I did explore the Tyneside, and have not been genuinely sorry for myself since; though at times I have caught myself at the old drooping tricks and have been ashamed. There is, you see, something bracing about the Tyne. After you have seen it, you realise that it is not for likes of us to be sorry for ourselves.
J.B. Priestley, English Journey (1934), 275
Note here, Priestley is lamenting the grinding poverty of the communities around Newscastle, not saying it is intrinsically dreadful. He is ruder about Lancashire, whose ugliness he describes as 'exhilarating'
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