Five... historic London ceremonies: part II
It's swan-claiming season...
Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter…
This edition’s a follow-up to my piece from a couple of months back on pretty weird historic London traditions, in support of my claim that the first five I chose were just the tip of the pretty-weird iceberg.
Part I covers rituals like the Easter Monday chair-lifting, the Ascension Day Beating of the Bounds, and the annual memorial march commemorating the 1649 execution of Charles I. But to include these worthies, I had to neglect such key events in London’s calendar as the annual Swearing On The Horns in Highgate, the day every year when you can have your carriage (or bike, or bus) branded with a red hot iron by members of the Worshipful Company of Carmen, or the parade that’s been parading for more than 800 years.
Swan upping on the Thames
Every year, in the third week of July, the Vintners’ Company, the Dyers’ Company, and representatives of the Crown take to the river.
The swan upping ritual was originally a way of dividing up ownership of the mute swans on the Thames — dating from the 15th century, when the upper echelons of society banqueted on swans regularly, and guarded their supply jealously. All three sets of swan-botherers — the Crown, Vintners and Dyers — row along the Thames in skiffs, wearing traditional swan upping regalia. Any swans they find are captured, ringed (with a little ring around the bird’s leg), to lay claim to it on behalf of one of the groups, and released. These days the swans don’t get feasted on, though they do get weighed and measured.