Today was pretty uneventful, even for a Monday.
My Forgotten English calendar informs me that it’s the Traditional Swan-Upping Day, when
…since the Middle Ages, the Worshipful Company of Dyers and that of Vintners have annually rounded up and marked mute cygnets’ bills upriver from London — a bit like old-fashioned American cattle-branding. Using sharp knives, the companies’ swan-wardens once indicated ownership with one or two nicks respectively to distinguish their own from unmarked, royal birds. But now the birds’ legs are banded instead. At one time, swan ownership in Norfolk and Suffolk was indicated by a wide range of nicks, as seen in a 500-year-old scroll depicting ninety-nine distinctive marks. A remnant of this practice can be seen in the pub name, The Swan with Two Necks — a corruption of The Swan with Two Nicks.
Around here? Not so much.