After all here is said, I feel that there is a fascination in the common-place scenery of this part of England, and generally of midland, rural England, which I do not fully comprehend. I have called it common-place, because there is nothing striking in it; no one point to be especially noted, or which can be remembered afterwards. Yet, though I have traveled far and wide, have visited scores of places greatly celebrated for the grandeur of their scenery, and have dwelt for months in the most beautiful, purely natural scenes of a pastoral character in the world (in Western Texas), I have been no where else so charmed as I was continually while walking through those parts of England least distinguished, and commonly least remarked upon by travelers as beautiful. The scenery is beautiful without intention or artifice for the purpose of man, and yet is full of the convenience of man’s occupation; and it is picturesque without being ungentle or shabby.
Frederick Law Olmsted, Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England, New Edition (Columbus: Jos. H. Riley, 1859 [1851]), pg. 264.
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