THE views from the Brighton Railroad exhibit an undulating country, with a general sameness of character, and uninterrupted by a single plane or level surface. The greater part of the country is occupied by wood or pasture, and there are scarcely any gentlemen's seats seen from the road, with the exception of Gatton, and portions of the grounds of villas between London and Croydon. There are many deep cuttings; and these being mostly through hard chalk, admit of the sides being very steep, in some places so much so as to approach the perpendicular. These deep cuttings, in our opinion, are the most disagreeable, or, rather, perhaps, insipid, parts of railroads, excluding all distant view, and presenting in every part of the country the same monotonous foreground of a steep tame bank. We would therefore plant the whole or the greater part of them with trees and shrubs, so that in future these parts of the railroads would be woods or groves, in time overarching the road, and giving it the appearance of passing through a ravine in a mountain forest, or through a dark avenue. The kind of trees and shrubs we would vary according to the soil, the exposure, direction of the road, and other circumstances, so as never to interfere with utility. In a road running east and west, we would intermix a good many low growths on the south side, so as to admit the sun here and there to the road; but where the direction was south and north, as in the Brighton road, attention to this point would be unnecessary, as the sun would shine on every part of the road that was not overshadowed by trees, at mid-day on every day in which he appeared. On the naked banks of chalk we would sow the seeds of the pine and fir tribe, previously forming a little pit of good soil for every patch of seeds; or, in order that the roots might spread along the surface, we would form intersecting gutters of only a few inches in width and depth, and fill them with good soil, in which the roots might extend themselves, till the foliage that would drop annually had formed a vegetable soil over the whole surface of the chalk. We are not aware of any harm that would result to the railroads from all the banks of the steep cuttings being planted, while in time there might be thinnings or timber trees to cut down, which would more than pay all the expense incurred. We question, indeed, whether there would not be a present gain in planting these banks, because, when once planted, they would no longer require to be mown two or three times a year as at present. The plantation would require very little attention, besides a slight annual pruning on Cree's principle, for the trees, leaving the shrubs untouched for a number of years till pruning became requisite; and the thinnings, even the first time the operation required to be performed, would at least pay the expense of the operation. The sides of the embankments which are not seen from the road, but over which the eyes of the passengers look to the distant country, ought not to be planted with trees, because that would shut out the landscape; but they might be planted with oak or ash to be cut as under-growth, with willows to be cut for hoops or basketwork, or with furze to be cut as fodder or as fuel for ovens or brick-kilns; and with here and there, say every 300 or 400 feet, a standard tree, to form a sort of running foreground to the distant parts of the picture. As these banks generally contain immense masses of good soil, whatever was planted on them would grow vigorously, and perhaps soon afford sufficient profit to pay the expense of planting and managing the banks of the steep cuttings, as well as the slopes of the embankments. However, putting profit out of the question, we think that, at all events, the deep cuttings ought to be planted for the sake of ornament.
