12-July Swan Upping

Summary

Swans, Herbs & Ancient Secrets – London’s River Rituals Revealed

This week, the Thames comes alive with a centuries-old royal tradition: Swan Upping, where cygnets are marked for the Crown and ancient livery companies. But that’s just the beginning. Return on 12 July to uncover the forgotten healing herbs of London—woundworts that staunched medieval bloodshed, calamints that warded off mythical basilisks, and the city’s rarest plant, the jewel-like cut-leaved germander. Don’t miss this blend of history and botany!

Article

Swan Upping

Today Londoner’s focus on their mute swans. Two city companies, the Vintners and the Dyers, got permission in Edward III’s reign to own some of the swans on the river between London and Henley. Today, traditionally, they set about marking or ‘upping’ their swans to denote ownership. One nick on the beak of a cygnet means it belongs to the Dyers, two – the Vintners and no nick whatsoever means it is entirely the property of the queen. No one was ever allowed to touch the sovereign’s swans. Proud of their flock, the swan masters would set off from the city with two wine porters sweeping the street before them. They walked down to the river, where they boarded a flag-bedecked boat near Southwark bridge. Once they had completed their ‘upping’ they had a banquet, which invariably included one of their swans, roasted.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

Londoners have always had great affection for these birds, which have been partially domesticated since mediaeval times which may well account for their tameness. Edward III decided to protect them and Henry VII decreed a year and a day’s imprisonment for anyone who stole one of their eggs. Always a table bird, Disraeli is said to have served one stuffed with truffles. Things went well until the 1960’s when the lead weights used by fishermen and the lead shot used by wildfowlers led to many of them being poisoned. The poignant

sight of a swan unable to lift its neck is fortunately an image of the past, and flotillas of swans making synchronised movements with their cygnets along the Thames can be seen again. Although they are called ‘mute’ both the cob and the pen can hiss, grunt, growl and even snort.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

They are believed to be the heaviest bird that can fly and they produce a strange sound as they do so. It is created by the sloughing of their wings producing a noise not unlike wheezy bellows. At one time some people were thought to turn into swans when they died and they were also believed to carry human souls to their final resting place.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

Hempnettles, Woundworts, Calamints and Germanders

Quite a few common plants with mint or thyme-shaped flowers (Labiatae) have already been seen this year, most noticeably there are red and white deadnettle, yellow archangel, henbit, selfheal, ground ivy and bugle. This month a much wider range of this family are coming into flower and consequently it is an excellent time to become familiar with the smaller, more delicate species, many of which have purple or blue flowers.

Hempnettles tend to look like hairy deadnettles. The common hempnettle Galeopsis tetrahit is widely distributed in London. One of the beauties of the group is the red hempnettle G. augustifolia which was an old cornfield weed and is now very scarce.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

The same is true for the large flowered hempnettle G. speciosa which has primrose yellow flowers with purple lips. It still occasionally turns up in chalk pits.

Of our woundworts, hedge woundwort Stachys sylvatica is the most common. It can be found in almost every part of London. Woundworts got their name because they were used to staunch blood flow, especially from scythe and stab wounds.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

It was even thought they stopped haemorrhaging if eaten. For this purpose it was marsh woundwort S. palustris that was used the most. It is still common beside rivers and canals on the western edge of London. Field woundwort S. arvensis and downy woundwort S. germanica which used to be found in ploughed fields are found no more. However, a close relation, lamb’s ears, S. lanata from Iraq, is a common sight in many gardens as well as being one of the most tactile of all our plants.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

It is grown for its white, felty leaves, rather than its flowers. In just the same way we get a feeling of well being stroking the fur of an animal, the same is true when you touch the leaves of this plant, hence its alternative name of donkey’s ears. Carder bees single it out to collect the ‘felt’ they need for their nests.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

The calamints are a pleasantly aromatic group which are not necessarily ‘minty’. Common mint Calamintha ascendens has one of the more unusual distributions in London. It seems restricted to a narrow area of south west London, where lanes have been cut through the chalk leading down into Kent. Its leaves have a pleasant scent which has been described as somewhere between mint and cough medicine. The leaves used to be collected this month and used to mask the smell of hung meat.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

Lesser calamint C. nepeta is much rarer but may still be worth looking out for around Lesnes Abbey. It is a greyer plant altogether with much paler flowers and less aromatic.

Calamints were much more famous in ancient times, when they were thought to be one of the few protections other than a mirror against the basilisk. The basilisk was the king of serpents, hatched by a snake from a cock’s egg. A mere glance from this formidable creature or even a hint of its breathe were both considered fatal.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

London possesses only one germander and this is the seven centimetre high cut-leaved germander Teucrium botrys. It is said to be London’s rarest plant and still manages to hold on in one or two spots of bare disturbed chalk near Chipstead where it has become something of a mecca for botanists. The purple and red flowers have been described as having a ‘jewel-like quality’. The only other Teucrium is wood sage T. scorodonia which is still common enough in the dappled shade of woods and easily recognised by its sage-like leaves. It is a plant which, if taken from the wild and planted in a garden, thrives better than most. This could account for its use in gardens championed by Gertrude Jekyll, the famous Victorian garden designer.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

Two other commonly seen garden relatives of these plants are lemon balm Melissa officinalis and catmint Nepeta cataria, both of which are grown for their scents. Bastard balm Melittis melissophyllum and clary Salvia verbenaca are less common but grown purely for their beauty. Motherwort Leonurus cardiaca is the poor relation being neither beautiful or pleasantly scented. Its main claim to fame was that it could ease childbirth. It can still be found in collections e.g. south London Botanical Institute garden.

12-July Swan Upping Section Image

12-July Swan Upping Section Image