ROYAL THAMES
The royal swans of the Thames have seen it all. These imposingly elegant – if occasionally headstrong – birds are said to have been introduced to Britain from Cyprus in the late 12th century, brought here by Richard the Lionheart after the Third Crusade. Their snow-white feathers have now graced the waters of our most famous river for more than 800 years, swimming sinuously through wars, plagues and coronations, graduating in the process from dinner-table delicacy to protected species.
Today, as the legal property of Queen Elizabeth II – who has the right to claim ownership of all unmarked mute swans swimming in open water, though maybe has more pressing tasks – they remain a regal sight. And they find a suitably majestic waterway in the Thames, that noble artery that rises in a puddly field in the Cotswolds and flows for 215 miles to reach the coast, passing palaces, castles and cathedrals on its way. It runs through, historian Peter Ackroyd calls the vast waterway “a museum of Englishness itself”.
