Page:Australian views of England.djvu/125

  its burrow, and brought forth a family of cubs, in the railway embankment The creatures seem to be assured of their safety by seeing those mighty things ever rushing past, and never stopping in their course nor deviating from the given line. The railway team is the same to them as the winds and the lightnings.

But the flowers, the sweet familiar flowers of an English spring! They have seized upon the railways as part of their rightful heritage In all directions the deep slopes, where the railway spans some valley, are thickly starred with the pale primrose, and the maidenly cowslips nod to the passengers from the brows of the cutting through the gentle hills. In Worcestershire—I think between King's Norton and Bromsgrove—the Midland line runs through a deep cutting, with the rocky side almost perpendicular, and it would be difficult to find a more beautiful picture of cliff variegated with moss, bramble, gorse, and clinging flowers. In Scotland the fir is frequently planted above the railway slopes, and in a few years some of the lines will run through complete spinneys of fir. The lines from Glasgow, down both banks of the Clyde, are everywhere beautiful As you