A Christmas tale of swans and trains, of a president, kings and queens.

AuthorBaker, Robert

The King's Speech, the film about King George VI, reminds me about the late Queen Mother--his wife and mother of the current Queen Elizabeth--and President Truman.

President Nixon in 1972 gave Queen Elizabeth as a state present, a large crystal swan made by an American sculptor. It was life size and covered with thousands of minutely detailed crystal feathers. It was an intricate, expensive, delicate piece of kitsch, like the Faberge eggs made for the Tsar.

The ceremony for the presentation of the swan was at the U.S. Embassy on Grosvenor Square in London. As crystal swans did not fall into the remit of the Political Section, the Embassy Cultural Affairs Office (I was its lowest ranking member) had to arrange the guest list, our side of the reception speeches, the drinks, etc. Queen Elizabeth was not able to attend but a number of royals did so, including younger ones and the wonderful Queen Mother, by then, the widow of King George VI. She was a warm, delightful lady in flowery hats and dresses and was a great favorite of the British public.

The Cultural Affairs Office sent invitations to royals, ministers, etc. To swell the crowd, we tried to find anyone in the British elite who had some connection to swans. The swan list was hard to make big enough. It turned out that all the swans in England belong to the Queen but not many people seemed to care about them beside her. The Keeper of the Royal Swans was established in 1295 to stop the killing and eating of swans by commoners. Even today, The Keeper oversees the "Upping of the Swans" in summer each year on the Thames, to tag and count them.

Even as late as 1895 you could be transported to a penal colony for a seven year term for killing a swan. For centuries their meat was prized by all classes but reserved to the upper classes. That is a taste now mostly defunct, but not entirely in America. One of my heavily drinking uncles was fishing and drinking, on Sue Creek in Baltimore County. A swan landed near his row boat so he killed it with an oar and shared the savagely acquired royal dish with our family when I was a kid. Not bad, but not worth seven years transportation.

The Queen Mum did not attend the opening swan reception but came in the late afternoon next day to the Embassy to see the crystal swan. She mistook Bernard, our English staffer art expert, for an American. He had a very Welsh face and British accent, but he was on duty standing near the swan to welcome guests and so...

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