1891. 
July 7
(No 3)
England.
Lynton to Ilfracombe. - I miss the familiar and ever
interesting sight of swarms of Swifts careening and
soaring over the house tops. Apparently there is
not one in this neighborhood.
  There are a few Jackdaws, and now and then
a Herring Gull battling his way westward against
the strong wind, now borne in over the town
by a fiercer gust than usual, next scaling
down in a long slant over the sea, finally,
perhaps, alighting to rest on the pebbly beach
at the mouth of the river.
  Late in the afternoon (5 - 7.30) we went to Ilfracombe
by coach.  The road first rises by a succession of short
but very steep pitches to the tops of the hills, following
the course of one of the branches of the Lyn; then
leads for about then miles along the crests of the
ridges at length descending towards the coast by rather
easy grades and entering Ilfracombe along a terrace
cut in the face of a nearly perpendicular wall
of rock washed by the sea. None of the country
traversed is anything like as wild and elevated
as that between Minehead and Lynton. In fact nearly
all of it is in cultivated fields devoted to grass,
grain or potatoes and divided by hedges into the
usual check board patterns.
  We saw two Magpies during this drive. One
was in the road, apparently feeding on horse
droppings. He flew across a field and alighted
in a hedge. The others flew across the road and
disappeared over a hedge. Both had much
trouble with their long tails in the strong wind