Incredibly Meritocratic

Contrary to popular superstition, not all mute swans in the United Kingdom are owned by the Crown. Much more sanely, all unmarked swans are royal property, and the monarch retains the title Seigneur of the Swans, and employs a swan warden, and doubtless gets tax relief to compensate for all the hard work involved. In earlier times, the country's swans were distributed among the gentry, and a sixteenth-century illustrated register details the beak-brandings that indicated who owned which birds, while threatening a year's imprisonment for anyone who meddled with the markers. With their white-feathered surface serenity and black, madly paddling feet, swans were so potent a symbol of British grace and beauty that the aristocracy dined on them at Christmas, and did not care for the idea of commoners doing likewise. As one would expect for a unique item of national heritage that "gives us an insight into the incredibly hierarchical society of sixteenth-century England", the register is privately owned and will now be sold at auction.