gentleman type, but of the race such as Bewick's vignettes depict—workman-like in appearance, dress and manner, one who knew his business and did it. He had been in the service of the family of Lord Ilchester, the present owner of the Swannery, above fifty years; and, as regards Swans, there is little doubt that this honest old man had more practical knowledge of their habits, their life-history, and their dispositions, than all the ornithologists and members of our learned Societies put together.
It was disappointing to be told on arriving that we were too late for the Swans, and that to see them in perfection we should have visited them in March instead of July! I suppose the dismay which this announcement caused must have shown itself in our faces, for the worthy keeper immediately reassured us, by saying that though the bulk of the colony had gone down the Fleet, or Back-water, with their young, still he could probably show us some two or three hundred. This was quite satisfactory, indeed beyond our most sanguine expectations; for had not our chief authority on
