Henry Parkes

“ The railways do no more than run their fine lines through the rural landscape, making sunny banks for the flowers and shrubs most loved by the English people. Though places which have a name in history are undoubtedly visited by a larger number of strangers than formerly, I am inclined to think there are many nooks and corners of rural England which are more secluded from the world now than when the world's travellers had to journey by the common road. ”

“ The lines from Glasgow, down both banks of the Clyde, are everywhere beautiful As you travel on one side you see the train on the other, now darting in behind some severed spur of the hills, and now bursting out upon the more even shore, and ever filling its wreath of white steam behind it, as if waving an adieu to the vessels on the old historical river. ”

“ The landscape, made up of primitive forms of life, would melt away before the iron road and its rude cutting, unsightly embankment, and gloomy tunnel. And, undeniably, the English railways have produced a wondrous change in the life and manners of the English nation.
But in some respects the English railways have been followed by a more charming state of rural quietude and beauty. They have not opened the country to the foot as they have opened it to the eye of the traveller. ”