"This town of Sheffield is very populous and large, the streets narrow, and the houses dark and black, occasioned by t…"

"Some houses are brick, some stone, and there is a fair number of pretty ones; but they are lost in such a multitude o…"

"If the people of Sheffield could only receive a tenth part of what their knives sell for by retail in America, Sheffi…"

"Generally in Sheffield the average of the comfort of the lower classes is above that of most other places; we have no…"

"What a beautiful place Sheffield would be, if Sheffield were not there!"

"There is no more public spirit in Sheffield than there is in the smallest village of Yorkshire."

"I see a pretty state of things in your Municipality. Everything is mean, petty, and narrow in the extreme. What a con…"

"...the town of Sheffield is of great antiquity, and its manufactures are of world-wide reputation, especially that of…"

"The progress of Sheffield in my lifetime has been something wonderful. Why, in my young days it was a little bit of a…"

"It could justly claim to be called the ugliest town in the Old World: its inhabitants, who want it to be pre-eminent …"