Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. The British Royal family sure does love it's ceremonies.
Speaker 1: For example, the late Queen Elizabeth birthday has been marked
Speaker 1: each year by something called the Trooping of the Color.
Speaker 1: Every June, four hundred soldiers, four hundred musicians and two
Speaker 1: hundred horses marched through the streets from Buckingham Palace to
Speaker 1: horse Guards Parade. The Royal Air Force even makes an
Speaker 1: appearance as their planes fly overhead. It's a massive spectacle.
Speaker 1: Much like Garter Day, Guard Day honors those who have
Speaker 1: gained entry into the most noble Order of the Garter,
Speaker 1: an order of knighthood founded in thirteen forty eight by
Speaker 1: King Edward the Third. For the modern day ceremony, the
Speaker 1: monarch and knights, all decked out in velvet robes and
Speaker 1: plumed hats, marched from Windsor Castle to St George's Chapel,
Speaker 1: a service is held and new night companions are inducted
Speaker 1: into the order. The ceremonies are part of England's long
Speaker 1: and storied history, dating back hundreds of years, but there's
Speaker 1: one annual activity that does more than honor those within
Speaker 1: the royal family's inner circle. In fact, it serves a
Speaker 1: very specific and much needed purpose. It all started eight
Speaker 1: hundred years ago during the Middle Ages. Swans were considered
Speaker 1: a versatile bird in England. Not only did ownership of
Speaker 1: them signify a person's status in society, but they were
Speaker 1: also really tasty. They were often served around Christmas time
Speaker 1: as part of the royal feasts. Henry the Third fed
Speaker 1: his guests forty swans during his holiday parties in twelve
Speaker 1: The swan, specifically the mute swan, was first brought to
Speaker 1: Britain by Richard the First during the Crusades. At least
Speaker 1: that's how the story goes. Ornithologists, however, believed the swan
Speaker 1: is indigenous to the region. Swans were the livestock of
Speaker 1: the rich, and the government went to great lengths to
Speaker 1: protect both the animals and the status they signified. In
Speaker 1: fourteen eighty two, the Crown introduced the swan mark, a
Speaker 1: series of nicks carved into the beaks to denote ownership.
Speaker 1: According to the law at the time, only the truly
Speaker 1: wealthy were allowed to own these majestic birds, and were
Speaker 1: required to purchase swan marks at a steep price. Any
Speaker 1: swan lacking a swan mark on its beak, regardless of ownership,
Speaker 1: officially belonged to the crown. The courts grew packed with
Speaker 1: ownership disputes, as well as people defending themselves against accusations
Speaker 1: of defacing property. Anyone who tried to carve or scratch
Speaker 1: away at a swan mark or counterfeit their own could
Speaker 1: face serious jail time. Unsurprisingly, the rich didn't buy the
Speaker 1: birds because they enjoyed looking at them or even eating them.
Speaker 1: To own a swan, especially more than one, meant a
Speaker 1: person was of a higher status than everyone else. But
Speaker 1: swans were only valuable if they were healthy, and the
Speaker 1: royal family, the Windsors, have taken the health of their
Speaker 1: swans seriously for hundreds of years. They began an annual
Speaker 1: tradition called swan upping, which one member of the family
Speaker 1: joins a team of people called swan uppers to row
Speaker 1: canoes up and down the Thames, collecting swans and checking
Speaker 1: up on their well being. A swan upping is still
Speaker 1: practiced to this day too, usually at the end of
Speaker 1: July each year. The swan uppers, clad in scarlet rowing
Speaker 1: shirts and white slacks, row along the Thames for five days.
Speaker 1: Upon spotting a female swan and her signets or baby swans,
Speaker 1: a cry of all up is heard and the boat's
Speaker 1: head to their position. The uppers then weigh the bird
Speaker 1: and notes any maladies or injuries, especially among the signets.
Speaker 1: Signets are of course more vulnerable than the adults and
Speaker 1: often need greater care. Signats are tagged with I D
Speaker 1: numbers that track their ownership based on parentage. But any
Speaker 1: swans owned by the crown are left alone, and just
Speaker 1: as was the rule hundreds of years ago, the Queen
Speaker 1: or king has the right to claim ownership of any
Speaker 1: unmarked mute swans found in open waters. Today, the swan
Speaker 1: upping ritual isn't about social status or even the royal
Speaker 1: family exercising their control over the local animal population. It's
Speaker 1: about conservation and education. Swan upping protects the lives of
Speaker 1: Britain's wild swans. School children are invited to participate each
Speaker 1: year as a way to introduce them to the importance
Speaker 1: of environmental conservation. Sure, some of the Crown ceremonies may
Speaker 1: look like ostentageous pageantry, but swan upping has evolved into
Speaker 1: something more than that. It's a tool for protecting the
Speaker 1: future of England's wildlife and teaching children to do the same,
Speaker 1: because not saving the planet, well that's for the birds.
Speaker 1: When you get right down to it, Almost all important
Speaker 1: life decisions are centered around money. Where you go to college,
Speaker 1: what kind of car you drive, what kind of town
Speaker 1: you live in, and what kind of house you move
Speaker 1: into are all predicated on the amount you have to spend.
Speaker 1: After the stock market crash of nineteen nine, everyone started
Speaker 1: pinching pennies. Breadlines formed around corners and down city blocks.
Speaker 1: People lost their homes and jobs, companies shut down, and
Speaker 1: the country entered a tailspin. Certain administrative projects, even relatively
Speaker 1: inexpensive ones, were canceled, such as the maintenance and upkeep
Speaker 1: of small cemeteries around the country. But one enterprising homeowner
Speaker 1: knew just how to keep the tombstones of an important
Speaker 1: Civil War cemetery shining for all to see. And inject
Speaker 1: some much needed stimulus money into the government in the process.
Speaker 1: It all started on June fifteenth, eighteen sixty four, in
Speaker 1: the city of Petersburg, Virginia. Only months earlier, Ulysses S.
Speaker 1: Grant had been promoted to lieutenant General of the Union Army.
Speaker 1: His goal was to attack the south from several different
Speaker 1: angles in an effort to capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital
Speaker 1: of the Confederacy. Grants was facing troubles as the various
Speaker 1: armies under his command were being led by generals that
Speaker 1: had been appointed to him for political reasons. These men
Speaker 1: were not experienced in the art of war, and so
Speaker 1: they lost often, but Grant pushed on, never surrendering, never retreating.
Speaker 1: He continued to advance his position against Robert E. Lee's
Speaker 1: forces as he worked his way towards Richmond. The city
Speaker 1: of Petersburg was essential to his plan as it was
Speaker 1: home to a junction point where five different railroads met.
Speaker 1: Capturing Petersburg meant cutting off supply and communication routes for
Speaker 1: the Confederates, forcing Lee to surrender Richmond or fight Grant
Speaker 1: out in the open. From June fift until the eighteenth,
Speaker 1: the troops under General p. G. T. Beauregard of the
Speaker 1: seuth fended off the Federal Army of the North. Union
Speaker 1: forces were unable to capture Petersburg as attended, but that
Speaker 1: didn't stop them from trying. The Siege of Petersburg, as
Speaker 1: it was called, lasted until March of the following year,
Speaker 1: just over nine months. In the end, the Confederates could
Speaker 1: not endure. Lee's forces were decimated, and the North captured
Speaker 1: Petersburg on the two weeks before Lee would officially surrender,
Speaker 1: bringing an end to the war on April nine of
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five. Thousands died on each side, though the
Speaker 1: siege cost the Union a far greater number of casualties
Speaker 1: than it did the Confederacy. The Northern soldiers were buried
Speaker 1: in Poplar Grove Cemetery in Petersburg, their graves identified by
Speaker 1: wooden markers. Over time, however, those wooden grave markers disappeared.
Speaker 1: Constant exposure to the elements caused them to rot and
Speaker 1: fall away, leaving behind no trace of who was interred
Speaker 1: six ft below. Eventually, though, the government stepped in and
Speaker 1: had all the wooden grave markers replaced with marble headstones,
Speaker 1: much sturdier than would As the years passed, the cemetery
Speaker 1: continued to be maintained with the help of government funding,
Speaker 1: keeping each headstone cleaned of dirt and standing perfectly upright.
Speaker 1: And then the market crashed in twenty nine people lost everything.
Speaker 1: Belts needed to be tightened. That meant places like Poplar
Speaker 1: Grove Cemetery where suddenly left to decline. To save money
Speaker 1: and cut down on mowing, the city modified the gravestones
Speaker 1: one more time. Each one was cut in half, with
Speaker 1: the top halves the pieces engraved with the names of
Speaker 1: each soldier placed flat on the ground. But what to
Speaker 1: do with the blank bottom halves. Well, one man had
Speaker 1: an idea. His name was Oswald Young, and in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty four he wanted to build a house in Petersburg, Virginia.
Speaker 1: He purchased two thousand, two hundred discarded headstones for forty
Speaker 1: five dollars a piece that was d dollars in nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty five, which balloons to roughly one point two million
Speaker 1: in today's money. The exterior walls, the walkway, and the
Speaker 1: chimney were all built using the headstones, each a slightly
Speaker 1: different color from the other. The patchwork construction gives the
Speaker 1: home a stitch together Frankenstein's monster kind of look. If
Speaker 1: these walls could talk, they would probably have a lot
Speaker 1: to say about what happened during the Siege of Petersburg.
Speaker 1: With two thousand, two hundred Union soldier gravestones used to
Speaker 1: build a civilians house. I wouldn't be surprised if there
Speaker 1: has been a ghost or two spotted shambling across the
Speaker 1: lawn from time to time. After all, the tombstone House
Speaker 1: of Petersburg would make a perfect haunted house at Halloween,
Speaker 1: don't you think. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour
Speaker 1: of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.