ating back to the twelfth century, the English Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans swimming in open waters. In medieval banquets, roast swan was a decadent royal delicacy reserved strictly for the monarch and favored livery companies.

Today, the annual Swan Upping is a wildlife conservation audit led by the King’s Swan Marker and the Vintners’ and Dyers’ Livery Companies.

Crews in traditional skiffs weigh, measure, and ring each cygnet from Sunbury to Abingdon, saluting the Sovereign with oars raised vertically as “Seigneur of the Swans.”

Alfred admires the pageantry and conservation rigor; Baxter has already petitioned the Privy Council for “Gull Upping” along the Brighton pier.