No smoke from unsightly chimney-stacks soiling the blue sky above us; no hum of human voices near—more the pity—and out of hearing even of the lumbering hay-waggons that are creeping along the highway whence issued this green secluded lane. How sweet and peaceful it is between these leafy walls of thorn and briar, where the twittering of birds alone breaks the stillness; how fresh and green everything looks ever, now in warm July; how fragrant the herbage on the lane sides, and the smell from the hay in the fields beyond! But all our English shires abound in lanes just as green and just as lovely; and the little feathered creatures which here are peering at us from twig and bough may be seen in almost any other lane between Land's End and the Tweed; aye, and beyond the Tweed.
Source: The Illustrated London News, July 8, 1882, p.47
Sea also: Birds: On the Moors