Also corruptly SWAN-HOPPING, q.v. [See UPPING vbl. sb.] The action or practice of ‘upping’ or taking up swans and marking them with nicks on the beak in token of being owned by the crown or some corporation.
[1570. in Archaeologia (1847), XXXII. 428. The Maister of the Swannes is to haue for euery white Swanne and gray vpping a penny.]
1810. J. T. Smith, Bk. Rainy Day (1861), 194. Swan-upping … has been changed … into Swan-hopping.
1885. Pall Mall G., 2 Feb., 1/2. The ‘swan-uppings’ on the Thames of the Vintners and Dyers.
So Swan-upper, an official who takes up and marks swans.
1557–8. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 272. The charges goynge wt the swane uppers iij dayes vj s. iiij d.
1913. Standard, 25 July, 13. The little company of swan-uppers which annually leaves Southwark.
