then uphon the first Mondaie in August, I come westward
towards Wyndsor. Wherefore if it may please you to send
to my liowse to Hampton Court what dais you meane to
appointe for driving the river of Weybridge and Moisey, it
shall suffice, to th’ end the gamesters maie have knowledge
thereof, that they may attend accordingly. I do thinke
it wold greatly satisffie them yf yo’ did appointe the same
upon Tuesday the vii111 of August, for upon that day they
wil be at the entrance of these rivers. And so praing you
to p’don me for my absence at this tyme, I humbly take
my leave. Hampton Court, this Mondaie, xxxth of July
1593. “ Yor poore frend to comaunde,
“ R. Maylard.”
“ To th e R. W. Sir W. Moore, K n ’t,
a t P irfo rd e .”
Since the publication of the first Edition of this work, the
Author obtained a very rare tract on Swans and swan-
marks, printed by A. Matthewes, in 1632, and containing,
besides some other illustrations, the swan-mark of Charles I.
and his Queen. It is a small quarto of eight leaves only,
of the “ Orders, Lawes and ancient Customes of Swannes,
taken forth of a Book, which the Lord Buckhurst delivered
to Edward Clerk, of Lincoln’s Inn, Esq., to peruse,” on
the back of which book it was thus entitled, “ Taken out of
an ancient Book remaining with Master Hambden, sometimes
Master of the Swannes,” caused to be printed by John
Witherings, Esq., Master and Grovernour of the Royal Game
of Swans throughout England, to whom it is dedicated by
John D’Oyly, from Alborn, in Wiltshire, with the plates of
the marks used to distinguish the Swans.
The marks distinguished by the letters a, and b, are
those of Charles I. and his Queen. The next, c, and d,
are those of Oxford and Cambridge. The city of Oxford
has a game of Swans by prescription ; and in the sixteenth
century, when a state dinner was not complete unless a
Swan was included in the bill of fare, this game of Swans
was rented upon an engagement to deliver yearly four fat
Swans, and to leave six old ones at the end of the term.
By the corporation books it also appears that in 1557,
*)» F a j)
barley was provided for the young birds at fourteen pence
a bushel, and that tithes were then paid of Swans. The
Author learned also from the late Rev. Dr. Thackeray,
Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, that the old Munden
hooks of that College contain entries of payments made for
feeding Swans.
The most curious books on swan-marks that the Author
had ever seen, were two sold at Strawberry Hill in April 1842.
They appeared in the catalogue as, “ Two books of swan-
marks, 8vo. on vellum, very rare.” One of them contained
810 marks, the other 80 marks; both books commenced
with a royal mark. There was no explanation or description
of the different marks: only the name of the party to whom
the mark had been appropriated, in the characters of the
time of Elizabeth.
No. 9, the first swan-mark of the representations forming
the final vignette, is that used to mark the Swans belonging
to the corporation of Norwich, on the river Yare.
No. 10 is the swan-mark of the late Bishop of Norwich,
formerly President of the Linnean Society, to whom the
Author was indebted for the following particulars in reference
to the feeding the young Swans of the year for the
table. The town-clerk sends a note from the Town-hall
of Norwich to the public swanlierd, the corporation, and
others, who have Swans and Swan rights. On the second