1891. 
June 30
England.
Hereford to Tintern.  Cloudy & showery with occasional gleams
of sunshine. Cool.
  Left Hereford at 9.45 A.M. and reached Tintern at 1 P.M.
The railroad follows the Wye closely the entire distance,
down a winding, narrow valley walled in on both sides
by high, steep, rocky, more or less wooded ridges. The rock
is limestone; the woods are continuous for miles in
places and mainly of beech and oak intermixed with
yew, the trees of fair size. The scenery resembles that
of the Deerfield Valley, Mass. but is less wild.
  Opposite a bare, vertical cliff I saw my first Kestrel
hovering and scaling over the river. Rooks numerous
in the intervale fields but no Lapwings.  
Tintern Abbley. - We put up at an inn directly opposite
this fine old ruin. The Wye valley at this point is
very narrow the only level ground being a belt or
meadow along the river from which the land slopes steeply,
almost precipitously in places, to the crests of the
long parallel ridges which are less than half a mile
apart and at least 600 feet above the river. The
houses of the village are strung in a double line
along the road which skirts the right bank of the 
river for half a mile or more. Above them the
slope is densely wooded with beech, oak, yew & larch
with a few grass fields and orchard. The water 
of the river is brackish and muddy, the tide rising
six or eight feet here. The woods are dense and
perfectly natural looking but the trees are small
and their general appearance that of second growth
or sprout woods 15 or 20 years old.